One of our colleagues is heading back home to Australia first so as a (potentially) final gathering, we wanted to get dinner. We initially had other plans that ended up being a bit difficult so I recommended Tsubakino since I've been meaning to try other dishes. So now, I've returned with colleagues! Unfortunately, they had such an intense lunch rush where they had three portions of the soba with the black kernels, one portion of the juwari (100% buckwheat) soba, and a few portions of udon. I let some of the senior colleagues try their soba since I was very curious about their opinion so I tried the soba today.
The sauce accompanying the soba is the goma-tare. In this case, I believe tare is more referring to sauce rather than the shoyu-mirin-sake mixture since it felt like they had grinded the sesame paste themselves with just a bit of the soba tsuyu. However, the seasoning was quite on point and coated the udon noodles quite well. The onion and green onions were definitely not overpowering but lifted the sauce up a bit so very enjoyable.
As for the udon itself, I might've been a bit too distracted by my colleagues to notice the taste carefully (maybe the goma-tare was a bit overpowering but I wasn't vigilante enough to mind) but the texture was enjoyable. Like the juwari-soba, there was a good chew. Although not shown, an additional dish of smoked duck gizzard (鴨の砂肝) that was just a clean duck flavor (but not too gamey) with a bit of a bite (almost crunch). Might be worth a try if one ever has a chance.
I was really glad that one of our colleagues who normally couldn't eat fatty foods took the plunge to try the vegetable tempura and actually finished it! She described it being cooked at a high enough heat, being super juicy, the exterior is nice and crunchy, and was excited that she could actually eat and finish it! As she was eating the soba however, she had the impression she got the cheap one that wasn't 100% buckwheat but she was actually eating the juwari soba while the other colleagues had the 100% buckwheat with some of the black exterior/kernel of the buckwheat. Despite her initial impression, she said she was enjoying it a lot and when I mentioned the specific type she had, she was even more ecstatic!
Another colleague (the Australian one who's leaving) mentioned how their shrimp was also very juicy and had a nice exterior. I think she was at least okay with the place as a whole so maybe that's all I should expect.
So the colleagues who's opinions I was worried about ended up having some nice things to say (and all the food was finished) so I'm quite happy that my palette hasn't fallen too far. よかった...
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