Owariya Asakusa
尾張屋 本店 · Owariya Asakusa
- Ward
- Taito
- Price
- ¥1,300~2,000
- Hours
- 11:30-20:30 (L.O.20:30)
- Closed
- Fri (branch closes Wed)
- Getting there
- 3 min walk from Asakusa Stn
- Founded
- 1860
- The tempura soba arrives with two prawns so large they hang over the bowl
- The standard tempura soba uses kuma prawns; the 'jo' version uses kuruma prawns
- Founded 1860, the oldest soba house in Asakusa
We do not republish copyrighted photographs. Use the links below to see the actual venue.
Obvious to locals, invisible to visitors
There is a simple reason guidebooks leave this out: to the people who live here it is too obvious to be worth explaining.
The tempura soba arrives with two prawns so large they hang over the bowl. Fried in sesame oil for lightness, each is peeled and its tendons snapped in four places so it fries straight. The shop reportedly fries close to a thousand a day.
The standard tempura soba uses kuma prawns; the 'jo' version uses kuruma prawns. That is what the price gap buys — and regulars choose accordingly.
Founded 1860, the oldest soba house in Asakusa. The novelist Nagai Kafu came so often he always took the same seat, and the chicken soba he ate daily is still on the menu because of it.
There is a main shop and a branch on the same street, closing Fridays and Wednesdays respectively — so if one is shut, the other is probably open.
What it is
Taito is a ward the shitamachi ward holding Asakusa and Ueno. Orders are taken unhurriedly. Here that is not a lapse in service — it is the design. Cream soda looks deeper in person than in photos, and the glassware differs from shop to shop. A rainy weekday is the sweet spot — the crowd thins dramatically. Seats are tight and coats end up on your lap — layering thin works better in winter. Rather than anchoring your itinerary, it slots naturally into the gaps between other stops.
What to order
Why locals keep coming
It photographs well: the lighting and palette run exactly counter to current trends, which makes it stand out. Not renovating turned out to be the strongest differentiator — this is a kind of space you cannot build new.