Chiryu, Aichi, Japan｜Sojibo

When I came to Sojibo for the first time in a long time, there was a menu with several toppings to choose from. The clerk also frequently gave me refills of cold tea. You can't go wrong with the cold soba here.

Large shrimp tempura & white rice & grated sweet potato. For some reason, I wanted to eat roro rice, so I added two toppings.

The taste is ok, but don't expect just the taste since it's a chain restaurant specializing in soba located in the corner food court of the big Apita. However, there are many points of interest, so I would like to explain them. First of all, I like that there are chubby but clean-looking female clerks moving around. The manager of a restaurant understands that a chubby employee makes more money than a skinny one. This alone will make ``ordinary-tasting soba'' 10 to 20% more delicious. What's more, the chubby person seems to be a good mix of the "rough" type and the "meddlesome" type, so the atmosphere on the clerk's side is not bad. The manager here is probably someone who has a long history of customer service and is good at managing people. Next, the signature menu item ``soba'' is average, but I like the fact that the side dishes are delicious. The standard side dishes at soba restaurants, such as tempura and mixed rice, are delicious. I think this is down to the skill of the kitchen. Soba is a simple dish that just involves boiling it, serving it, and serving it with the pre-made sauce in a bowl, so there are restaurants in front of the station that serve kake soba for around 300 yen and high-end restaurants that serve kake soba for 1000 yen. I don't think the difference in taste is as much as the price. A soba restaurant cannot attract customers based on the taste of its soba. Only a minority of people can tell the difference between the tastes of soba. If it caters to the minority, it cannot do business. That's why this restaurant stands out by giving up on the taste of soba and focusing on side dishes. Also, because the restaurant is called a soba restaurant, there are many elderly people and few young people. This is also the case with soba restaurants in front of stations, but compared to udon restaurants, the average age of the customers at soba restaurants is older and the atmosphere is calmer. I don't know if quiet people like soba, but it's just so cozy. This is probably due to the unique customer base of the soba restaurant, but the customer base is so different from Saizeria across the street that I can't help but feel the deepness of "Gallerie Apita". In that respect, it deserves a 5 star rating.