Gimpachi-tei Yawaza

Hidden away just slightly outside of Tokyo is an often-overlooked soba shop that is worth traveling the extra mile for. Gimpachi-tei Yawaza has been running since 1976 and might possibly be able to defeat its Michelin-starred competitors in terms of sheer quality. There's always a queue of over twenty people at the shop front and by the time it's your turn there's a high possibility that the noodles will be sold out. Hence, making a reservation is always recommended. The most popular dish is the Inaka Seiro. This delicious treat uses stone-ground, hand-pulled, and hand-cut soba made from Hokkaido buckwheat, limited to only twenty servings a day. In the likely case the dish is sold out, the second-best is the Zenro soba. Although made of machine-cut noodles, they're just as delicious. On top of soba dishes, Yawaza also has appetizers like yuba sashimi and tofu skin that go amazingly well with soba miso. Tempura of all sorts is also available, including mushroom, eggplant, pepper, pumpkin and, of course, prawn.