A close look at Sarashina, a long-established soba restaurant in Gifu Prefecture that has been in business for over 100 years!

The restaurant is known for its cold tanuki soba, a specialty that 90% of customers order!

Once you try it, you'll never forget it! Gifu-meshi is a must for repeat customers!

It takes one hour to get here from Mie Prefecture. Delicious tempura soba!

Yummy! Sweet fried bean curd, delicious. It's already become a habit. This is Gifu soul food.

Sarashina, where chilled tanuki soba is served in seconds, was amazing... Gifu, Japan.

Kyomachi, Gifu City
A small road off Prefectural Road 152. Loved by locals since 1928.
Sarashina is a long-established soba restaurant.

5:41 AM. Owner: Mr. Mizuno, 62 years old. Preparation begins with making dashi stock. To preserve the flavor, Mizuno-san has been making it every morning for nearly 20 years.

Lye is carefully removed.  The dashi stock is made with muro-aji mackerel, urume iwashi, and bonito.

Boil and simmer for about 50 minutes. This is muro-aji. There are two kinds of this.

This is urume iwashi. (Staff) Are you going to put it in the broth like this?

No, I'm going to scrape it off and put it in. (Staff) So you're going to shave it off.

(Staff) Do you always start at this time every morning? (5:00 AM) Yes, I do.

(Staff) What generation are you, Mizuno-san? I'm the third generation. The store started in 1928.

At that time, it was in a place called Yanagigase. The place burned down during the war, so we moved here.

Take out the kelp. Cover the colander on the skimmer with a cloth. Umami seasoning "Inoichiban" contains sodium glutamate, etc.

Strain the soup stock. Return the strained soup stock to the kettle. Using a container, measure the quantity of dashi stock and return it to the kettle.

Strain the broth from the next kettle as well. Flavor enhancer containers washed and tidied.

Prepare small containers. Cover an empty skimmer with a double layer of cloth. Sugar. Light soy sauce.

Put in the first soup stock, mirin (sweet sake), salt, and oikikatsuo (hana-katsuo). This is for hot cooking sauce.

Taste check. Warm cooking broth is finely strained through a double layer of cloth. Strain warm cooking broth into small portions.

Dashi stock is divided into small portions and cooled in cold water. Dashi broth for hot dishes is ready.

Shaved shavings are used to make dashi broth No. 2 for miso stew and other dishes.

Aged Kaeshi. Kaeshi is added to No. 1 soup stock. Kaeshi is added to No. 1 dashi broth to make tsuyu for chilled dishes.

Dried bonito is also added to the soup for chilled dishes. Strain the dipping sauce. Strain the sauce for chilled dishes, and divide into small portions.

Soup divided into small portions, chilled. Soup for chilled dishes is ready. Preparation of tsuyu and dashi stock is completed.

Kettle is washed and cleaned up. Hojicha (roasted tea). Tea leaves are packed in a drawstring and placed in hot water.

Tea is made by mixing hojicha and barley tea. Finished tea is cooled in a water cooler.

Tea preparation is completed. 7:07 1st floor, kitchen. Kake soup stock for hot dishes, prepared first thing in the morning.

Sugar. Making broth for simmering fried bean curd, with plenty of sugar, to make it sweet.

Add some thick, cold cooking broth to taste. Abura-age (fried tofu) (Staff) Roughly how much do you make at one time?

Fried tofu is about this much, isn't it? I'm dividing that into five equal parts.

That frying... About 600 a day. (Staff) About how many servings? Roughly 300 pieces or so.

That's usually cooked twice in the morning. About 500-600 servings of fried fish are cooked and prepared.

It doesn't look like it's going to rain. (Staff) Pretty much, does it make a difference if it rains, or does it bring in different customers?

Yes, it depends on the weather and temperature. I'm usually very busy in the summer.

When it's a little chilly, it's free. When it's hot, I can't stop.

On weekends, there are many customers. Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Put the cooked fried fish into a container.

The second bag of fried fish is also stewed. Preparation of fried fish is completed. Preparation of pickles...

Pickles ready. Rice sharpened. Set rice in rice cooker. Prepare for noodle making. Noodle making process on the second floor. All noodles are made in-house.

Soba noodle making. Mixing with mixer. Two kinds of buckwheat flours are blended. Hot water...

Prepare tools. Remove dough from mixer. Wraps in cloth and flattens in machine. Flattened dough is cut into 2 equal pieces.

Stretching with noodle-making machine. Soba dough is stretched through a noodle-making machine twice to make it firm.

Set in machine to cut. One wooden box makes about 20 large servings. About 600 cups of soba noodles are made.

Dividing the work, they proceed to make more and more noodles. Soba noodle cutting is completed.

Finished soba noodles are carried to the first-floor kitchen. The elevator takes them down.

Soba noodles are prepared in the first-floor kitchen. Soba preparation is complete. Udon noodle making begins.

Udon noodles are made from different flours depending on the dish. Mixing with a mixer.

The mixed dough is put directly into the noodle-making machine. The dough is formed into thin strips.

The thinly stretched dough is cut. Udon noodle making is complete. Komatsuna is prepared for topping. Boiling water is poured over the toppings to lightly heat them.

They're rinsed with cold water. Tenkasu preparation (Staff): What are you looking at to determine doneness?

Things like the color and the sound of the oil. Too much color, the color will deepen as it sits,

so fry it like this. By the time it cools, it'll be just right.

Homemade tenkasu is topped on the chilled tanuki. When the kitchen is busy, tempura continues to be fried until 12:00 in the second-floor kitchen.

Homemade tenkasu, homemade soba, and a strong, flavorful tsuyu (sauce) are all prepared to make the one-of-a-kind Tanuki Soba.

Tenkasu preparation is complete. Rice is cooked. It's transferred to a jar while being fluffed to prevent hardening.

Rice is ready. Kamaboko (fish paste) and shrimp tempura preparation begins. Prawns are shelled and shaped.

Tempura batter is made. Prawns are battered and deep-fried. Ebi tempura preparation is complete. Employees are cleaning.

Carefully wiping down the menu list... Each table is carefully wiped down one by one.  Make sure the powder hasn't hardened.

Apply the door grooves carefully, all the way to the corners. Mop with water, and cleaning is complete.

Chair is taken down. Restocking disposable chopsticks. Preparing tea at the table. Tea is ready. Wiping the acrylic plates.

Preparing tenkasu for the cooking area.  Adding powdered wasabi. Adding water and kneading. Wasabi preparation complete.

Prepared fried food is in the kitchen. Before opening, cool the vessels with cold water.

Toppings, green onions, and wasabi are set in an easily accessible position. Putting on an apron and getting ready.

Tsuyu, tenkasu, and fried items are ready for the cooking area. Udon noodles are being boiled.

(Staff) How long do you boil udon noodles? Udon noodles are about 25 minutes.

Boil slightly longer. Check the doneness. Boil udon noodles, then drain in cold water to firm them up.

Rinse well to remove surface slime from the udon. Firm udon noodles are ready.

Udon noodles are ready. Soba noodles are boiled in time for opening. Soba noodles are checked for doneness and lifted into a colander.

Soba noodles are also rinsed with cold water and ready. 10:22 Customers are lining up in front of the store before opening.

Parking lot in front of the store: 14 car spaces. Parking lot behind the store: 8 car spaces.

Private parking lot. Hours of operation: 10:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Last order 5:45 p.m.)

Closed every Thursday. Warm wood interior. Three long tables, 31 seats, mostly shared seating.

There is also a tatami room with six tables and 36 seats. Chilled tanuki (regular): 680 yen (large, W): 780 yen

Miso-nikomi udon (regular): 840 yen. Nabayaki udon (regular): 840 yen

Egg rice topped with egg (regular) 680 yen
Kitsune-don or Haikara-don (regular) 730 yen

Oyako-don/Kinoha-don (regular) 780 yen
Kayaku gohan 200 yen

Seasonings
Shichimi, Ichimi
10:30 opening. Cold tanuki soba (double) with 2 extra tempura pieces.

The first customer orders cold tanuki without looking at the menu. Cold tanuki orders come in one after another.

Soba noodles are served in a bowl.  Negi, wasabi, and sweet-cooked fried tofu.

Pour dipping sauce over. Sprinkle tenkasu on top. Chilled tanuki (double) with 2 extra fried pieces, completed in less than 5 minutes after opening.

Cold tanuki (double deep-fried) is made quickly. Chilled tanuki...

A man in a suit orders a double cold tanuki. Cold tanuki double. Wasabi mixed with tsuyu...

Sipping buckwheat noodles with a firm texture. Toss tenkasu and green onion. Eat it with gusto!

And enjoy the sauce... Finished eating. Enjoying soba in 10 minutes and leaving the restaurant. More than 90% of customers order cold tanuki. To make sure the soba isn't interrupted, additional soba is also boiled.

They also keep the bowls chilled. Oyako-don (regular), 2 extra tempura pieces are added.

Soba noodles are soaked in sauce, soba noodles are slurped at once. A simple dish, but addictive taste, chopsticks don't stop...

Both of us finish the meal beautifully. No measuring tape is used, but he serves buckwheat noodles in a bowl by sense.

Put fried tofu on top of soba and pour dipping sauce. Top with tenkasu (tempura scraps).

Yes, excuse me, here you go. Cold tanuki (chilled). Chilled tanuki + raw egg added.

Yes, sorry, the one with egg drop (with egg). Adjustment of hot water in kettle.

Two small cups of chilled natto. Small cup of chilled tanuki. Here you go. Make miso nikomi udon.

In a small pot, add ingredients and soup stock. Miso paste is added and simmered in the soup stock.

Miso-nikomi udon is made with flat noodles. The thick miso flavor is mixed well with the udon noodles.

Served hot with lid on. Yes, excuse me, thank you for your patience. Sprinkle shichimi on the table.

Hot rice, served hot. Miso soup with dashi broth is also served. Nabeyaki with Tamayaki (egg) and Kayaku (rice), 2.

Udon noodles. Measure amount of noodles in small pan, heat again with hot water. Drain off hot water thoroughly.

Pouring No. 2 soup stock... Blend noodles and soup stock. Deep-fried tofu. Topped with ingredients and simmered.

Yes, excuse me. Nabeyaki. May I take the lid off? Nabeyaki udon, kayaku gohan.

The kitchen divides up the work and processes more and more orders. Cold tanuki (extra large). 3 more fried pieces.

１５秒の高速提供で800杯が消える！客の９割が注文する特大めしが衝撃過ぎた

１５秒の高速提供で800杯が消える！客の９割が注文する特大めしが衝撃過ぎた