(my most wonderful cousin, showing his true self)
I am finally back from my long hiatus! I haven’t blogged on here in over half a year because I was in London (check the London page for the restaurants I went to there). I was tracking the traffic on this blog while I was abroad and I was surprised to see that it got several hundred hits. I know you’re reading this, so please comment 
But getting back to business. I finally made a visit to NYC last weekend. My first stop was Soba-Ya (again). It made such a great impression on us that we felt it was worth the walk from Penn Station to St. Marks. Last time, I had gotten a simple broth of udon and vegetables since I was sick. This time, I opted for a daily special. I ordered the cold soba noodles with hot curry dipping sauce and Patrick got the Una-don, or broiled eel over rice. His lunch box was ginormous. It came with a heaping bowl of soba noodles, a bowl of rice with the eel, and some side dishes. On the other hand, I had a portion of soba noodles and the dipping sauce with 2 sweet rice bean curds. So if you’re opting for more food, get a Lunch Set.
So their noodles are really good. No kidding. They handmake their own supposedly. My dish, however, was very misleading. The box in which the noodles were resting on was elevated so that I probably had 3/4 as many noodles as Patrick did. The curry dipping sauce also wasn’t what I expected. I expected a thick spicy Indian curry dippy sauce. Instead, it was very brothy, but it did contain chicken and shitake mushrooms that were very well season. I didn’t enjoy the dish as much as I had wanted to, but it was very soothing. Plus, you don’ get that bloated feeling after you finish it. In fact, I felt really great. I think Patrick really liked his dish. He finished it before me. It sure as hell looked appetizing.
Anyway, service was great! The waiter was really enthusiastic and this time, the restaurant was fairly empty, probably since we went on a Friday afternoon.This is definitely a place I’d take my parents to. It’s very traditional and light on the ingredients (meaning no butter, sugar, etc…) As long as you don’t mind carbs, I think this is a very figure friendly place.
MENU
229 E. 9th St.
New York, NY 10003
Near Second Ave.
See Map | Subway Directions 
212-533-6966
You should also check out:
- Crif Dogs (take 2)- best hot dogs ever
- Saturday brunch at Locanda Verde
- Bobo in the West Village
- Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill: Brunch
- Five Napkin Burger
