Getting to experience restaurants exactly as they are in Japan is not an anomalous experience in New York, which is such a privilege for the Japanophiles among us. The features I appreciate in many of the restaurants I visited in Japan include their minimalist decor, serenity, focus on the flavor of the ingredients without relying too heavily on seasoning or sauces that can overpower, and plentiful seafood. Soba Ulala had all of these in spades.
I absolutely love uni and was so excited it was heavily featured on their menu. My friend and I shared the uni & lobster chawanmushi, the uni and ikura chilled soba, fried squid legs, hotate itasawa, and a hot soup soba with chicken and mushrooms. The chawanmushi and chilled soba were full of umami and my favorite bites on the table (not a coincidence that these were the two dishes featuring uni), followed by the fried squid legs.
The chicken and mushroom soba in soup was a little too light in flavor for my palate and the hotate itawasa was more like a scallop cake that didn't have any discernible scallop flavor. I wasn't familiar with this preparation of scallop before having it here so I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to taste. Given their attention to detail I imagine it tastes exactly the way it's supposed to and I was just taken by surprise by it.
If you want to be transported straight to the streets of Nagano or Tokyo (where soba originates from), you could do worse than a visit to Soba Ulala, where they have little touches like a hot towel for you to clean your hands with at the start of the meal and a Totto bidet to make you feel like you never left Japan. read more