The master's technique that even connoisseurs will be impressed by: "From the very beginning, with my own hands" - The persistence of a famous buckwheat noodle shop

Handmade, hand-rubbed, hand-cut Soba noodles made from scratch by the owner's own hands - a treat for connoisseurs!

It was 8:00 a.m. when I passed by the restaurant. When I passed in front of the restaurant, the owner had started to make his specialty Soba noodles again today.

This is "Soba Restaurant Jitsuwa" in Fuchi-machi, Oita City. It is a well-known restaurant among food connoisseurs. Every morning before the restaurant opens, the owner, Tadashi Tanifuji, prepares the soba noodles to be served that day. The soba-making room is made of glass, so it can be seen from the street, and many people stop to take a peek.

What makes this restaurant unique is that the owner is in charge of the entire process of making soba from start to finish. He purchases aromatic buckwheat seeds from Hokkaido and grinds them into buckwheat flour in his store. He then mixes the flour and water to the best mixture for the day, taking into account subtle changes in temperature and humidity, and kneads the mixture. Then, they spread the mixture with cotton swabs and cut it into beautiful strips. This is a labor-intensive process, but it is said to produce smooth and supple soba noodles.

The sauce is also a speciality of the restaurant. The soup stock is made from bonito, gobi, and kelp, and is combined with a secret base of mirin and soy sauce called kaeshi, which is changed daily according to the season and other factors. The soy sauce used is the dry type used in the Kanto region, which has a strong soba (buckwheat noodle) culture. In Kyushu, sweet soy sauce is often used for cooking, but the sharp taste of this restaurant's soy sauce is the key to its success.

The most popular dish is the Morisoba Gozen. Cold soba is the best way to taste the true flavor of soba. The owner and his wife, Sanekazu, who runs the restaurant with her husband, told us this. The set meal includes morisoba, maitake mushroom tempura, buckwheat balls, duck dipping sauce, and more.

A Couple Researches to Become a Restaurant Mastering Soba

Soba Restaurant Jitsuwa was originally a Japanese restaurant called "Suzaku" where you can enjoy fugu (blowfish) dishes and kaiseki. It was about a year and a half ago that the restaurant was transformed into a soba restaurant.

Both of us are big soba lovers. After eating at various soba restaurants, the owner decided to try his hand at buckwheat noodle making. From there, the two of us traveled to famous soba restaurants all over the country, researching and researching."

The owner has about 30 years of experience as a Japanese cuisine chef. His wife had also run a cafe-bar for 10 years, and the two studied hard, relying on their own palates and experience. This is how they created the restaurant's current flavor.

Incidentally, the name of the restaurant, "Soba Restaurant Jitsuwa," is derived from his wife's name. I had already decided on the name "Soba Restaurant," but the owner said, "Adding Jitsuwa-chan's name to the name makes for a great character picture! The owner said, 'If you add Jitsuwa-chan's name, it makes a great character picture! As he said this with a laugh, I could feel not only his love for soba but also his love for his wife, which made me feel relaxed.

Soba connoisseurs are regular customers.

The restaurant has many regular customers, including many buckwheat noodle lovers who are captivated by the buckwheat noodle once they have tried it.

Soba connoisseurs are happy to hear that they have found a place where they can enjoy such fine buckwheat noodle dishes. It makes us happy to know that what we have researched and offered was not wrong.

Despite its reputation, the restaurant never forgets to "keep evolving.

We always want to research flavors so that our customers don't get tired of them. I want to develop the restaurant into a soba restaurant that will be loved for a long time, just like the famous ones in the Kanto area.

Why don't you visit Jitsuwa Soba Restaurant to see and taste the owner's careful handiwork?