Do you like tsukesoba (dipping noodles)?
Compared with ramen, it may seem a little less exciting.
However, it’s a popular dish in cities such as Tokyo, where you can even find restaurants specializing in tsukesoba.
There’s a restaurant specializing in tsukesoba in Soja City.
It’s Tsukesoba Yamaimo.
Along with its carefully crafted tsukesoba, which lets you enjoy two kinds of noodles, its abura soba and original menu item torotama are also popular.
Let’s take a closer look at the history and distinctive features of Tsukesoba Yamaimo, a tsukesoba specialty restaurant in Soja.
Tsukesoba Yamaimo closed in September 2024.
The information presented here is from when it was open.
The information presented here was current when the article was published in September 2023. Please note that it may differ from current information.
Yamaimo, a tsukesoba specialty restaurant in front of Soja City Hall
Yamaimo is a tsukesoba specialty restaurant just north of Soja City Hall.
It occupies part of the same building as the long-established Western-style restaurant Boon and the curry restaurant Shaka Spice.
There are many ramen restaurants, but not many places where tsukesoba is the main attraction.
At Yamaimo, you can enjoy its distinctive, carefully crafted tsukesoba, as well as abura soba and side dishes.
Yamaimo originally operated as “Mendokoro Sudachiya” at Tsunagaru Cafe Sen, a share kitchen in a traditional house on Soja’s shopping street.
It then opened at its current location under its present name in September 2020.
As you enter, there are two tables for two near the front.
At the back of the restaurant are the kitchen and six counter seats.
Yamaimo has no parking lot, but customers can park in the lot for the izakaya Shunsaibo-ya, about 300 meters away, during lunch hours only.
Yamaimo’s menu
Information as of August 2023. Prices include consumption tax.
As a tsukesoba restaurant, Yamaimo naturally specializes in tsukesoba.
In addition to regular tsukesoba, its popular yamakake tsukesoba comes with grated yam and a raw quail egg.
Other options include abura soba and torotama, a ramen dish topped with a generous serving of grated yam.
Besides noodle dishes such as tsukesoba, there are also rice dishes such as tororo meshi, torimeshi, and yaki-onigiri chazuke.
One item worth noting is the kaedama (extra serving of noodles).
For your extra serving, you can choose between the same flat noodles as in your original order and thin noodles made with whole wheat flour.
You can also ask for hot water to dilute the leftover dipping broth.
Please let a staff member know if you’d like some.
Recommended and popular menu items
Here are some of Yamaimo’s recommended dishes and customer favorites.
Tsukesoba
Tsukesoba is Yamaimo’s signature dish.
The noodles are served cold by default, but you can request them warm.
During our visit, we chose the cold noodles.
The noodles served on a beautiful white-and-blue plate made a strong impression.
Another highlight is that two kinds of meat are served alongside the noodles.
The pale-colored meat is chicken ham.
The rosy-colored meat is roast beef, served in two slices.
The reddish-brown dipping broth is filled with plenty of green onions.
The dipping broth has a sweet soy-sauce flavor and a rich seafood aroma.
The dipping broth is made with the bones and skin of mature chickens from Okayama Prefecture, iriko dried sardines from the Seto Inland Sea, and flying fish from off the Sanin coast!
The noodles are glossy, medium-thick, flat noodles.
Dipped into the broth and slurped up, they’re pleasantly chewy, with a smooth texture that goes down easily.
The warm dipping broth clings to the noodles, creating a delicious harmony.
Sudachi citrus and grated wasabi are served on the side, so add them to taste.
We also recommend changing up the flavor as you eat.
As mentioned earlier, you can choose between two types of noodles for a noodle refill.
Why not choose the thin noodles for your refill and enjoy a different texture?
Yamakake Tsukesoba
“Yamakake Tsukesoba” is the most popular menu item.
Yamakake Tsukesoba was created as a nod to the restaurant’s name, Yamaimo.
Actually, the name Yamaimo comes from my nickname and has nothing to do with the yam ingredient (laughs).
It is made by topping the tsukesoba noodles generously with grated yam (nagaimo).
A raw quail egg sits in the center.
The noodles and dipping broth are the same as those in the regular tsukesoba.
Perhaps because the restaurant is called Yamaimo, or perhaps because so many customers love yam, Yamakake Tsukesoba is the most popular item.
But the restaurant recommends the regular “Tsukesoba,” which lets you enjoy the flavor of the tsukesoba directly!
Yamakake Tsukesoba is recommended for people who like grated yam.
Abura Soba
“Abura Soba” is what is commonly known as “mazesoba.”
It is topped with one slice of chicken ham, two slices of roast beef, plenty of chopped green onions, and dried fish powder.
There is also a small amount of sauce beneath the noodles.
The noodles are the same flat, medium-thick noodles used for the tsukesoba.
The sauce for the abura soba is made with broth from mature chicken and iriko.
Mix everything together thoroughly before eating!
When you eat it, the sweetness of the vegetables and chicken fat in the sauce comes through, along with a fragrant seafood flavor.
The noodles have a pleasantly chewy, springy texture.
The flavor of the sauce clings to them.
The roast beef has a firm, springy bite.
With every bite, the flavor of the meat comes through and spreads along with the aroma of black pepper. Delicious.
It looked like it might be rich, but surprisingly, it was easy to finish.
Torotama
Yamaimo also has original menu items.
One of them is “Torotama.”
The ramen is generously topped with grated yam.
The yam’s rich thickness is balanced by a crisp texture, with flavors of broth, vegetables, and chicken fat, leaving a refreshing aftertaste.
It goes exceptionally well with the noodles.
This dish is recommended for yam lovers and anyone who enjoys gooey, sticky foods.
Torimeshi
“Torimeshi” is also a popular side dish.
It comes with a generous serving of chicken ham on top of rice.
Green onions and seaweed are scattered over it, with wasabi on the side.
Torimeshi is drizzled with raw soy sauce, whose flavor goes well with the chicken ham, rice, seaweed, and wasabi.
Its refreshing flavor makes it easy to enjoy alongside tsukesoba or abura soba.
Tsukesoba Yamaimo is a tsukesoba specialty shop, a style of restaurant not often found in Soja.
We interviewed the owner, Yamanaka Natsumi.
Tsukesoba Yamaimo Information
| Name | Tsukesoba Yamaimo |
|---|---|
| Address | 2-2-1 Chuo, Soja City |
| Contact | 090-2861-0340 |
| Parking | None ※Parking is available at the “Shunsaibo-ya” parking lot during lunch hours only (about 300 m from Shunsaibo-ya) |
| Hours | 11:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. (last order 7:30 p.m.) |
| Closed | Monday, Sunday |
| Payment methods |
|
| Reservations | Not accepted |
| Seating | 10 seats total ・Counter seats: 6 ・Two-person tables: 2 |
| Smoking | Entirely non-smoking |
| Restroom | Western-style toilet |
| Families with children | ・Strollers allowed ・Children’s tableware available |
| Accessibility | ・Wheelchair access available (restroom is not wheelchair accessible) |
| Website | Tsukesoba Yamaimo Official Instagram |
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We recommend choosing the thin noodles to enjoy a different type from your first serving.
You can also request thin noodles from the start when placing your initial order.