Why was Kitaichi Soba at Engaru Station, once called “one of the three best station soba in Hokkaido” along with Shintoku and Otoishifu Stations, revived? First, we flew to the town of Engaru in Hokkaido, a thousand or so hundred kilometers northeast of Tokyo, to taste a bowl of Kitaichi Soba, which is said to be “the northernmost station soba in Japan by the year 2025.
Kitaichi Soba was established at this station in 1941, and after closing once in 2019, it was revived and reopened in March 2025 by local fans who knew the ekisoba at that time. Although the number of passengers at Engaru Station is only about 10% of what it was in its heyday, or about 100 people, Kitaichi Soba is said to be bustling with so many people that sales sometimes exceed 50,000 yen a day.
Kitaichi Soba, a station soba store at Engaru Station on the Ishihoku Main Line, has reopened for the first time in seven years at the same location and in the same building, and as of June 2025, it will be the northernmost station soba store in Japan.
The revived ekisoba in Engaru, including the unexpected “gibier soba” (buckwheat noodles)
The Enkei Station, with two platforms and three boarding platforms, is especially spacious and huge, as the tracks were divided into the Ishihoku Main Line (Abashiri direction and Asahikawa Main Line) and the Monbetsu direction (Nayoro Main Line, abolished in 1989).
At such Engaru Station, Kitaichi Soba Restaurant operates in a small white building on the platform 1 (station building side) side. In the past, you could order from both the platform side and the outside of the station, but now the platform side is not open yet, and you have to go out of the ticket gate once and go to the outside to eat.
The menu consists mainly of simple Japanese soba noodles with tempura and egg as toppings. The eggs are served half-cooked, which is rare for such soba restaurants, and the yolk does not immediately dissolve after being topped, but the flavor of the broth is preserved.
As station soba, it is just average and tasty. However, kiosks are closed at Engaru Station, so it is nice to have a hot buckwheat noodle to fill your stomach while waiting for the train.
And this restaurant has the only one menu item for a station soba restaurant, “Enkaru Jibieru Soba”.
The Okhotsk region of Hokkaido, where the town of Engaru is located, is famous for hunting deer and other game animals (gibier), and there are strict standards for “Okhotsk gibier,” such as bringing the meat to a processing plant within two hours of its capture.
How is it possible to serve gibier in the limited space of a soba restaurant? When we asked her about it, she told us that the proprietress who runs the restaurant originally ran a guesthouse on Iriomote Island, Okinawa, and handled gibier. The meat is fresh and has no smell, and its flavor and volume are amazing!
However, the quantity available per day is small, and some of the visitors were delighted to hear, “Every time I went on a business trip, they were sold out, and on my third visit, I finally got to try it! One person who came to try it was overjoyed, saying, “It was sold out every time I went on a business trip. To try the gibier soba, which is probably the only ekisoba available at Engaru Station in Japan, it may be best to visit the restaurant early, close to opening time, and place your order.
While I was chatting with the proprietress for nearly an hour, passersby were looking at the restaurant and saying, “Oh, Kitaichi Soba is back? or “I really wanted to come here! or “I really wanted to come here!” and some station staff visited the store with their cars to have breakfast. …… Despite its compact size, the store is so busy that sales sometimes exceed 50,000 yen a day.
Unlike the old days when people basically ate standing at the counter, chairs and tables are laid out in an open space outdoors. The station is located on a hill about 3m higher than the station in the city center, and the view of the town from the station while enjoying a bowl of ekisoba is exceptional.
Now, let us discuss why the ekisoba at Engaru Station disappeared and could be revived.
© Source travel watch
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