Soba Goro's Hot Zaru-Soba with Seasonal Tempura!

Soba Goro at Tazawako Ichi in front of JR Tazawako Station is a popular restaurant where you can enjoy a high quality buckwheat noodles!

Soba Goro serve both hot and cold noodles with various types of toppings. If you are wondering what you could try to have a seasonal flavors, try a plate with some tempura! Like this one:

On-Ten-Zaru-Soba (温天ざるそば)

Buckwheat noodle (soba) with hot dipping sauce are served with tempuras of seasonal ingredients. The selection of Tempura varieds depending on the season. On this day in late April, they served shiitake mushroom, shrimp, hirokko (wild onion), and kogomi (fern).

The flavorful buckwheat noodles, crispy tempura, and the sauce match so perfectly! We loved it :) The items on the menu are available while the supply lasts. We recommend you to drop by early! ENJOY!

New Item at Soba Goro: Chicken Ramen Noodle

Soba Goro (そば五郎） is a soba specialized restaurant inside Tazawako Ichi （田沢湖いち）, a co-op style souvenir shop in front of JR Tazawako Station. Although Soba Goro serves one of the best quality soba in this area, they challenge to come up with non-soba noodles as well.

Soba Goro announces its ramen dishes once in a while. Over the summer we have introduced you Ramen Goro　（ラーメン五郎）.  In the past, Ramen Goro has been enjoyed and cultivating a group of loyal fans. The thick noodle (we’d say “extra thick”) is so chewy that some people joke it is good for the jaw exercise!

Soba Goro's new Ramen invention is

TORI-CHUKA (鳥中華）, or Chicken-Chinese!

Tori-chuka at Soba Goro

Thinner noodles compare to Ramen Goro

While Ramen Goro’s soup was pork based and seasoned with soy-sauce, Tori-Chuka features rich fish-based soup with soy-sauce and whose noodles are thinner than Ramen Goro. Toppings are chicken, a roasted seaweed sheet, seri (Japanese parsley), boiled egg, and green onion.

Unfortunately, Tori-chuka will be available until today. It is most likely to come back on the menu again after good reviews.

Soba Goro’s ramen items are announced irregularly. You can most likely catch it by the owner’s twitter notifications. (Follow @ daiquatre )

If not, try your luck and drop in!

Soba Goro is the our favorite specialized soba (buckwheat noodle) shop in town.

Besides the noodles we have mentioned before, Soba Goro actually have atypical soba item: Soba Pudding.

Soba Goro's Soba Pudding

Ingredients:

Soba (Buckwheat)

Milk

Zarame Sugar (Japanese natural brown sugar)

Granulated Sugar

Mirin

Shoyu (Soy sauce)

Gelatin

This pudding accompanies a packet of sweet and salty sauce. It is creamy and flavorful with roasted buckwheat! The sweetness is rather mild with a hint of saltiness from soy sauce. It might remind you of Mitarashi Dango (sweet rice cake on stick coated with sweet soy sauce). On the top is crunchy roasted buckwheat.

The chef said the secret is brewing strong milk tea with roasted buckwheat!

Sounds so simple but innovative!

Try it at Soba Goro in Tazawako Ichi.

A Soba Near Waterfall: Komagatake Onsen

Soba Goro is a Soba specialized restaurant with locations at Komagatake Onsen and Tazawako Ichi in front of JR Tazawako Station. They serve Juwari Soba (100% Buckwheat Noodle), the finer variety consists entirely of buckwheat, while the more common variety, Ni-Hachi Soba  (2-8 Buckwheat Noodle) consists of buckwheat and 20% wheat. This means Juwari Soba contains higher nutrition such as amino acids, dietary fibers, and rutin. You think soba is healthy? Choose Juwari Soba--- even healthier!

Komagatake Onsen and Juwari Soba Soba Goro

The Entrance

Soba Goro’s Tazawako Ichi Location is popular among train travelers; however, this Komagatake Onsen location is situated as a part of this inn and mostly visited by overnight guests, day-trippers, and hikers who came for Onsen in Mizusawa Area. The building is secluded from other Mizusawa inns, deep in the forest next to a creek. The best treat for your eye is a beautiful waterfall called Yujo-No-Taki, Waterfall of Friendship.

But first, let us have some treat for our tummy! Our order this day was Kakiage Soba--- recommended by the receptionist. At this location, you first buy a ticket from the vending machine in front of the front desk, which you will show to the server upon entering the restaurant at the end of the hall.

Written in Japanese only, so you can ask for an assistance.

Take this ticket to a server

The interior is furnished with beautiful dark wooden pieces and decorated with antique goods, which give a certain ambiance--- similar to Tsurunoyu and other Soba Goro location. This place is so unique, though, because you see a river and hear the water and it feels like you are out in the nature!

Welcome..

Sit on the counter or a table? You choose.

Help yourself with hot tea or water.

Antique pieces displayed.

A view from our table

Dried persimmons. Hear the sound of river?

Kakiage Soba is a plate of cold soba served with pieces of kakiage tempura (shreded mixed vegetables deepfried). Soba aficionados say that a good soba must have such texture that is hard and chewy at the same time. Soba Goro’s Soba is at its perfection and cooked so fresh--- boiled no more than 20 seconds! As a result, it leaves the distinctive scent of buckwheat which you would enjoy in every moment. At the end of the meal, we were served a pot of flavorful soba-yu (water in which soba was boiled).

Morisoba with Kakiage

Kakiage!

After our indulgence with soba, we proceeded to explore the waterfall, which is a minute away. The mist from the waterfall was so refreshing! We also found many young spring plants near the water. How comforting it was.. we just wanted to stay there forever!

Yujo-No-Taki

To access Komagatake Onsen, you take a road into the forest following a sign. The road directly takes you to the waterfall and Komagatake Onsen, so it’s pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy a soak, soba, and relaxing moment near the waterfall :)


大きな地図で見る

Soba Goro at Tazawako Ichi

Soba Goro, is a buckwheat noodle shop managed by the same group as Tsurunoyu Onsen and Komagatake Onsen. The original Soba Goro shop is located inside of Komagatake Onsen. You can enjoy the same Soba noodle at this Tazawako Ichi location right in front of JR Tazawako Station.

Welcome to Soba Goro! Come on in!

The friendly staffs welcome you!

The interior of Soba Goro are quite appealing. The wooden furniture and wall seems to have aged well. The materials are actually taken from the old country house used by an actual household, the Urayama Family. That is why it has a nostalgic feeling like Tsurunoyu and Komagatake Onsen.

Cold and hot soba noodles! 200 yen for extra noodles and 400 yen for steamed noodle.

Besides some noodles, they serve Soba-cha Pudding (200 yen), Hideyoshi (sake: 400yen) and some Tempura (500 yen) as well.

Soba Goro’s menu appears quite simple: You can enjoy either hot or cold soba with a choice of several toppings. The simplicity is nothing but a proof of their confidence in the quality of soba. Their noodle is all made of 100% buckwheat flour and additive-free! Have you examined the list of ingredients on the packaged soba noodles? Usually, soba noodles are  made of buckwheat combined with little wheat flour. Or, the worse could be vice versa--- made of wheat with a small amount of buckwheat and still called soba.

Help yourself with Soba-cha (soba tea)!

Needless to say, Soba Goro's soba is prepared freshly in the kitchen--- You will notice the fresh scent of soba once you step in the shop. While you wait for your order, you can enjoy their flavorful soba tea! Don’t say you know the taste if you never tried real soba tea! You can indulge yourself with their flavorful soba tea which would boost your appetite! They say, if the soba chef is confident and proud of the quality, sobacha (soba tea) and sobayu (simply the hot water in which the noodle was boiled) should be served without even asking for them. Soba Goro is one of those soba shops!

From the top: Gatturi Goro, their 1.5 times extra thick noodle (750 yen)

Goro Set, a popular set menu with side dishes (1,000 yen)

Ramen Goro (700 yen)

Every one of their items is delightful! You are mostly likely wanting to return here on your next visit to Tazawako! If you are a novice with soba, you should order a Goro Set, which is a combination plate with soba and other items like tempura. There are a limited number of orders per day and it usually sells out quickly. If you are lucky to see it available, try it--- You won’t regret!

On certain days, you might be able to find Ramen Goro on the menu! Wondering why Ramen at a very good soba shop? Well, why not? Because it is a by-product of the chefs at Soba Goro who are endlessly exploring the possibility of quality noodle!

This time Ramen Goro is available until April 24th.

Ramen Goro (700 yen) is very satisfying! Will you be able to finish it?

This extra thick noodle resembling Udon is not soba --- it is Ramen, indeed --- made of wheat flour. It is very chewy and fills you up very much. The hearty soup is soy-sauce based. Many people say garlic is the kick! You have to try it!

Or, if you want to try something lighter, try this one! Kakiage Seiro (900 yen). This is very simple but satisfying plate with some steamed soba noodle and a piece of kakiage tempura (mixed and shredded ingredients deep-fried with tempura batter). You dip the hot noodle and tempura in the dipping soy sauce. It is quite simple but you will enjoy the full flavor of buckwheat. Highly recommended!

Kakiage Seiro (900 yen)