EAT > Ryan, Tokyo

Did someone say Soba? Ryan is not quite your standard Tokyo noodle stop. It is a stylish room with tables as well as bar seating, seating is comfortable and you can easily settle in for something of a session here. And let us be clear this is not a ¥900 noodle bar, this is a fine dining establishment.

Ryan is part of the Tyson restaurant group who own a number of other smart eateries such as Cicada (Modern Mediterranean, just up the road in Aoyama) and T.Y.Harbor (the original Brew Pub in Shinagawa which opened in 1997).

While Ryan is only a few blocks away from the busy Shibuya Toei Plaza and Shibuya Station (gate B3) but it feels the street is almost residential, gone the are the crush of people all rushing from one place to the next and instead it becomes a quiet street with a few taxi’s and black cat deliveries. For those who like to indulge in a “Whoopi Goldburger” (you know who you are) it is less than a block away.

Ryan opened in 2016 and the perfect execution of the food, the quality of attention to service and the sense of excellence is there from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave.

A visit in early January was the perfect opportunity for a lunch with friends we decided that we would have the Lunch Short Course which has three dishes followed by Soba and finally a desert.

First course was soba tofu, a slightly strange dish to my palate the cold silky tofu served with daikon, and a nut that looked like pistachio’s but weren’t (and I forgot to ask what they were). Different but I definitely enjoyed it.

Second course was Tuna and avocado tartare topped with fresh horseradish, this was delicious and quite a familiar combination (well perhaps not with the horseradish) there was a little kick and the delicious cubes of tuna coated in avocado slipped down a treat.

Third course was Chawanmushi with flower vegetable, cod roe and mullet roe. Chawanmushi is a Japanese savoury egg custard the vegetable sat on top of the custard and the roe sat on the bottom of the bowl. Silky, salty and very tasty another excellent dish.

We added a tempura dish which was Whiting Tempura it arrived a small piece of fish resting on a piece of nori paper on a bright red plate. We were instructed to wrap the fish in the seaweed and eat it with our hands. OH WOW this was just sensational, I would go back to Ryan just to have the Whiting Tempura, you should also go to Ryan to have the Whiting Tempura, it is worth flying to Tokyo for (believe me).

I would go back to Ryan just to have the Whiting Tempura, you should also go to Ryan to have the Whiting Tempura, it is worth flying to Tokyo for (believe me).

Then we had Monkfish tempura with nori seaweed, monkfish liver and kumquat. After the whiting it was going to be hard act to follow. Once again served on a piece of nori the tempura monkfish had the monkfish liver on top and then a couple of pieces of kumquat. It was crunchy, smooth, rich and bitter. Something of a rollercoaster each bite took you through a range of complex food sensations, really clever and a good dish.

Soba – the soba is a traditional noodle made with buckwheat flour and the Ryan style of soba uses 9 parts of buckwheat to 1 part of wheat flour which is smooth has just a little bite to it and a delicious flavour. The soba is dipped into a Dashi sauce, which they tell us is made from two year matured and dried bonito.

After you have finished eating the soba noodles the remaining dipping dashi is mixed with ‘soba-yu’ which is the hot starchy water used to boil the soba noodles. Said to contain lots of vitamins, proteins and and antioxidents it creates a really delicious soup.

Our new challenge to the world, 
is to make a soba that even the Japanese thunder god would like to eat

Shimpei Terada, President Tysons & Company

Dessert was Monaka rice wafers filled with sweet red beans and then with some strawberry and fermented butter paste on the top. You take the two wafers and it eat it much like an icecream sandwich and it was lovely.

We drank a Domaine d’Henri Premier Cru Chablis from Michel Laroche 2018 which was a perfect match to the first dishes and then transitioned to a bottle very interesting Japanese Pinot Noir from Shinshu Takayama. Both excellent recommendations from the sommelier.

Ryan is not your classic Soba lunch place rather it is a fine dining restaurant that challenges you to think of Soba as a perfect dish and it makes a great way to spend the afternoon. The lunch short course is ¥4,500, there is also a lunch omakase course for ¥6,500. You will be able to choose the way you want the Soba and there are heaps of different add ons you can order. The chilled soba served with a dipping sauce starts at ¥1,000. Ryan is also open for dinner.