We have been to the Soba Noodle Azuma in NJ, and then found this spot in NYC. They seem to be a sister restaurant, since they share pretty much identical menu.
We decided to check it out one day for lunch. It was still a bit early, before the lunch rush, so it was nice and quiet until more and more people came in. The inside was not very big, but a good amount of seating. They had several counter seats, convenient for solo-diners.
They had a handful of small tables, and then bigger tables In the back. They had a fun Japanese music playing the background, not too loud, but it is cool here Japanese songs at a Japanese restaurant.
They have a good verity or menu, again, almost identical to the one at NJ. The main difference is that the ones here in NYC are a couple of bucks more expensive. I ordered from Soba Noodle/Rice Bowl Set, and I chose Soba Noodle with Pork Cutlet Egg Bowl ($16.50). You can get small (100 grams), medium (200 grams) or large (300 grams) for the soba noodle, and they are all the same price! How generous! And, all the soba dishes can be changed to Udon noodles. I ordered mine with small.
Just like at the NJ restaurant, the soba noodles came in a huge bowl, bigger than my face! The “small” portion looks really small in there… Their buckwheat noodle is handmade fresh everyday, so it is pretty good and have a really good buckwheat flavor. They are cooked just right, with still good amount of firm texture left in the noodle.
The mini katsu-don was quite tasty! I somehow didn’t have much high expectations for the katsu-don, but it was surprisingly good. Still, my most favorite katsu-don is the one that my mother makes me when I am back in Japan. No one can beat your mom’s cooking that just give you the kind of warmth, courage and love deep in your heart and soul!
My hubby went with Shrimp and Vegetable Kakiage Soba Noodle ($15). He went with medium, which is double the portion of “small” and it looked more fit in the huge bowl. He considered getting “large” but then he didn’t want to order too much without knowing he can finish the entire noodle. Smart man.
The Kakiage, which is also described as “tempura ball” was HUGE! I really like kakiage, especially the ones that my mother makes…I know, I know. Back to their kakiage. It was super crunchy! The level of crunchy-ness was out of this world… I don’t know how they made it so freakin’ crunchy!
It was perfect to dip into the dipping sauce that came with it. The crunchy texture dipped with the sauce, become moist and soft. The mixture of crunchy texture with the soft texture was pretty great. And since the tempura was huge, we needed more dipping sauce. When we asked for extra dipping sauce, the staff brought a hot fresh dipping sauce right away. Thanks!
After we were done with our soba, the staff asked if we wanted soba-yu, and I said yes. They brought the usual red pot especially made for soba-yu. It is the hot water that soba noodles have cooked in.
Soba-yu is considered to contain nutritious elements from the noodles that dissolved into the water while cooking. and, it is a nice way to finish off the meal. They also gave us complimentary hot tea, which was double nice!
We wanted to get some desserts, so we got ice cream ($4). One order comes with two scoops, and we got to have two different flavors! We got Green Tea and Black Sesame. I assumed that the scoops would be small. Most restaurant that offers two scoops of ice cream for $4, from my experiences, they give you small scoops. Here, they were big!!! We were very happy with the portion, and the flavor of both ice creams were really good too. Not too sweet, with real, strong green tea and black sesame flavors. Yes! They were topped with fried soba noodles, which added nice crunchy texture.
Another dessert that we ordered was Almond Tofu ($6), which is also known as “Annin Tofu” which is basically an almond jelly dessert made of almond milk, agar, and sugar. They added fresh fruits on top, all put in a jar. It is home made, and it was pretty good. It was fluffy and silky.
The staffs here were welcoming, polite and nice. We saw many Japanese customers here, and that is a good proof that they make good Japanese food. And yes, we did enjoy the food, and desserts. We had a good lunch here, portion is good, and the price is good too. It is good to have a good, fresh, tasty soba spot that we can easily get to anytime we have a craving for soba!
Soba Azuma – 251 West 55th street New York, NY 10019