Sobakiri Karani

The swish locale in Fukushima nails the quirky restaurant brief and looks more like a fun-loving art studio than a soba joint. Sobakiri Karaini is brimming with cheerful casualness — there are the tile-punctuated walls and rustic brickwork, but the handpainted mural ceiling fixture and communal table with a view of the open kitchen could well be Osaka’s most photographed dining space. That is to say that Karani’s owner-chef Hashimoto Kiyoshi may have opened one of Osaka’s most exciting restaurants. He plots a menu that segues from izakaya nibbles like miso-marinated tofu and crowd-pleasing duck with sake lees and spicy miso to an assured lineup of soba. Long-standing signatures like the arabiki soba — coarse-ground chilled buckwheat noodles — and soba topped with grated radish (oroshi) and hefty shavings of katsuobushi are prepared straight from the open kitchen and maintain their relevance in the slow and steady procession. Sure, the buckwheat noodles have lots of tinkering to show, but Hashimoto’s hardcore love of sake has him lining the open shelves with local rice wine. If Hashimoto’s personable, unfussy service doesn’t round out the meal, tip back your head and look for the sake list that plays a cool sidekick to the food. Sobakiri Karani is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant for 2024.