Kamonegi – Best Soba in Seattle

Kamonegi – Best Soba in Seattle

Recommended by: Friends we went to dinner with at Junkichi Robata Izakaya

Description on the Kamonegi website:  Our soba, traditional japanese buckwheat noodles, are made by hand in the nihachi style of 80 percent buckwheat flour and 20 percent all-purpose flour. our restaurant is one of the few in the nation to showcase handmade soba noodles. unless otherwise specified, our soba can be ordered as seiro (cold noodles with warm dipping sauce) or nanban (hot noodles in hot broth, like soup noodles). we also feature bukkake soba dishes with all toppings, noodles, and sauce together in one bowl.

Neighborhood/Type:  Fremont

Address: 1054 N 39th Ave, Seattle, WA 98103

What we ate/drank:    Creamy morel mushroom and pork belly soba,  Yakitori duck tsukune with soft egg, Shrimpcado Bukkake – shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, daikon oroshi, wasabi, Anago Tempura -(sea eel), curry salt, lemon

Comments: Update 9/22/19: Kamonegi just made Seattle Met’s 100 Best Restaurant

My wife and I were always big fans of Miyabi 45th. In fact, we had one of our first “getting-dressed-up” dates there. It was the first place, I’d ever laid my eyes on a Yamazaki Whiskey bottle for the first time. So we were heartbroken, when we heard that the chef/owner was stepping away from the restaurant, although it was to care for her daughter, so you can’t begrudge a parent for making that decision.

We were so happy to hear that Chef Mustuko Soma was opening a soba restaurant in the old Art of the Table space. We never had issues getting into Miyabi 45^th, so we decided to drop by Kamonegi on a random weekend, but the place was packed. So we tried the following weekend. Same result, it was packed. We soon learned that this Kamonegi became a “hot spot” and had to learn the hard way that you either need to get there super early or make a reservation. We were unaware that Kamonegi had accumulated some accolades over the summer.

• It was named one of the Top 50 New Restaurants in Bon Appetit Magazine in July.
• It was also featured in a New York Times article (along with Analog Coffee), What To Do in Seattle.
• A co-worker of mine also mentioned Kamonegi was featured on a popular TV show in Japan that revolves around Japanese people who move overseas and become successful, so visitors from Japan also want to visit.

We normally decide to eat out on a whim, so it was difficult to really time our visit to Kamonegi without a reservation, but we finally did.

We got there on a Friday at 3:45pm. I suggested to my wife that we just wait in the car and go in right when it opened at 4:00pm. She wasn’t having it and wanted to get to the door early and she was right. As we walked up to the door, there was a line already forming. When the doors opened, there was a total of 15 people in line.  The host asked if we had reservations. We didn’t, so the host asked if we can make it quick and get out by 5:00 because she had a reservation for our table. We had to pick up our daughter from daycare by 5:15, so we told her we’d be out by then.

The space is shaped like a triangle which makes the configuration of the restaurant a little odd and cramped. You’ve got the bar area to the right, which seats about 4 people, you have the 5 seat high counter where you can watch the chefs prepare the dishes, there are 3 seats at the middle window and to the left is the main seating area that with a wooden bench and individual tables. This area probably seats around 18 people.

Soba and Tempura are the stars here, but the dish we enjoyed the most was the Yakitori Duck Tsukune w/soft egg. This was taken from the Happy Hour menu. This is normally a $14 dish, but I believe it was $9 during Happy Hour. I love me some egg yolk. Add that with tender duck tsukune meatballs with shishito peppers and you got me licking the plate for every last drop of yolk. The next plate we had was the Anago Tempura. I’ve never had Anago(salt water eel) in this fashion before. The curry salt was a good compliment instead of the usual Tempura dipping sauce. I don’t normally get my soba in the bukkake style(cold noodles and broth), but it was super hot in Seattle the day we went, so ordering the Shrimpcado Bukkake made perfect sense. We also ordered the Morrel Mushroom and Pork Belly Soba Seiro(hot) style. This was also a hit with us. The morrel mushroom really comes through in the dipping sauce and the pork belly is so tender.  The hot dipping sauce was really concentrated and flavorful so when it came time to pour in the sobayu(the left over water from cooking the soba noodles that has the expelled nutrients that they give you later in the meal), it turned into the perfect consistency for a soup. This dish really makes me look forward to their Fall/Winter soba dishes.

Creamy morel mushroom and pork belly soba 5/5

We’re definitely interested to come back in the winter to try some of warmer soba dishes with denser soups. We’ll be making reservations in the future, because I don’t think Kamonegi is going to get any less popular.

BTW, “Kamonegi” is Japanese proverb used when a stroke of luck happens. The literal translation is “a duck comes along carrying a leek on its back”.  Duck soup is made with duck and leeks, so having the two main ingredients appear at once is a stroke of luck. That explains the duck and leek on their signage.

UPDATE: 3/19/20 -Take out during the COVID-19 Shutdown

Ratings:

Atmosphere: 4.75

Service: 5

Food/Drinks: 5

Bang for the Buck: 5 (hand made soba, cmon! If you want a true appreciation of what you’re eating see the video below)

Overall:  4.85

Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.

• • Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
  • Most locals know about it
  • Locals “in the know” know about it
  • Only those who live close by know about it.
  • You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!

Eavesdropping Convos: None. But here’s a Youtube video of the chef making the soba

Servers recommendations to visit in the future:  The hostess at Kamonegi mentioned Kokkaku in Miyabi 45th former location, as having interesting presentations on Wagyu beef and staying within the Japanese food theme.

Related Articles:

• What Visitors Think of Seattle – Japan(36 F)
• Kokkaku
• Hokkaido Ramen Santouka – Best Ramen in Seattle
• Battle of the Seattle Ramen Restaurants