I never had good impression of soba in the beginning. I couldn’t remember when I start eating them, but when I was in Korea last December, I had the worst bowl of buckwheat soba. It had the most artificial taste and they added their most spicy chilli sauce which was beyond what I could accept. 

 

But during Chinese New Year, a group my friends decided to meet for dinner at Shimbashi Soba, Paragon. I went reluctantly, hence I didn’t bring my camera. And I was impressed! This place changed my impression of buckwheat soba. It is handmade in the restaurant, freshly cooked and serve. There is no need for strong flavours or very expensive ingredients to a meal, because the soba itself is already the star!

If you had not already known, buckwheat is very good for the body. Because:

So now you must be thinking, healthy food will never be delicious. Wrong! The soba here uses top grade Tasmanian buckwheat seeds to mill using a stone mill you see in the restaurant (picture above). They only mill a specific number of flour each day so it always tastes very fresh!

 

And their Kaeshi (which is the condiment that determines the taste of the soba) is their secret weapon. It is basically soy sauce and sugar mixed together but well… in a secret proportion lah!

So a month ago, the buddy wanted to give me a birthday treat and I requested to go back to Shimbashi Soba again. Majority of the dishes in the menu is soba, but of course, there are some standard side dishes as of a Japanese restaurant. For example, we ordered Tori Tatsutaage ($8.80) as our appetizer. 

Buddy has Chicken Katsu Don ($18.80) which has a choice of Soba or Udon (chilled or warm) and green salad.

I was craving for some warm soup that day, so I ordered Niku Nanban ($18.80) which is warm soup noodles with beef, fishcakes vegetables and egg. They import bonito and mackerel flakes from Japan, hence cooking a full flavoured soup which was a perfect match with the buckwheat. I finished the whole bowl of soup and noodles. 

We shared the Shimbashi Special Dessert Set ($13.80) which has a variety of Japanese desserts such as black sesame & green tea ice cream, green tea cheese cake, green tea tiramisu, soba ball with red bean, green tea-flavoured glutinous cake, Japanese jelly, pancakes and fruits. I think their green tea desserts tasted the best, especially the green tea cheese cake.

I am truly impressed by the number of soba pairing dishes in the menu. And I was even more impressed  by its vegetarian menu, because it was very difficult to find a restaurant that serves vegetarian menu in Orchard. 

Thank you buddy for the treat!