Misato

Warm light spills from Sanri, a soba restaurant in a residential part of Nezu. Its signature duck seiro is a natural place to start. The dipping broth comes with tender simmered duck and a chicken dumpling containing cartilage, whose pleasantly crunchy texture adds a lively contrast. Dip the fine, neatly cut soba into the rich duck broth, with its gentle sweetness, and each mouthful brings together the noodles’ smooth finish and the savoury depth of the dashi. For a warm bowl with broth, there is also kamo nanban, served with the same dumpling.

A plain seiro lets the aroma and smooth texture of the soba come through. Other bowls bring their own accents: grated daikon with a sharp kick, or plum and grated yam with a crushed umeboshi stirred in. If you would like a little more, extra seiro noodles are available.

The range of small dishes to enjoy while waiting for the soba is another part of the appeal. There are soba sashimi with wasabi soy sauce, dashi-rich rolled omelette, fragrant soba miso and grilled nori served from the hearth. These soba-shop classics invite an unhurried stretch of soba-mae—small dishes and sake before the noodles—with sake such as Daisekkei and Kikuhime.

Seating is limited and centred around a counter, and the owner often runs the restaurant alone. It suits a visit at an unhurried pace rather than one squeezed into a busy schedule. To finish, soba ice cream topped with toasted buckwheat kernels makes a refreshing pause after the meal.