A note on the words: soba are buckwheat noodles; tanuki soba is soba in hot broth topped with tenkasu, the crisp scraps of batter left over from frying tempura; tsuyu is the soy-and-dashi broth; kake soba is the plain bowl and niku soba the one with meat; a shokudo is a plain, everyday canteen. Many such shops sell you a ticket from a vending machine before you sit down. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Soba Shokudo Ikechi on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
I had business at Itabashi police station and it did not look like finishing any time soon. Perhaps I should eat first and think afterwards — and looking around, I found a soba shop!
Have I seen this somewhere before?
I remembered! This was it: “Drunk Dragon Tsukaji no Furatto Tachigui Soba”, a Japanese television programme about standing soba shops.
I am fairly sure it appeared on that. Some kind of fate, so in we go.
Tanuki soba — 620 yen
Kake soba — 540 yen
Curry soba — 690 yen
Niku soba — 780 yen
The menu, in any case, is enormous.
Rice bowls, ramen, youlin chicken, even a house taco rice — anything you like.
Being close to the ward office and the police station, it would be a very good place to eat every day. If you had a different dish each day, how many months would it take to get through them all?
I wanted something comforting, so: hot tanuki soba.
It was exactly lunchtime, and every seat was taken.
I bought my meal ticket, waited a while, and was then asked by the staff whether I minded sharing a table.
I did not mind at all, and when I said so, they went and asked the seated customers as well whether they minded sharing. I had been intending to speak up myself once my bowl was ready — but in fact they had held off cooking it at all until they could see a seat free up.
Thank you!
A single seat opened up just then, so I said it was fine now and took it.
Mmm, that smell.
It has warmed up lately, but at this time of year a hot bowl is still good to eat.
A generous quantity of tenkasu melts into the broth, and that gives the sweetish, well-stocked tsuyu some punch. Just drinking the broth is a comfort in itself!
The soba goes down well too. Thin, supple noodles with the broth soaking slowly into them. The tenkasu keeps its crispness at first, then gradually drinks up the broth and turns soft, so that it never gets dull, right to the last mouthful. Tanuki soba — I cannot give it up.
If you can drop in casually and eat a bowl of tanuki soba like this, of course everyone comes.
The television programme, as I recall, told the story of a brother and sister who had worked at Fuji Soba and set out to build a canteen for everyone. The staff are friendly and the room feels warm. The hot tanuki soba was good, but I probably will not have it again for a while. From here on it is the season for chilled tanuki!
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Soba Shokudo Ikechi (soba / Itabashi-kuyakushomae Station, Shimo-Itabashi Station, Oyama Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
