Owariya Honke Honten

Ever eaten at an old restaurant? Now try match it to this 551 yrs old place.
This was more of an experience than a chase for flavor but thankfully both added a lot of uniqueness to our dinner. It is so exciting and gets you a bit emotional to be able to eat at the same place emperors and other have ordered their food from.
The place was tucked in a small street. Not hard to find but def not in your main avenue.
Service was good, but then again it is at 99 percent of restaurants in japan.
The Soba was really good. Consistency, flavor, temperature and portion. We really enjoyed being seated in a place with hundred of years of history and tasting everlasting food.
Don’t skip this when in Kyoto. Go and eat some good tempura soba and get yourself some Sake while there. Ask for a zashiki to get the whole experience amplified.

Oh Kyoto, you teased me from afar with the promise of the best food. And I have been chasing my appetite and wallet to follow the path and now tried the best soba in your soba capital.
Got here at 2:30 pm well after the crowds died and ordered the special cold soba served in a towered plate. I wanted to love it, but soba is just okay for me. I am still dreaming of ramen in Tokyo by Shinjuku station. Mmm…
I paid my respect to this establishment and learned a lot about soba (thanks Wikipedia!)

My friend and I went here after checking out nijojo castle. She lives in Japan, but hadn’t been to Kyoto in a long time. We were both pretty equally touristy on this adventure. I guess you could say it’s a little far of a walk for the average American to enjoy lunch after walking around the giant grounds of a castle. But at this point in my trip, I was ok with the distance.
The first place we tried to go to was all smoking and not ok with us.
I checked out the Unilocal app to find this place… Not many places have reviews in Japan. But this one did, and they were all pretty nice!
It’s kind of tucked away, off the beaten path off the large main road.
They told us the wait time was about 20 minutes. We sat outside in the humid air. It was a lot faster than 20 minutes. The host took us upstairs. The stairs were the steepest I have ever climbed, so beware of that. I also noticed they had traditional seating options available.
The menu may be hard for even those familiar with Japanese to read. However, the English menu is pretty thorough and includes pictures.
We ended up getting soba. Cold soba can be so refreshing on a hot day. The noodles came with tempura as well. I got local, seasonal vegetables to go with mine. I ate everything and felt cool and refreshed! The soba noodles were perfect for a muggy day like this was. And the tempura was not too hot that it totally negated the coolness of the noodles.
If I ever find myself in this area again… I would love to go back to this spot!

Whenever I am in Kyoto, I always stop in here for some delicious Soba. This noodle house has been in operation since 1465, serving the imperial family and the likes of you and me for hundreds of years. Yum-​Yum! Ok, that pun/​reference to The Mikado might have been a bit cheesy, but I’ll tell you what is not cheesy and that is their noodles which are cooked to perfection.
Another sign that you have arrived at the right spot is that you find many locals here; all of them serenely slurping up their noodles to achieve the ultimate stag of food zen. I was so impressed with this paced that upon my first visit, I begged the owner for a souvenir menu. I have to confess that the menu was cool, but my real reason for this request was so that I would be able to find this place on my next visit to Kyoto. (Hey, this was Pre-​Yelp after all). Seriously, this one is tough to find, and you will need to use your Unilocal app to find this magical shop, or just show the Unilocal page to a cab driver. Since the address is in Japanese, your driver will have no problem taking you right to your noodle destination, right to the noodle house of your soba dreams.
Stepping through the doors of Honke Owariya is like stepping back in time when the simplicity of doing one thing well could only be called art. The service here is extremely friendly and helpful, so don’t hesitate to ask questions. They have a small gift shop up front which is loaded with all sorts of Japanese cakes and «sweets»; however, although they are very pretty, these cakes may not be suited to the Western palate, so I would proceed with caution if you’re new to Japan

Honke Owariya. The one place in Kyoto I will always go to when I am in town. It has the best soba around. The best soba in Japan as far as I am concerned. The 5 plates Hourei soba is not to be missed. It tastes as impressive as it looks.

Ever had that feeling when you realize that you’re about to eat something special and that adrenaline kicks in? Honke Owariya is one of those places. Owariya has withstood the test of time, having been established as one of kyoto’s premier soba houses since its founding in 1465. They also served the imperial family then and now.
The restaurant is tucked away in a side street near the Kyoto imperial palace entrance, a strong reminder of the legacy it carries for being so close to imperial palace. The closest station would be karasuma oike, and walk acouple of blocks in. There is no parking so… dont drive? There will be signage in both english and japanese, you cant really miss it.
The entrance is rustic and in traditional Japanese archetecture with a sliding door where you will be recieved. The 1^st floor is the kitchen and gift shop, the 2^nd is the dining rooms in which you will be seated. There are some art and photos of the past on the walls.
Dont be afraid to ask for an english menu, they serve foreigners quite often and are quite welcoming. What i had that day was their house special, horai soba. Basicly, its 5 courses of do it yourself noodles with condiments. Unlike traditional zaru soba which you dip it in sauce, you pour the sauce over the noodles instead. The soba was exquisitely fine width and cooked perfectly. The soba you received might look dry, but actually, they’re quite moist still, so do not be afraid. There is not much to say other than, those were damn good soba, its what you expect from a soba house of over 530 years. The condiments in which you make your soba with are: marinated shitake, egg strips, nori, daikon, spring onions, wasabi, sesame seeds, and the protein; tempura ebi nuggets.
I get asked often «how do you eat soba with wasabi?» Basicly, you take the wasabi and just spread it around the noodles before or after the sauce is poured. Alternatively, you can just take a nob on your chopsticks and grab some noodles and slurp it all up in 1 go. Oh yah, did i mention, they use real wasabi? You get a kick but its not like… omg im gonna explode kick.
If youre satisfied with your meal, you can even buy some dried soba and sauce from their giftshop. Historically, they were confectioners (wagashiya) before being a soba house, so they carry traditional Japanese sweets aswell.
Honke Owariya is one of the best places ive ever been to, and if its good enough for imperial royalty for 530 years, its good enough for me. Michelin stars? Who needs that crap.
A historical Five, out of five.