Soba Totto

Eating "soba" noodles on New Year's Eve is a Japanese tradition. For 2006, we went to Sobaya in East Village to close out the year. But we were not overly impressed. So as 2007 came to an end, we wanted to try a different noodle shop in Manhattan. When we heard about the opening of Soba Totto in Midtown-East, we thought we'll give it a try and made a reservation.

Soba Totto is the fourth restaurant in New York opened by the company that owns/manages Yakitori Totto, Toris, and Aburiya Kinnosuke. It goes without saying that our expectation was quite high. And the rumor had it that the restaurant went to Japan to bring a well regarded "soba shoku-nin" to run the kitchen.

When we went, the restaurant had been opened for a week. So the service was not fully polished; which was expected. At the same time, the restaurant is a sister restaurant to the other three establishments - all with good reputation. So they should be experienced with opening restaurants in Manhattan.

Although we initially went to have soba noodles, we decided to order yakitori as well after reviewing the menu. But when we tried to order, a lot of the yakitori items was "sold-out." For example, nankotsu, tebata, kimo, and others were not available that night. Perhaps we should have stopped there and stuck with our original plan to simply have soba noodles. But we didn't and tried to have some that were available - tsukune (tare and shio), mune, and karaage. To finish the dinner, we order zaru-soba.

Tsukune (tare) and mune came soon after we ordered. They were both good - tender meat and cooked well. But then the problems started. The staff began to bring items that we did not order. Then our zaru-soba came before we got our other orders. We asked them to take back the zaru-soba and bring our other orders first (yes, we were picky about the order in which we eat our food, especially to finish everything with soba noodles). Then we waited, waited, and waited. Asked about our orders and they kept saying "soon." After about 30 minutes, we finally gave up and asked to cancel the orders, simply to bring our zaru-soba.

When we finally got our zaru-soba, the excitement was gone. Have to admit, the noodles were good. But our whole dining experience was ruined. As we got ready to leave, we asked for the manager for explanation. Apparently, the staff punched in the wrong table number with our order, causing the confusion. Well... the manager did try to compensate us with "complimentary" dessert. But we were not in the mood, so we kindly refused, asked for our check and left.

Oh, and one other thing. The table next to ours was a group of six Japanese people that were very loud the whole time. Understandably, some noise is expected in a place like this. But this table was beyond noise. And to top it off, they got one of the restaurant wait staff to do a "split" (as in both legs going the opposite... a dance routine) right there in the restaurant - right in front of our eyes. The staff apparently was a dancer in New York and one of the guests at the table was also a dancer. But it is simply unacceptable for a staff person to behave this way in a restaurant. Of course we mentioned this to the manager. To their credit, the staff person immediately came to our table to apologize.

Perhaps we should give them the benefit of the doubt as they get their house in order. The noodles were good and would go back again, in spite of the service issues.

Soba Totto211
211 East 43rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave)
212-557-8200