Cold Soba in the Summer

You may not know this but Tokyo can get as hot and humid as the tropical countries in Southeast Asia. Thankfully, there’s so many places that have air conditioning. Yet, nothing feels better on a hot day than eating something that will cool you down from the inside. That’s where soba enters the picture. A few blocks away from Harajuku station is Kamakura Matsubaraan Keyaki, a restaurant up in the Harajuku Quest Building. There they serve their signature Sudachi Onioroshi Soba. It’s a cold soba noodle bowl that will reinvigorate your sun fatigued body so you can go back to the mesmerizing Harajuku streets.

Just an elevator ride up, you’ll find the entrance off to your left. There’s some seats outside for you to wait as the host will call you in. It may look dark outside, but don’t worry, you’ll be transported to a brightly inviting space.

Inside you’ll be asked to take off your shoes. I figure they bring in one group at a time to keep track of things. Because when we were ready to leave, they had our shoes ready for us at the entrance.

The atmosphere inside was quiet, not silent. People do talk and the staff communicates does communicate with the tables often, but it felt like it was kept down to a lower volume. They even adopted a push button system to get the attention of your server. Nice. It was like a tranquil getaway. They also catered to foreigners well enough to have both Chinese and English menus. And yes, the staff speak English as well. Good enough to change our order when we decided we wanted something another table was having. Not a problem for them. They even showed us what it was on the English menu. Wonderful. I love it when people are patient with tourists.

Kamakura Matsubaraan Keyaki (鎌倉 松原庵 欅)

1 Chome−13−14 原宿クエスト
Japan, 〒150-0001 Tōkyō-to, Shibuya-ku, Jingūmae
Harajuku Quest Building
+81 3-3478-7444
matsubara-an.com

Verdict: I’d recommend coming by here to try their soba, if you can appreciate high quality soba.