Hanayoshi

Try a bite of zaru soba with salt first, then taste it with the dipping sauce. That is one way to begin enjoying soba at Hanayoshi. Some diners have remarked on the noodles’ firm texture, which they enjoyed with just salt or wasabi, as well as the flavour of the dipping sauce. Tasting the soba on its own before dipping it lets you appreciate the difference in each mouthful.

A tempura bowl is an option when you would like something alongside your soba. One diner who ordered zaru soba with a small shrimp tempura bowl at lunchtime enjoyed the way the tempura was fried, and the separate sauce that could be added to taste. Another visitor ordered cold soba with grated daikon, plum and yuzu, along with a tempura bowl, and found the plum made the noodles refreshing to eat. Choose zaru soba when you want the noodles to take centre stage, or pair them with a tempura bowl when you fancy tempura too.

The menu ranges from cold options such as zaru soba and grated-yam soba to dipping dishes including tsuke soba, tsuke toro, tsuke ten and tsuke kamo. You can enjoy cold soba as it is or choose a dipping dish named for its accompanying ingredient. There are also hot soba, rice dishes such as oyakodon, katsudon and tempura bowls, and small plates, offering plenty of ways to put together a meal from lunch through to dinner. Diners note that the restaurant is small and seating is limited; reservations are recommended for dinner.