I had a rare chance this day to have a lunch with two of my brothers. I used to go out with all three of them all the time – nowadays, 2 would be a rare outing. Most of the time, I’m with only one of them. It’s a good and bad thing. I surely miss the old days and being around them, my wallet doesn’t miss those days (lol). But another good thing is, it means they are growing and becoming more independent. I think all three brothers are growing up well.
Anyway, I decided to give them a taste of good Japanese food by taking them to i-naba. It’s a double edged sword, I give them a taste of good food and they either don’t appreciate it fully or maybe acquire a taste for it. Ha! Anyway, I really enjoyed it even though my wallet didn’t. It’s okay, another memory to add to their banks.
Tempura Soba | $30.00
2 shrimps, 1 white fish, veggie tempura, and zaru soba
Bara Chirashi Bowl & Soba | $34.00
chopped some kinds of sashimi served over sushi rice. also comes with regular size zaru or kake soba (we chose zaru).
Hana Soba | $36.00
cold broth soba, topped with tororo (grated yam), uni, ikura (salmon roe), green onion, dried seaweed and tamagoyaki. also comes with tempura (shrimp, squid and veggies)
I don’t know if you remember my previous post but the last time I came, I really wanted to try this Hana Soba. They said they were out of uni and could give more ikura which I said no to. I finally got to try it this time!
Miso Soup and Takuan
Mixed Rice
Bleh, not great.
Tempura
Their tempura is always so good. Lightly battered and fried crispy. So so so good.
The star of the show. Did it live up to expectations? Well…I think I’ll go with less is more for soba from here on out. Sure it tasted good but once everything was mixed up together – I couldn’t really taste the different between the tororo and the uni. It just all melded into a cold soba dish with no distinct flavor. The tamagoyaki felt super out of place, it was certainly a choice to add that in. While I was glad to have tried this dish, I would just stick to the plain zaru soba tempura set next time. Less is more as I said.
Spam Musubi Rating:
I went there for dinner but we all had just regular soba.
On Monday I was hankering for Sachi Sweet’s bentos and cheesecake but they were closed so I saw Wagaya was open for lunch. Nice surprise! I did a cheap takeout of their char siu on rice. Actually the order was for the char siu lunch set which came with gyoza – but he didn’t hear me and gave me char siu on rice – which was bigger than the lunch set size. Cost me a little over $9 with tax. It was ono! And if I had ordered ramen and added the lunch set (charsiu bowl or chicken karaage or daikon salad) it would have only been $5 more. Deal! This would have been a cheap lunch for you and your brothers – but you are such a foodie sister – they are lucky to have you.
Those prices are pretty high, bummer all the flavors melded. I don’t think I’ve ever been here, will look online…
i was just there for lunch on Sunday! I had the build your own soba with tororo, natto, and ume paste. Yah, was good but when you mix together, just some goopy mess. LOL. comes with the rice and little tsukemono. Friend grabbed the check but I think it still comes out kinda pricey.