Ogawa - Great soba restaurant in the quiet Kitaoji area in Kyoto
Kamo Seiro
Ogawa おがわ
Ogawa おがわ
A traditional looking soba restaurant, decked in almost full wooden furniture and doors, resides in the quiet Kitaoji area in Kyoto. It has only 4 tables and sits around 12 customers at max, so do come around or before opening time to avoid long queues. Did I forget to mention, it was awarded 1 Michelin star in 2020.
The soba itself
Ogawa おがわ
Kamo broth
Ogawa おがわ
The duck meat (kamo)
Ogawa おがわ
Yuzu
Ogawa おがわ
Kamo Seiro (¥1900)
One of the soba I will usually order at a soba restaurant, the other usual suspects will be Juwari soba, Tempura soba, and Tororo soba.
A hot and warm broth is duly welcomed on a cold rainy day, and this is what I’m going to order.
It arrived after around 20-30 minutes, as we are the last to order for our batch and all are made to order in sequence.
Simple presentation; soba on a bamboo basket, kamo broth in the dipping bowl, and a small piece of yuzu skin.
Soba: Thin thickness, fine and smooth texture soba; slight earthy/nutty fragrant from the soba. Easily slurp down with the dipping broth.
Kamo Broth: From what I can see, slices of duck meat, sliced leek, combined with shoyu. With all these ingredients, the broth tastes salty and sweet, also no gaminess from the duck, especially balances well when eaten together with the soba which has some element of earthy/nutty flavour profile to it.
Overall: A great dish for sure, better than most other Kamo Seiro, but I have also eaten better Kamo Seiro before.
Rating: 3.5/5
Tororo Soba
Ogawa おがわ
Grated Yam (Tororo)
Ogawa おがわ
Soba dipping sauce
Ogawa おがわ
Wasabi
Ogawa おがわ
Pouring the sobayu over the dipping sauce
Ogawa おがわ
After adding sobayu
Ogawa おがわ
Tororo Soba (¥1400)
Came together with my Kamo Seiro too.
As per the previous dish, simple presentation; soba on a bamboo basket, grated tororo on a small bowl, wasabi and thickly grated daikon, and the dipping sauce.
Soba: Thin thickness, fine and smooth texture soba; slight earthy/nutty fragrant from the soba. Easily slurp down with the dipping broth. (Soba is the same as the previous dish, so just copy-pasting the same.)
Tororo: Freshly grated, subtle natural sweetness of the tororo, smooth and slimy texture.
When eaten together with the soba, it will “stick” to the soba making it even easier to slurp, and when dip into the dipping sauce it will enhance the salty and sweet flavours. If you mix the soba with the tororo, it will absorb more of the dipping sauce than a non-tororo coated soba, so it will be even richer flavour without being overwhelming.
Sobayu: After adding the sobayu, it tastes very light and has a hint of tea taste.
Overall: Also a great dish, very traditional and authentic style and nothing wrong with it, but it won’t go “bang this soba is lit🔥!”.
Rating: 3.5/5
Yaki Miso on a wooden spatula
Ogawa おがわ
Close up
Ogawa おがわ
Details of the Yaki Miso
Ogawa おがわ
Yaki Miso (¥380)
Initially we didn’t order this, then saw other customers from other tables order it, it looked really interesting so we did an add-on order for this dish too!
The Yaki Miso (grilled miso) came served in a wooden spatula, interesting and rustic presentation.
Taste: Rich umami and salty flavour, I think it contains sesame/roasted sesame plus some other nutty flavours/ingredients, spring onions, and yuzu. Can’t fully confirm we recognise the ingredients correctly, but roughly this range.
Overall: Tasty and simple appetiser while waiting for our main dish to be ready.
Rating: 3.5/5
Menu
Ogawa おがわ
Overall
It is located slightly off the Kyoto downtown area, even when I stayed at the main Shijo area which has direct buses to most of Kyoto’s attractions, it will still take us around 35-40 minutes via public transport to reach this restaurant.
All 3 dishes we ate are great, but not to the awesome level (score of 4 and above). Before you comment that we just have higher expectations since it was awarded 1 Michelin Star in 2020, but no, we really review as objectively as usual.
I will say unless you really want to try it or has lots of time, I think it’s more for people around the area, say you are visiting Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) which is relatively near here.
Shop Front
Ogawa おがわ
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Address: 京都府 京都市北区 紫竹下芝本町 25
Opening Hours: 11.30am-3pm Friday to Wednesday. Close on Thursday, but if PH falls on Thursday, it will be open and close on the following Friday.
Payment Method: Cash
Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/kyoto/A2601/A260503/26000389/
(Last visited: November 2022)