The noodles at Tanuki Soba wa Nomimono don’t look like any bowl of tanuki soba that we’ve ever seen, but we’re not complaining.

The “Nomimono” brand of oddly named restaurants, known for places like Karee wa Nomimono (“Curry is a Drink”), Tonkatsu wa Nomimono (“Tonkatsu is a Drink”, and Naze Soba ni Raayuu o Ireru no Ka? (“Why do you Add Chili Oil to Soba?”) has just added a new storefront to the mix. On March 27, Tanuki Soba wa Nomimono (“Tanuki soba is a drink”], which specializes in–you guessed it, tanuki soba, opened in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district.

▼ The restaurant is down a small side street directly on the way to Ikebukuro’s popular Sunshine City shopping complex, making it a convenient stop on your way to shop until you drop.

In general, tanuki soba is a common style of eating soba noodles in hot broth sprinkled with tempura flakes. “Tanuki” refers to a Japanese raccoon dog, and in a nod to that animal, the restaurant’s signage features a tanuki slurping up a bowl of noodles.

A convenient ticket vending machine is located right at the entrance for customers to purchase their menu item(s) of choice.

It’s also important to note that this is a stand-and-eat noodle joint. While you won’t want to take your whole family for a meal there, it’s perfect if you’re hungry and feel the need for speed.

We ordered a medium-sized hiyashi (chilled) tanuki soba for 890 yen (US$5.95) with 1.5-times extra meat for an extra 450 yen. When it arrived, we had to take a moment to digest the bowl with our eyes–it was unlike any tanuki soba we’d ever seen.

▼ There were soba noodles in there, too…right??

Admittedly, part of the reason for that was because we also sprung for toppings that went far beyond what a typical bowl of tanuki soba includes by adding on shrimp tempura (+300 yen) and chikuwa fish cake tempura (+200 yen).

▼ In a fun touch, each bowl of soba is served in a tanuki-shaped dish.

Slices of deep-fried tofu and quail eggs seasoned with curry added the final finishing garnishes.

Interestingly, the tempura flakes, which were free for the taking in a giant hot dish, didn’t look like typical flakes at all.

They appeared to actually be deep-fried edible chrysanthemum leaves that were so big that there was probably no need for other toppings.

The restaurant’s specially made garlic chili oil condiment was also free for customizing your tanuki soba how you like.

OK, enough with the oogling and on to the gorging. We started with a bite of beef, which tasted like it was boiled in a delightful mix of soy sauce, ginger, and sugar.

Then, we managed to find a clump of noodles under all of the toppings and gave them a taste. They were quite firm and chewy, resembling the kind that you might eat with a dipping noodle-dish like tsukemen.

A unique characteristic of the broth was the harmonious blend of chili oil and wasabi. It was sweet, rich, and had a small kick from the oil, but the wasabi further enhanced its sweetness. It was an extremely intriguing and effective pairing for a soba dish.

The more we ate, the more the dish’s various flavors seemed to transform and turn into something different with each bite. It was easy to forget that this was technically tanuki soba that we were eating. It certainly scored the highest possible marks for originality.

There’s plenty of room to debate whether or not this dish still qualifies as “tanuki soba,” since while it does have tempura flakes as a topping, some of those flakes have chrysanthemum leaves mixed in, and then there are all those optional non-tempura flake toppings we added. The bottom line, though, is that Tanuki Soba wa Nomimono’s soba is absolutely delicious, and just as bold a creation as last summer’s Coolish Hiyashi Tanuki Soba.

Restaurant information
Tanuki Soba wa Nomimono. / たぬきは飲み物。
Address: Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Higashi-Ikebukuro 1-23-12
東京都豊島区東池袋 1-23-12
Open: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (last order at 3:45 p.m.), 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. (last order at 8:45 p.m.)
Website

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