Soba Totto

With the great weather we've been having in the city lately, I couldn't resist venturing out of the office and taking a nice long lunch.  On this particular day, I stopped by Soba Totto in Midtown East for a bite.

Main entrance to Soba Totto

As with most lunch places in Midtown East, there was a bit of a crowd during the peak lunch time.  Luckily, our wait was short (<10 minutes)  and we were seated quickly.  As you walk through, you'll notice that the restaurant is nicely decorated with lots of dark wood.  The sushi bar area looks great!  It's only when you sit down at your table that you notice how tightly packed the tables are...

Bar area / waiting room on the side

Sushi bar on one side and table dining on the other side

Looking at the menu, you can see that there are a lot of options to choose from:

Dining Compadre and I both decided on the Okame (w/fishcake, rolled egg, shiitake mushroom, and fried bean curd) Hot Soba lunch set.  The lunch set, for and extra $2 to your meal, includes a salad, pickle, appetizer, and rice.

First to arrive was the salad.  Sad to report that there were no tomatoes, but they did include these crunchy noodle things on top so that was nice.  Other than the crunchies, it ws a pretty simple side salad.  

First up - salad!

After a pretty long wait and us having to ask about our food (which is odd given that Midtown lunches are usually pretty efficient), our orders finally came out yay!

Okame Hot Soba with shredded radish appetizer, pickle, and rice

While the broth was pretty tasty, I was disappointed in the noodles.  I'm sure they're homemade by the restaurant, but to be honest they felt and tasted like packaged noodles.  The shredded radish appetizer and pickle were uninspiring and the bowl of rice unnecessary.  The lunch set was definitely not worth it.  I did enjoy the toppings though!  At least I picked the soba with good toppings...

Overall, I was disappointed in my total experience at Soba Totto.  While decorated nicely, the tables and seating were both really tight.  Service was slow and food took too long to come out.  And when the food finally came, it was good but nothing special.  Given all the other tasty Japanese restaurants in Midtown East, I probably would not circle back to Soba Totto.

Piggy says No

Soba Totto
211 E 43rd St (btwn 3rd and 2nd Ave)
212-557-8200

Thanks for reading - Piggy KK