If you ask which restaurant is the most famous in Karuizawa, it would probably be the French place Auberge de Primavera. Not only did it appear in The Drops of God, it makes it into most of the gourmet guidebooks even though it isn’t in Tokyo. But going to a French restaurant on my own felt a bit awkward, and Primavera was closed that day anyway, so I headed for the second most famous place: a soba shop called Kawakamian.
The front
It’s a place built around soba that also serves à la carte dishes and drinks. Once I stepped inside, I could see why it’s popular. The interior is stylish in a way you don’t expect from a soba shop, with jazz playing in the background. The service is at the level of a top restaurant, and what comes out isn’t slapdash cooking but proper Shinshu soba, though the prices are steep to match. One tray of soba, one drink and one à la carte dish will easily take you past 3,000 yen.
There is terrace seating too.
The weather was nice and cool, so I wanted to sit on the terrace as well, but having come alone I figured I shouldn’t ask for too much.
Instead of water or green tea, they bring you buckwheat tea.
Oh… now this is the real deal. That’s how a soba shop should be ^_^
I spent a good while looking over the menu trying to decide, but when you’re on your own there really isn’t much to order. So I went for the tempura zaru soba, ‘jo’ grade, at 2,100 yen, which looked like the safest choice and was what lots of people at the tables around me were eating. The regular one is 1,860 yen, but the jo comes with one more prawn, so it’s the better deal.
A tray of zaru soba
Shinshu soba tends to be on the rugged side, so it’s not really my style, but when it’s done as properly as it is here, I have no complaints. Lovely aroma, lovely texture in the mouth. It’s a bit of a shame, though, that on top of the high price you have to pay 540 yen for an extra tray.
The tempura from the tempura zaru soba
I was genuinely stunned to see the two huge prawns putting a cobra twist on each other on the plate. The photo doesn’t really get the size across, but they were close to 20 cm. On top of that they were so fresh that the flesh was firm and springy, and I could happily eat the rich, savoury innards in the heads without the slightest hesitation.
My verdict after the first bite was that I’d never need to go to Tsunahachi again. It’s not that their frying skills are much worse, but Tsunahachi doesn’t use monster prawns like these. And not just the prawns: every single piece of tempura was a work of art. The chewy mushroom and the piping-hot aubergine especially stuck with me. Ahh… this is exactly when you want a drink with your meal… but drinking alone after travelling all that way felt a bit much, so I held back. I suppose once I’m more of a middle-aged guy I’ll stop caring about that sort of thing.
This place has a branch in Azabu-Juban. The gourmet guidebooks’ verdict on the branch is ‘tasty, but expensive’. Still, it has the advantage of staying open late at night, and since the food is this good, I made up my mind to go there at least once if I got the chance.
This is the soba-yu.
When you’ve finished, you pour it into the dipping sauce and drink it. But this soba-yu is unusual. Unlike the typical soba-yu in Tokyo, it’s really thick, so thick you can feel bits of buckwheat in it. It suited my taste perfectly, so that’s bonus points. I really felt it was worth coming to Karuizawa.
After a filling meal I wandered around for a while, then went to a bakery I’d spotted that morning to have something for dessert.
This is the place.
Across from this bakery there’s another bakery that advertises that John Lennon once visited… but it didn’t look very tempting. When I went to buy the bread I’d had my eye on that morning, oh no, it had already sold out. I hadn’t bought it beforehand because I was planning a big lunch, but sure enough, with popular bread you have to grab it early or you miss out.
Besides that, wine and jam are local specialities in Karuizawa, and they were on sale everywhere. The wine was so-so, but the jam was pretty good. A tourist spot with proper places to eat always makes you want to come back. Now that I know what Karuizawa is like, next time I’ll come properly prepared (maybe even bring a suit and go to the French restaurant).