Ryuhei-Soba - Kyoto, Japan

Ryuhei-Soba

A 1-star Michelin restaurant located in a tranquil town slightly away from Kyoto city. It took us quite a while to get here; the map we printed online plus the one we got from the train station didn't help much but thanks to the pocket wi-fi I rented and Google Maps, after almost 15 minutes of walk from the train station, we finally arrived at Ryuhei-soba's doorstep. It's a petite restaurant sat between local houses. I was a little grumpy already, having to walk at a relatively fast speed as it's passed our reservation time due to our earlier journey in Nara (I got a little too obsessed with the deers in Nara haha), my grumpiness disappeared the moment we were welcomed by the hostess. The genuine Japanese greetings and welcome never failed to put a smile on my face. 

We were there for lunch and both of us had the course meal. I guess the lunch menu is standardized because I don't even remember looking at any menus and do the ordering :D What's great about this is that every course served is a surprise!

Appetizer - Small portions presented elegantly in a bamboo basket. 

Top (L-R) - Maguro sashimi (tuna sashimi), soba-cha (tea) crackers

Center - Goma-tofu (sesame tofu) topped with miso paste

Bottom (L-R) - Seasonal vege with home-made (mayo-like) dressing, soba 

All items above were so delicious (so delicious that "so delicious" deserves to be highlighted in bold). Everything was served in its most natural and freshest form, I love every item especially the goma-tofu. I get really fussy when it comes to tofu, especially fresh tofu. The aftertaste of fresh tofu can influence my appetite for the rest of the meal, as if I really dislike the taste, it will even linger for hours and I can still taste it very much later T_T . The texture of this tofu was very smooth and soft, what impressed me was the aroma of goma that blends so well with soybean. The taste of goma was stronger but there's still a hint of soybean taste. I could still recall the taste while I'm typing this (at this odd hour...)... 

Second course was their specialization - soba. Served plain and cold with the small cup of sauce on the left, and a little bit of wasabi. The texture of the noodles were excellent. The best part was...savouring the original taste of soba, not just the taste of flour. We were reminded to eat it fast in order to savour the best taste and texture of the noodles. It only took us a few slurps and the noodles were all gone :D

 Soup - It's like a DIY soup haha. Pour the soup out from the teapot-look-alike-pot, add in soba sauce and rest of the ingredients (on the small saucer) and voila, a small cup of soup.

Another surprise! As I mentioned I didn't even take a look at any menus so I have no idea rice will be served. Unagi was a bonus because I love unagi :D But the hidden surprise in this bowl of rice was...it's not the usual Japanese short grain rice but glutinous rice :O Frankly when I heard glutinous I was like damn I'm already quite full and glutinous is so filling (although it's just a small portion)... Oh dear before I realized I've finished it :D A cup of Sencha paired perfectly with this course :)

Dessert (L-R) - Soba-cha pudding, soba-cha chocolate, strawberry topped with soba-cha jam
I'm never a fan of pudding because pudding is just like tofu to me. This soba-cha pudding surprised me from the very first spoon. So was the chocolate and the soba-cha jam. I can conclude that in Ryuhei-soba, they really do take soba-cha seriously.

Just a few shots of Ryuhei-soba's seating area:

We were seated in a small private room for 2, there's a bigger room which accommodates around 6 pax I think but I'm unsure if there are other rooms available. So yeah, from what I saw they have really limited seating capacity.

Besides serving food at its finest quality, the service was also super welcoming, genuine and professional. The server who's been serving us was actually the lady boss :D She even shared with me the recipe in making soba-cha pudding! And upon leaving, we actually asked for the direction to the nearest bus stop and guess what, her husband who's the head chef walked us there instead of just telling us on the map.

It's a very remarkable dining experience. I don't mind another 30 minutes of walk to dine in a restaurant like this!