simbashi soba, paragon

A cancelled dance class turned me and Shawn’s quick bite late lunch into a easy going Sunday meal. Since we both arrived fairly grumpy (due to a combination of low blood sugar and work stress), we had to find a place to eat asap.

We settled at Simbashi Soba in the basement level of Paragon on Orchard Road. As soon as the escalators deposited us in the basement I immediately recognized it as a place that me, Jen, Jlin, and Julia stumbled upon during our visit last May. It’s nice when this happens because it reminds me of buddies back home and our adventures.

Anyway, back to the present.

Simbashi Soba has a great menu full of soba dishes that I’ve never had or heard of before. While I was gunning for something warm, I ended up not being able to resist the spicy salmon soba.

You get about 4 slices of lightly seared salmon, a delicately poached egg, soft tofu cubes, seaweed (dried and fresh), mushrooms, and a dollop of some green stuff that looked and kinda tasted like sticky and pureed green onions. I *think* the soba on this one is buckwheat. Underneath it is a brown, likely soy-based sauce. You also get a little dish of fresh green onions to add to the mix.

The soba was very nice – it soaked up some of the sauce underneath, had a little bit of texture so as not to be slimy at all, and a wee bit of chewiness which makes for satisfying eating. I could have done with or without the searing on the salmon and obviously the runny egg and tofu plus seaweed are always big wins for me. A very nice dish that is filling but still kinda light. What is no so light? The price – around SGD17.

Not that the price stopped me from ordering dessert though.

They have a dessert special during specific times of the day (2pm – 5pm, I think – don’t quote me on that) which gives you a choice of tea or coffee and any of their desserts for SGD6. Regular price for the desserts runs anywhere from SGD5.80 to SGD9 so this is a pretty ‘sweet’ deal. Heh.

I ordered some rice cake thingies – that’s them there buried underneath a lot of soy bean powder. The ice cream is your run of the mill vanilla.

The verdict? On the pricey side but due to fresh handmade soba and interesting combos I forsee additional visits to make my way through the rest of the menu.

Simbashi Soba: The Paragon B1-41, Orchard Road, Singapore