Honke Tagoto Sanjo Honten, a long-established soba restaurant in Kyoto with a hybrid of Kansai broth and Tokyo soba.
Standing in front of the T-junction (or “Chojiro” in Kyoto style) at the intersection of Shinkyogoku Street and Sanjo Street in downtown Kyoto is Honke Tagoto Sanjo Honten, a soba noodle restaurant established in 1868.
It is a 5-minute walk from Sanjo Station and about 3 minutes from Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station. It is very conveniently accessible.
The name “Tagoto” comes from “Tagoto no Tsuki” in Sarashina, Shinshu, which was also painted by Hiroshige Ando.
It refers to the beautiful scene of the moon reflected on each rice field in Sarashina, Shinshu, the hometown of the first generation.
Matsuo Basho and Kobayashi Issa also used it as a subject.
Here is the exterior. The appearance is a historical one, it gives the impression of being a commonplace, easy-to-enter place.
The fifth and sixth generations trained in Tokyo and decided to go their own way by hybridizing Kansai dashi (soup stock) and Kanto noodles.
The water used to make soba, which determines the flavor of the soba, is drawn from underground wells in Kyoto.
There are more than 7,000 wells in Kyoto, and there is underground water like a water reservoir under the city of Kyoto,
The amount of water is said to be comparable to that of Lake Biwa. This is a surprise.
The buckwheat flour is from Hokkaido, the kelp is from Rishiri and Rebun, and is aged for 5 or 6 years,
The dried bonito flakes are a mixture of Makurazaki hon karebushi, Soda katsuo, Urume-bushi, and Saba-bushi.
They are particular about this.
The website is worth reading, so be sure to check it out as well.
Visited for lunch on a weekday.
The restaurant is quite prosperous.
I guess there are a lot of older customers.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is calm, in a good way.
It is a different world from that of the other restaurants, which are surrounded by many students on school excursions and tourists.
As for the menu, it is quite diverse.
Ebi-taiko (shrimp and cod roe in Kyoto-style ankake),
“Misogi Soba,” made with the finest buckwheat flour and presented to the high priests,
The “Tagoto Soba”, which imitates the moon reflected in terraced rice paddies, and many more are on the menu.
Of course, there are also the standard Kyoto-style Tanuki Udon, Herring Soba, and more.
It was a difficult decision!
In the end, after much deliberation, I decided to go for it…
Chilled mentaiko udon noodles!
I chose a very unusual dish……..
And after talking so much about the charm of soba noodles, I thought udon was a good choice.
Mentaiko (cod roe) and nori (seaweed) are very attractive. I also liked the idea of cold udon.
It is a type of udon with tsuyu (soy sauce) poured over it in the style of sauce.
It didn’t take me long to finish it!
Well, the main reason is that it was Kyoto style and the quantity was small.
It happened so fast that I don’t remember much of the taste.
But udon, nori, and cod roe are a definite combination.
It was a no-brainer, and I ate it without any hesitation.
We were in the restaurant for only about 10 minutes.
So, I’m sorry that there was almost nothing like a report.
Next time, I will eat Soba properly.
Tamai Sanjyo Teramachi Head Office
12 Ishibashi-cho, Sanjo-Dori Teramachi Higashi-iru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto City
TEL 075-221-3030
