Kayaba

Like all the previous reviews have said, one of the best food options at Mitsuwa! Their sets are an amazing value. Great prices and lots of food for you. I still dream about it.

Unagi-Don…try it. If you think you hate freshwater broiled eel, try this. It’s cheap and comforting.
This was a Friday night and my food was ready in less than 10 minutes… record.
I’m sure all of the food options are good, the rice is perfectly cooked.

Unagi Don is so simple but amazingly good. The eel is very soft. My favorite part was the sauce dripping into the rice, which was nicely cooked. The way Japanese make rice is slightly harder but pairs well with the soft eel. What a great combination. The miso soup and salad that came with it was less appealing in comparison.

I came here one day because they had a gyu-​don set so I ordered it and it was a little on the dry side. They don’t put as much sauce as Sanuki Sando Udon, which I still prefer for gyu-​don. The prices are pretty reasonable and they offer free hot rice/​green tea, green tea and cold lemon water.

Always a solid place to eat at Mitsuwa and reasonably priced.
I haven’t really tried the other café’s because this shop has always been consistently good! I love the combos of the day with noodles and entrée together.
I’ve been here 5 times and ⁴⁄₅ times the service was fast. Last time I went, they totally forgot and lost my order, after 20 minutes of waiting I checked with them and they admitted they have no idea where the food went. After 15 more minutse, they gave me our food but was miss one of the 3 items we ordered. After another 10 minutes, everything finally came out.
What bothered me about the last experience was that they were totally unapologetic about the situation and didn’t really give a crap that they lost the order. There was no «sorry for our mistake», the just said «We don’t know what happened to it, wait here»
You would think for a Japanese shop, there would be exceptionally friendly service, but it is unfortunately not always the case here.
Good food without good service doesn’t earn more than 3 starts in my book.

I always order their Soba + Tempura sets when I’m at Mitsuwa. It’s a very good portion for the price.
I haven’t had any luck with their rice dishes though. They may look appealing behind the glass display case but I’ve always gotten hard rice. :/

It’s probably one the faster dining shops in the plaza. I order the #50 Bento Box with no drink. Two pieces of shrimp tempura, a measly piece of grilled salmon (quite satisfying I might say), a heaping bowl of sushi rice, miso soup that taste almost like Coors light, sweet egg, some canned mandarin slices, what’s not to love. It doesn’t look like much, but its just the right amount! No need to order a drink, that’s that the free water with lemon off to the side is for!

This is THE BEST dining option in Mitsuwa. I only ate here, but its hard to imagine better cuisine than what I had. Admittedly, Im no expert on Japanese cooking but this place was as good as I believe it gets.
I dish 27 the rice/​beef with soba and pickles. The beef and onions were not overly salty, nor was the noodles in the soup. This was 10x better than even the best fast food chinese Iv ever had.
If you’re a rookie like me, be careful when ordering the green tea. When they say its sugarless and calorie-​less, they mean it. its just like green tea off the stove, with no sugar in it. I was expecting some American sugared up fun show, this was far from it. Im glad that it was.

I wanted the ramen shop but the line was way too long so this was my second option since the line wasn’t too bad and the plastic food display looked good. The pricing was not bad at all for Japanese. About $ 7 for a meal.
Beef Don — Beef was too dry and not flavorful enough.
Chicken Don — I liked this much better. They poured some sort of liquid (maybe tea?) at the bottom so the rice was moist. The chicken and eggs was a perfect combo too.
Udon — Too salty. wayyyyyy too salty and the udon noodles were too soggy.
Mandarin oranges — it tasted artificial because it was too sweet to be true but whattheheck, I loved it actually.
A-​Ok for okay food and good pricing. They also have free hot water, green tea, or rice tea. I love rice tea and I usually would drink about 10 cups but I only got one cup here because it wasn’t good at all. The green tea and rice tea barely had any difference in them. It’s like they used one tea bag for 10 gallons of water or something. Bland, bland, bland. Well, it’s free so I shouldn’t expect more right?

Another great find in the Mitsuwa Marketplace ! I came back to Kayaba during the Mitsuwa Anniversary Special and ordered the Tempura Tower 3.0 with Miso Soup and rice. Kayaba, you sure went all out on this Anniversary Special ! This entrée came with 3 Massive Shrimp Tempuras what was embedded in a bowl of rice. I waited about 15 mins for this baby and boy was it worth it.
Kayaba also serves up a good Pork Katsu over rice. Some dishes come with side orders of miso soup, and oranges. If you are not in the rice mood, you can order various types of soba or udon noodles.
For all of these reasons, Kayaba is your go-​to destination anytime you are in the Marketplace. Credit Card users beware, the entire food court area is Cash Only so make sure you have the green before you visit !

Loving all the affordable Japanese dishes Kayaba has to offer.
Complimentary tea is available. You help yourself. Plastic silverware, napkins, water, tea, cups are all within reach. Located towards the pick up window. All menu items can be viewed in their plastic food display case. They offer awesome combo meal deals. Tempura, Broiled fish Teishoku, Sushi, Tonkatsu, Udon, etc. It’s all there and yummy.
Their Soba noodles are so refreshing and smooth. Paired with Tsuyu (dipping sauce), wasabi, pickles, green onions and tempura. At about $ 7, it’s not just a filling meal. It won’t hurt your wallet too much. Their Gyu Don was a warm and comforting meal. Thinly sliced beef and onions that are slightly sweet and savory. All on top of a generous helping of rice. Came with Shichimi (ground chili pepper), Miso Soup, side Salad and Mandarin oranges.
Employees are quick and friendly. There is almost always a long line. Keep your receipt, when your order is ready they will call your number.

Kayaba ‘s cold soba noodles w/​tempura tasted exactly like the ones made in Japan. My sister and I were so happy to have found «the one». Ever since we have tried cold soba noodles in Japan, we have been craving for it since coming back to NYC. However, we have tried eating soba noodles at many of the popularly visited soba joints (ex# Soba-​ya & more), but none have identically matched our expectation. Most of the time, the cold soba served at these restaurants lacked the texture (noodles were not that elastic or chewy).
One day while grocery shopping at Mitsuwa, we stumbled upon Kayaba’s plastic food model display to see what was served at this restaurant. Once our eyes gazed at the cold soba noodles w/​mixed tempura display, we knew that we had to try it. We did not know if it would taste good or bad, but we were willing to take a risk in order to find the one that resembled what we ate in Japan. Right away, we went on the long line and ordered cold soba noodles w/​mixed tempura to share.
It was heaven at first bite! The food was authentic, and tasted delicious! While eating the food, my sister and I kept saying «this tasted exactly like the one we ate in Japan».
The soba noodle was elastic, very chewy, and not overcooked. The vegetable and shrimp tempuras were wonderful. The price for the meal was only $ 6.99, which was very reasonable especially when the meal was authentic, truly delicious, and came with a free beverage (on the right side of the cash register, you can choose from their free beverage options: cold water, hot green tea, or hot genmai tea).
Loved Kayaba’s cold soba noodles w/​tempura so much that we got right back on line to order the same meal to share. Yes, that was how good Kayaba’s soba was. Loved it so much that I will add this place to «my favorite places to go» list.
P.S — Call me crazy, but Kayaba was worth the long 2 hour travel from Brooklyn via public transportation + mitsuwa’s $ 3 bus.

I ordered a number 40, the beef udon set with a mini kitsune (udon or soba). My order came with two complementary sides, 2 blocks of tamagoyaki and a little bowl of pre-​sliced mandarins. Both dishes were extremely filling for the price and tasted pretty delicious. I think the beef tastes better with a bit of the hot sauce powder that you can get that near the utensils station. Kayaba serves complementary hot tea and cold water as well and that’s always a plus. I really enjoyed the green tea along side my meal. Overall, I had a good lunch.

Everyone always heads over to the ramen shop right next to Kayaba but this is a great alternative if there’s a line.
The prices are extremely reasonable ($ 7.50 for an udon, with shrimp tempura over rice, and a couple of sides). I really enjoyed the udon bowl, fairly large and deceiving in the smallish bowl. They also have soba and other various rice dishes here.
Free tea, water, etc. I love coming here after a long Asian shopping spree.

4.3 cuisine, +.2-.4 for the free tea
You can’t go wrong with good free tea, especially free genmaicha (Tea with brown rice)
The other really good place in Mitsuwa. Beef bowl/​Gyudon was a little salty. Chicken and Egg bowl/​Oyakodon is also quite good. The Udon here is good as well.

There are two popular noodle spots and they are right next to each other. The other had ONLY pork broth so I went to the booth over that I remember my father ordered from when I was younger… and now I know why.
I absolutely loved the soba noodle soup! Absolutely flavorful. The ONLY complaint is that the tempura batter was a bit too much for my shrimp, but everything was very flavorful and I will absolutely be back to the Mitsuwa mall for this spot!

One of the restuarants in Mitsuwa. This is the one all the way to the back of the store, closer to the water side.
Bring cash, everything is cash base here. And a hearty appetite…
I had the soba soup with shrimp tempura. I have never had this type of base soup and it was excellently delicious and very tasty. The soba had a nice texture and I didn’t feel bloated after eating this (it’s healthier). The shrimp tempura was eh, I make better shrimp tempura. The meal came with a small dessert and I think it was mango base, which was tasty that I ate it all.
They have complimentary green tea and the hot yellow water (looks like peepee), which is nice, so we didn’t have to buy water.
So much to choose from, but the soba stands out the most. This is the only restaurant there that sells great soba soup, everyone else has udon (will make you bloated).
It’s definitely worth a try.

Had lunch here earlier and we ordered the katsu don, shrimp tempura and the beef bowl Everything was good, especially the beef bowl. I just wish there was more beef that came with the rice! The line was not too bad since they just opened. Cheap and delicious, what a perfect combo!

Rainy day soup fix!
I order #5 Kakiage soba. He orders #4 Shrimp tempura soba. Lots of chili powder to sprinkle on top and free tea brings it home.
The broth is amazing. The crispy kakiage is flavorful and the soba noodles are cooked al dente. Perfect combination!

After spending an hour or so walking around Mitsuwa, we had a little bit of an appetite going so we decided to check out the food court. Finding something vegan was not too difficult at Kayaba, a soba noodle specialty restaurant. I got the #11 soba with dipping sauce and a cup of miso soup. Small enough to stave off my belly’s grumblings and tasty this was the perfect snack to re-​energize. And if you are lucky enough to score a table by the window, you get cheap, cheerful and tasty repast with a magnificent view of Upper Manhattan aka NoMa. ;)))