"The Bay Area's serious soba table — book Soba Ichi for chef Koichi Ishii's in-house-milled buckwheat noodles, a Michelin Guide pick in West Oakland."
Soba Ichi sits on a quiet stretch of Magnolia Street in West Oakland and was the first place in the Bay Area — one of very few in the country — to serve authentic house-made soba. Chef Koichi Ishii studied the craft for three years in his home city of Yamagata in northern Japan, then imported the equipment to do it properly here. The result is a Japanese noodle house recognised in the MICHELIN Guide, with a room as considered as the noodles.
Ishii buys buckwheat from a Washington farm that grows the Japanese kitawase variety and mills the flour in-house, making both 100% and 90% buckwheat soba, served hot or cold. The dish to order is the tenseiro — chewy cold soba with feather-light tempura shrimp and vegetables and a flavourful dipping sauce. The kitchen runs only about 100 orders of soba a day, first-come, first-served, and a meal lands in the $$ range. This is single-minded craft cooking, not a broad Japanese menu.
The interior, designed by Zen Buddhist priest and craftsman Paul Discoe, nods to the clean lines of Japanese architecture: sleek, calm and spare. The setting is deep industrial West Oakland, the restaurant opens only for dinner, and waits can run upward of 45 minutes — if the day's 100 orders haven't sold out first. Service is unhurried and focused on the food. It suits a quiet dinner for two or a solo seat at the counter; come early and be ready to wait.
For a quiet dinner for two, a solo seat focused on the food, or an early date built around craft cooking, Soba Ichi fits. A natural first-date and solo-dining table in Oakland.
Not for a big group, a guaranteed table or a quick stop — Soba Ichi is first-come, first-served, opens only for dinner, and caps the day at about 100 orders of soba.
Soba Ichi is at 2311 Magnolia Street in West Oakland, on a quiet, industrial stretch; it opens for dinner only, Wednesday through Monday.
Chef Koichi Ishii, who trained for three years in Yamagata in northern Japan, makes the soba by hand and mills the buckwheat flour in-house.
Order the tenseiro: chewy cold soba with light tempura shrimp and vegetables and a dipping sauce; soba comes in 100% or 90% buckwheat, hot or cold.
No. Soba Ichi is first-come, first-served for dinner, and waits can run over 45 minutes; the kitchen makes only about 100 orders of soba a day.
Yes. Soba Ichi is recognised in the MICHELIN Guide as one of the very few US restaurants serving authentic, house-made soba.
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