Sarashina Horii Main Store: One of Tokyo's Top 3 Soba, in Roppongi

Did you know that one of Tokyo's top 3 soba restaurants sits right near Roppongi Hills? Let me introduce Sarashina Horii (更科堀井), a soba restaurant near Roppongi Hills that opened in 1789 and has carried on a tradition of more than 230 years.

📌 This post is part of the "Roppongi Things to Do" series.

If you want to see the whole course, check the post below first.

👉 Roppongi Things to Do: Observation Decks, Museums, Shopping & Food A to Z

Hours & Info

• Selected for Tabelog Soba Top 100 (百名店) in 2024 and 2021
• Weekdays: 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM
• Weekends: 11:00 AM to 8:30 PM
• No regular closing day
• Korean menu available
• Takeout and card payment available

• Online reservation (weekdays only)

📍 View on Google Maps (3 Chome-11-4 Motoazabu, Minato City, Tokyo 106-0046, Japan)

How to Get There

Sarashina Horii is 200m from the Roppongi Hills Gate Tower (where the Tsutaya bookstore is), heading toward the Azabu-Juban shopping town. Thanks to its large sign, it is easy to find even from a distance.

I arrived right at opening time but there was already a line. The interior is fairly spacious, so the line moves quickly.

Inside the Restaurant

There are regular tables, and there are also low tables in tatami rooms.

Menu

The name Sarashina Horii (更科堀井) combines a famous buckwheat-growing region with the founder's surname. Sarashina (更科) is an area in the north of Nagano Prefecture, long known for growing high-quality buckwheat. Horii (堀井) is the name of the founder who opened the shop in 1789 during the Edo period. The shop is now in its 9th generation, and in 2024 it received the "Contemporary Master Craftsman" (現代の名匠) award from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

On the Sarashina Horii menu, soba is called seiro (せいろ). A seiro is a traditional Japanese wooden cooking tool, the name for the square frame used at soba specialty shops. Soba served in a bamboo basket rather than a seiro is called zaru soba (ざるそば).

• Mori-soba (もりそば, MORI-SOBA): soba made by grinding the buckwheat, husk and all, with the shop's own millstone
• Sarashina-soba (さらしなそば, SARASHINA-SOBA): soba with white noodles made only from the inner buckwheat kernel
• Futouchi-soba (太打ちそば, FUTOUTI-SOBA): thick-cut noodles with a chewy, hearty texture
• Kawari-soba (季節の変わりそば, KAWARI-SOBA): soba made by mixing in seasonal ingredients as the seasons change

If you order large (大盛, おおもり, oomori), you get an extra-large portion. You cannot add more partway through, so if you eat a lot, order the large size from the start. You need to ask the staff for the English or Korean menu.

Signature Dishes Review

Before the soba, they serve a cool buckwheat tea that lets you take in the buckwheat aroma first, building anticipation for the meal.

Tempted by the words "sold exclusively at Sarashina Horii," I ordered the Akasaka draft beer (赤坂生ビール). Fried noodles come as a complimentary snack.

The round fritter is kakiage (かき揚げ, KAKIAGE), shrimp and vegetables chopped fine and fried until crispy. The cold soba and the savory kakiage went well together. The ebiten-tane (えびてんたね) was on the pricier side, probably because it comes with two large shrimp.

The soba arrived. The thick futouchi-soba and the most basic mori-soba. You dip them in cold tsuyu. Wanting a warm broth, I ordered kamo seiro soba (鴨せいろそば). Thinly sliced duck, duck meatballs, and green onion are simmered in a warm broth, and you dip the noodles in it.

The left is the thick noodle and the right is the basic noodle. The flavor and texture of Sarashina Horii soba are, without a doubt, the best in my opinion.

Near the end of the meal, soba-yu (蕎麦湯) is brought out. Soba-yu is the water the soba was boiled in; in Japan, people pour it into the leftover tsuyu and drink it like tea. It is said to be a traditional Japanese soba custom, meant to finish off the buckwheat nutrients from boiling the noodles along with the tsuyu, leaving nothing behind. Called "a ritual to close out the meal," I diluted it and tried it, but it was too salty for my taste and I worried about taking in too much sodium, so I had just one sip and set the cup down. It felt like pouring barley tea into kimchi brine...

Sarashina Horii also sells noodles and tsuyu so you can enjoy soba at home. The nicely packaged two-serving soba set looked good as a gift too.

Other Branches

• Nihonbashi Takashimaya Department Store, New Wing, 6th floor (★★★☆☆ 3.36 / Chuo-ku, Tokyo / soba / average price, dinner: JPY 2,500)
• Tachikawa Isetan Department Store, 8th floor, online real-time reservation available (★★★★☆ 3.51 / Tachikawa City, Tokyo / soba / average price, lunch: JPY 2,500, dinner: JPY 3,500)

Founded 230 years ago

At Sarashina Horii

Taste the essence of soba

The three of us ordered a bit of everything we were curious about, and the bill came to quite a lot. There are also soba-and-tempura sets, so if you look over the menu in advance, you can enjoy 230 years of tradition and one of Tokyo's top 3 soba at a reasonable price.

Sarashina Horii is the only soba restaurant among Tokyo's top 3 located in Roppongi. At this long-established shop full of history and care, experience Japanese fine dining with a single bowl of soba. It will be a great choice.

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