An absolutely giant Tempura Soba served by a very happy lady! The tempura itself was all delicious (A huge prawn, shredded onion, baby aubergine, squid, seaweed and fresh mountain leaf vegetable) and along with a huge portion of soba noodles, it came to ¥1250! Menu is entirely in Japanese, but there is a small section of recommended dishes with pictures if you can’t read it. We’ll be going back, for sure!

It was past lunchtime and every shop was on break. This place stays open all day, which is rare these days. I went a little after 3 PM. The owner was having his meal too, so it was just the ladies in the kitchen. Maybe because the owner had stepped away, the ladies' teamwork was in a mess you wouldn't expect from the main branch. (lol) Unable to just watch, the owner came back from the back and got the ladies sorted out. Rumor has it the ramen is good. It really is good: the soup is solid, and the noodles are good too. The chashu is soy-sauce flavored and tasty.

+3

I'm a regular both at the shop and for delivery. Overall it's delicious. The soba of course, but the rice dishes are tasty too, and quietly, the ramen is my recommendation. It had been a while since I'd visited, and I ordered the ten-zaru. The tempura was freshly fried and delicious. I'd like the soba to have a bit more chew. I'd had the ramen by delivery, but this was my first time eating it at the shop. I've had it plenty of times, and it really is good. The tonkotsu-seafood flavor hits hard. The balance of soup, noodles, and toppings is spot on. Do try it if you stop by. This time I had the hiyashi tanuki soba. This is another favorite menu item of mine. You get an exquisite balance of chewy soba, tsuyu, and tenkasu. This time I tried the gomoku soba. As the name says, it's loaded with ingredients: mochi, chicken, shiitake, bamboo shoots, and more. It balanced nicely with the soba and was delicious. Adding the chashu-men. The ramen is delicious to begin with, but the chashu is quietly irresistible. The chashu end pieces are way too good.

+2

The main branch of Soba Gen, which has several shops in the city. Only this one has ramen! Or so I thought, but I'd actually had it at the Sanbankan branch too. Anyway, this was my first ramen at the main branch. With prices soaring lately, quite a few shops charge 1000 for ramen, but here it's 750 yen. With a small rice for 150 yen it came to 900 yen. Since it's a soba shop I imagined a Japanese-style ramen, but that's not it at all. Then again, it's also different from what a ramen specialty shop serves. To put it nicely, it's a bowl with originality. The curly noodles cling well to the soup. I ate it with rice in the renge spoon, and it's an old-fashioned flavor that goes down pretty lightly. Looking around the shop, older folks were having ramen too, so I guess lots of people come for that old-school taste. The shop name on the bowl is nicely old-fashioned too. By the way, for some reason that day everyone was ordering the large soba (oomori).

+3

【Superb ramen from a long-established soba shop】 Note: open until 1800. Recommendation: ★★★★★ Flavor intensity: ★★★☆☆ Flavor quirkiness: ★★☆☆☆ Fat richness: ★★★☆☆ Asahikawa-ramen-ness: ★★★★★ Deep along Ichijo-dori, past the Red Cross Hospital, the main branch of "Soba Gen", a long-established soba shop in the Akebono area. As with "Hamacho" and "Soba-an", many of Asahikawa's long-established soba shops serve high-level ramen. "Soba Gen" here also has quite the ramen. ◆ (Shoyu) Ramen ￥650 A silky, thick soup with standard low-hydration noodles. The surface is covered by a fairly thick layer of lard. One slurp gives you a solid tonkotsu base with seafood broth, plus a crisp soy sauce aroma. The yellow curly noodles are boiled on the firm side. A very solid Asahikawa ramen, like "Tenkin" or "Toku Ichiban" in their heyday. ◆ Curry rice A nostalgic, basic curry rice with a good dashi flavor. You'd think it's sweet, but then the spices kick in enough to make you sweat. The katsu curry looks tasty too.

+3