About Pyon Pyon Sha Morioka Station
Pyon Pyon Sha was opened in 1986 by the second generation of a North Korean refugee family — the founder's grandfather brought the Pyongyang reimen recipe to Morioka in 1954, and the second-generation chef expanded the original counter into the modern multi-floor restaurant facing Morioka Station. The dish is the city's clearest example of how Tohoku food culture absorbs cross-border influences (Korean cold noodle, Tohoku ingredient sourcing, Iwate kitchen execution) and the bowl is one of Japan's three reference reimen — alongside the Yakiniku Ringa-style at Tokyo's Korean BBQ chains and the Hashimoto-style at Sendai.
The signature is the Morioka Cold Noodle (盛岡冷麺) at ¥1,200 — chewy, elastic noodles made from a unique blend of wheat flour and potato starch (giving the noodle its characteristic translucent appearance and pull-resistant texture), served in a chilled clear broth made from beef bones, beef flank, and chicken, garnished with a small piece of Korean kimchi, a few slices of cucumber, a halved boiled egg, and a quartered Asian pear (the pear is a Pyongyang reimen tradition). The premium Tokusen Cold Noodle (with extra meat and a richer broth) is ¥1,600.
Beyond reimen, Pyon Pyon Sha runs a proper Korean BBQ kitchen — Iwate-prefecture wagyu yakiniku, Korean-style banchan, and a strong soju-and-makgeolli list. A meal of one cold noodle plus a small wagyu yakiniku set runs ¥3,500-4,500 per person. The kitchen is open until 10:30pm and accepts walk-ins outside Friday-Saturday peaks.
The room seats one hundred and forty across two floors with a small private banquet room on the third floor for groups up to twenty. English picture menus are universal, the staff speak basic functional English, and the third-floor view of the station forecourt at sunset is one of the city's underrated dining views.
Best Occasion Fit
Solo dining at its purest — counter seat, ten-minute meal, ¥1,200 bill, the dish in its definitive form. For team dinners after a long Shinkansen day, the second floor absorbs eight or ten without complaint. As a first date, the cold-noodle format is unusual enough to be conversation-starting and the BBQ side of the kitchen lets you extend the meal.
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