The Zaru Soba in Japan You MUST Eat!

When you travel to a place like Japan, the one thing you really need to dedicate yourself to is…

THEIR FOOD.

No questions about it.

The Japanese cuisine is world renowned for good reason; it has it’s own unique and original flavour, yet every chef does it differently – and when you dine Japanese-style, they believe that the meal should also be a feast for the eyes.

Singapore might be an awesome foodie hub – but I’d say that our food isn’t served too prettily. You’d hardly expect our hawker uncle to put a parsley or whatsoever on your plate of char kuey tiao to make it look more presentable.

Mark and I had LOADS of incredibly good food while in Japan. We even ate when we weren’t hungry, simply because we weren’t there for a long time… And the food was too good to pass up! 😍

Actually gained 3kg within the 9 days we were there. 😩

However the one place I couldn’t get out of my head was this little unassuming hut in the middle of nowhere where we had the most amazing Zaru Soba.

Zaru Soba is actually chilled noodles made from buckwheat flour. You dip the noodles into a sauce and slurp it right up from there!
Note that when eating noodles in Japan, it’s polite to slurp your noodles as loudly as possible to show the chef that you’re enjoying your meal! ✌🏻

Truth be told, I was always more inclined to Cha Soba – which is noodles made from green tea flour.

However this place?
Made me sway my opinion effortlessly.

Plus, cold noodles are traditionally a summer dish. It was freezing then, but I had no complaints whatsoever… Because it was SO GOOD!!!

Mark is simply amazing at finding such off-the-books places when we travel – much thanks to our good friend, Google. 😁

So he entered the coordinates into the car’s GPS and stopped right here where we trekked through a bit of snow to the restaurant!

Once we entered the restaurant, there was a receiving area and right inside where customers sit is abundantly ornamented with traditional Japanese interiors.

That large mask gave me the creeps a little bit… but everything else was simply lovely and cosy!

And we got to enjoy our meal next to this gorgeous winter view! ❤️

The place is not very touristy – so their menu is entirely in Japanese. And handwritten too! 😯

First to arrive at your table are a couple of small condiments – and very important… The sauces!

Later on you will receive a kettle of hot water, which is actually the water that was used to boil your buckwheat noodles.

After you’re done with your noodles, pour the hot water into the remaining dipping sauce… And drink it up!

It might not look like much… but it was delicious! Plus it was a great way to calm your tummy after all the cold-noodle-slurping.

As you can tell – I was thoroughly pleased with my meal! ☺️ *burp*

Mark was probably even more pleased… because he bought a packets of the owner’s ready-made noodles and sauce.

After some reading, we found that this humble restaurant holds quite a bit of history! The chef makes the buckwheat noodles himself, and the restaurant has been passed down from generation to generation (if I got it right, 19 generations to be exact)! The owner (also the chef) moved to his location back in 1972.

Okay, to be entirely honest – don’t even know if I got it right… because everything about them is in Japanese and my Japanese is hardly decent. 😔

But the important thing to me was, the entire dining experience was AMAZING. The service was warm & polite (like most Japanese people), the food was absolutely delightful, the restaurant’s ambience was scintillating and the view was simply gorgeous.

We were there in winter, and I wish we could be there during the other seasons too!

If you’re ever in Japan, do check them out! You’re definitely going to need a car though!

Restaurant Name: 三百坊 300 Bou | www.300bou.net

Address: 453-2 Tsuchizaka, Yamagata-shi, Yamagata-ken 990-2405, Japan (Google Map here!)

Have a slurp-tastic time, peeps! 🍜

XOXO, Gera.