The location at 231 E. 50th Street, between Second and Third avenues, is the chef’s “first New York City restaurant since Sarashina Horii closed (if you know, you know),” reads the Resy listing. “Expect exceptional personal service and noodles worthy of worship.” Eater has reached out to learn more.
The Midtown soba shop joins a small but growing contingent of places to get excellent soba in New York. This includes Uzuki in Greenpoint from Shuichi Kotani, who supplies noodles to places like Yakitori Torishin and Momokawa, and has instructed Eleven Madison Park chefs on how to make soba noodles. Soba is so revered partly because buckwheat is a gluten-free whole grain and it’s difficult to work with. Uzuki’s Kotani called it “the impossible noodle.”
The first NYC Sarashina Horii from ninth generation owner Yoshinori Horii debuted in Flatiron in 2021. It was the first time its noodles were served outside of Japan, where there are a handful of locations of the shop that’s apparently been around since 1789. The windup to the original New York spot was two years in the making. That the Tokyo noodles were featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations built momentum for their U.S. arrival.
Sarashina Horii sold its namesake sarashina soba — slightly sweeter and more aromatic than traditional soba. Horii’s noodles are made through a lengthy process that involves shucking the buckwheat husks, Hori told Eater when the Flatiron location opened. The high-labor process came about for Japanese royalty during the Edo period, approximately between the 17th to 19th centuries.
Perhaps the Hori location will parallel the offerings at Sarashina Horii, which featured soba served hot or chilled with additions like shrimp tempura and duck with leeks. Horii recommended trying them cold first to taste the flavor nuances. The restaurant also sold mori soba, made with a buckwheat blend. Noodles were sold a la carte or as part of a $100 tasting menu with sashimi, tempura, and an entree. Other items included sushi rolls and soft-shell crab tempura.
That location was operated by Create Restaurants — a hospitality group in Japan with some 800 restaurants in its portfolio. It closed in conjunction with sibling restaurants Aburiya Kinnosuke and Soba Totto, both in Midtown.
