For a pair of diners with zero romantic involvement, Soba Totto proved the perfect refuge from the relentless Valentine’s Day spirit. Thanks to owner Ryuichi “Bobby” Munekata, the man behind upscale yakitori joints Yakitori Totto and Torys, Soba Totto is one of the few Japanese spots in town offering both top-notch soba and top-flight yakitori. In a begrudging acknowledgment of the so-called holiday, two juicy skewers of hatsu, or chicken heart, were ordered.
Out of a sense of anatomical correctness, one stick of nankotsu, or soft chicken breast cartilage, was also ordered. When it comes to cartilage, "soft" is, of course, a relative term. The nankotsu flirted with crunchiness, though not unpleasantly so. Hiza nonkotsu (chicken knee cartilage), a meaty teba (chicken wing), succulent bonchiri (chicken tails) and some perfectly grilled shishito peppers completed the yakitori sampling.
Soba Totto's menu starkly describes yakuzen soba seed okayu, as “cold medicinal rice porridge.” It sounds like something that gangsters suck down as a fortifying tonic, but it's very good medicine. Rather than the rooty concoction you might expect it’s a refreshing bowl of buckwheat, rice, pine nuts and red beans, among other things, bobbing in a cool broth that's simultaneously sweet and smoky.
The restaurant makes its buckwheat noodles fresh daily. Purists will argue that the best way to enjoy soba is simply cold with a dipping sauce. And they might just be right. The tangle of noodles that comes with the tempura soba is springy and refreshing. The tempura, which includes a pair of meaty shrimp and seasonal veggies, is excellent. For the nonpurists, there are such hot options as yamakake soba, which comes with a bowl of viscous yamakake, or ground mountain yam and a raw egg. Dump both of them into the hot soup, mix it up and slurp away. It’s far better than it looks or sounds, thanks mainly to the rich broth.
Soba Totto is most definitely worth a return visit. In fact it may warrant several more visits, if only to score enough Japanese oak charcoal, or binchotan that's in a bucket by the entrance to open a yakitori spot and give the burgeoning Totto empire some competition.
Soba Totto,211 E. 43rd St., 212-557-8200
