Reiwa Soba

[This outlet is permanently closed as of December 15, 2021. Check their socials for current locations.]

I like this tiny outlet of Reiwa Soba in a small kopitiam at Block 28 Kelantan Road. In the same kopitiam, there's a homey and superb ayam penyet stall that has decent epok-epok too. Haven't tried the point-point rice/porridge stall or the wonton noodles.

It's a super cute little stall. Happy to see a new addition to the usual types of foods that are typical of kopitiam stalls. While this soba and its prices might not appeal to the residents in the area, a new generation of people would make the trip to check it out. Giggled when the food arrived. The dipping sauce tasted so local! Loads of scallions and onions. It's like, tsuyu with chilli oil. Very robust. Reiwa Soba's owner Shinji Matsudaira came up with this Thai-inspired sauce a decade ago. 

The soba is good — great texture, lovely flour ratio to water. 100% buckwheat flour is used, and the soba is made fresh daily. Gluten-free! The soba is machine-pulled though. Ah well, it's too much to expect hand-made soba in Singapore. You will definitely be able to taste the difference. Unfortunately the limited menu meant that the soba came warm, and became a litttttttle clumpy. I still prefer cold soba. I had mine with pork slices, and the man had his with chicken. The chicken were chunks of thigh dunked in the dipping sauce. He had his with extra pieces of thigh because the standard portion wasn't enough. We had kaki-age (かき揚げ) and an extra egg. 

Located underneath a residential HDB block, the kopitiam was still full at 1.30pm. The tables were well spaced out, and everyone kept to themselves. It was a breezy afternoon, making lunch very enjoyable. This outlet of Reiwa Soba is open for take-outs during this period. I think the soba would bear up well for deliveries, still gonna be clumpy though. There, one last lunch out before the restaurants closed till June 13th.

There were many old folks (likely living in the area) chilling out with their friends. At this point of their lives, many don't depend on their family, unlike the government rhetoric or directives to 'depend on family'. To them, family might be a painful memory. They depend on friends, and they do help one another. I wonder where the old folks would go to hang out next week. They might be a little lost.