BB's birthday dinner at Shimbashi Soba (Paragon)!
BB's birthday dinner at Shimbashi Soba, Paragon: handmade soba with a tempura set, cold soba on a bamboo tray, soba in soup, kakiage and tempura prawns and vegetables.
Celebrated BB’s birthday dinner at Shimbashi Soba. 😋 A lovely, comforting way to mark the occasion over a proper handmade soba set.
Shimbashi Soba sits in the basement of Paragon along Orchard Road and has had a loyal following since 2003. What makes it special is that the soba is handmade fresh daily: the buckwheat is milled into flour and the chefs hand-cut the noodles in-house, following the “santate” principle of freshly milled, made and cooked. That care shows in the noodles’ clean, nutty flavour and firm bite.
What was on the table:
- Cold soba served on a bamboo tray (zaru style), to dip into a chilled tsuyu sauce.
- A bowl of soba in hot soup.
- A tempura platter: golden prawns and assorted vegetables in a light, crisp batter.
- A kakiage (mixed vegetable tempura fritter) in a small bowl of broth.
- Condiments of chopped scallions, wasabi and the dipping sauce.
The beauty of a soba set like this is the contrast: the cold zaru soba lets you taste the handmade noodles at their springiest, dunked lightly in the savoury-sweet tsuyu, while the hot soba and the tempura add warmth and crunch. The tempura was fried light and crisp, the prawns sweet, and the kakiage soaked up the broth beautifully. Refined, wholesome and satisfying without being heavy, exactly the kind of meal you can linger over.
A quietly special birthday dinner, good food, good company, no fuss.
Overall: 4.9 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Handmade soba and crisp tempura made for a memorable birthday meal with BB. Always one to return to.
