Tokamachi, Niigata, Japan｜Soba no Sato Abuzaka

Tokamachi’s Abuzaka, an obanzai-style restaurant surrounded by rice fields, provides unlimited vegetable side dishes along with your choice of homemade hegi soba (made with funori seaweed) or udon (partial rice flour) for ¥1500! The side dishes are fresh and delicious, from locally sourced ingredients, with, among others, superb tempura and a standout daikon pickle that I couldn’t get enough of. And they give you a free homemade daifuku for the road. Tokamachi is an unheralded location for high quality, locally sourced food at countryside prices. You couldn’t even get this meal in NYC for $75.

Traditional Hegi Soba with new buffet style lunch menu 1500 yen. Free wifi is also available.

Some good points, some not so good, but that's to be expected, and the good far outweighed the bad. Far out in the country, unless you live nearby. A decent wait time, but it was the end of summer vacation for many people. Pretty good soba noodles, and some of the freshest veggies I've ever had in Japan. My new favorite "tabehodai" (all-you-can-eat) restaurant in the Niigata area - for about 1500 yen, I got the soba noodles and access to the salad bar, which had 8-10 dishes that changed every few minutes. It was a busy day for them, so the different traditional dishes were replaced with new ones often. Outstanding food, and good staff, too. Highly recommended.