“Ramen Prefecture, Soba Kingdom Yamagata” For the people of Yamagata Prefecture, soba is a more familiar presence compared to people from other prefectures.
Some may have acquaintances who are soba-making masters, or they may have experienced making soba during school events.
Additionally, a unique soba culture has flourished here with dishes unusual to city dwellers, such as “cold meat soba” and “mori soba with squid tempura.”
Amid such a backdrop, the “Soba no Yamakku” introduced this time is a delicious soba restaurant in Yamagata known among those in the know—a place that feels like B-class leaning towards A-class, or rather, A-class leaning towards B-class.

A restaurant that’s hard to find at first glance

The reason it is said to be a shop ‘known to those in the know’ is that the store is located deep within the grounds of the Yamagata Regional Forestry Cooperative office, and its entrance is at the back of a direct sales store, making it hard to find.

Inside the door at the top right, there is an L-shaped counter with six seats.

When talking about this shop, what cannot be avoided are the lines and the rules for waiting for your turn.

Basically, you can’t get in without standing in line! An explanation of the unwritten rules for waiting your turn

As shown in the photo, there is a waiting area covered with polycarbonate in front of the entrance. When the inside of the restaurant is full, you wait by sitting in the available chairs. Recently, it seems that the order is decided counterclockwise starting from the seat closest to the door.

When people finish eating and leave, that many people can enter, but if there are many, you may not necessarily be able to sit together in order.

For example, if 2 people leave and a group of 3 is waiting, either 2 people go in first, or the group of 3 waits without entering. At this time, it is against the rules to enter first just because the next person is alone. Of course, an exception is made if the person ahead says, ‘Please go ahead.’

There is a notice on the door saying, ‘Due to the small size of the shop, we ask that customers with children refrain from entering,’ but for children in upper elementary school or older who can sit by themselves and quietly finish a regular portion, they probably would not be refused.

The menu is only ‘Tenmori’, regular or large serving

Tempura Soba (regular serving)

Yamaku’s menu currently only offers Tempura Soba Mori in a regular portion (1,000 yen including tax) or a large portion (1,200 yen including tax). In the past, during winter, they also had hot tsuyu shrimp tempura soba, but the current menu is solely “Tempura Soba Mori.”

The soba is not “handmade,” but after repeated trials with a noodle manufacturer, they arrived at the current “2:8 soba,” which has a smooth texture and a distinct soba flavor.

The menu itself is very simple, but the flow of ordering and serving has a unique atmosphere characteristic of this shop.

Some small rules when ordering

Even though there are no absolute rules for ordering, since the shop is run by a single owner (who handles cooking, serving, and cleaning), once an order is taken and cooking begins, they won’t start preparing a new order until the current one is finished and served. So it’s okay to wait until after they ask, “What would you like?”

To place an order, just say “regular serving” or “large serving”!

In the slightly sweet broth, tempura bits with small shrimp and green onions are a must, but the tempura bits can be left out if you prefer. (I once tried eating it without them out of curiosity, but I think it definitely tastes better with them.)

After a short while, the tempura is served first, followed by the soba noodles.

For the enjoyable “soba-yu” after finishing the soba, if you call out to the shop owner saying “please,” they will add extra tempura bits and pour it directly into your bowl for you.

The tempura changes daily

Tempura is basically different every day, and the three items of the day are written on the whiteboard inside the restaurant, but in reality, four items are actually served.
Once, a customer was going to give up and leave because it was incredibly crowded, but they peeked at the whiteboard from the window to see what today’s items were, and found a super rare shrimp tempura, so they ended up lining up at the back (laughs).

Basically, there is one item of fish or meat, such as kiss (Japanese whiting), red sea bream, or chicken.
For vegetables, one or two items are chosen from sweet potato, shishito peppers, green beans, etc.
Besides that, fruits, wild plants, or ingredients that are rarely eaten as tempura are also served deliciously by the owner, who boasts that “there is nothing that can’t be made into tempura.”

By the way, what I had the other day was “thick omelet,” slightly sweet and delicious.
Other items include “bracken fern,” “chrysanthemum greens,” “tofu,” “figs,” “apple,” and so on—dishes that can only be seen here.

Summary

My daughter, although a ‘person from the Soba Kingdom,’ doesn’t particularly like soba and won’t willingly eat it, but ‘Yamaku’ is an exception. Whenever we return to Yamagata, she always requests to be taken there. She has been visiting since she was an upper-grade elementary school student, and the owner even greets her, so she pretends to be quite a regular customer (laughs).

I heard from the owner that when the shop first opened, due to its location and appearance, people misunderstood it as a standing soba shop, which caused some difficulties. However, now, having heard the rumors, even customers from Sendai come to visit.

Here is the information for Yamakku’s soba shop