TANAKAYA

My last review was 5 stars… This review is 1 Star
How do you go from 5 star to 1 star.
You allow customers to come in at 730 pm seat and look at the menu for 20mins.
Then you inform them that you have NO RICE and NO SOBA!!!
You are a Japanese restaurant and a FU##IN SOBA shop…
Just close the restaurant at 7 pm and put me out of my misery.
This was my 5 star review
I will openly admit that I am a Japanese food snob! Don’t put teriyaki sauce on something and call it a Japanese.
Tanakaya is the real deal. You walk in and it smells like home made tsuyu (noodle sauce made with soy and dashi) and fresh made noodles made on the spot. The kicker is that it all tasted great you were in Japan. (Drop the mic!)

Plenty parking in strip mall w Snow Station and various other restaurants. Servers were nice, but food took over 20 mins to arrive on a weeknight. Perhaps they were understaffed.
Nebayaki Udon– udon noodles were pretty good. Similar in quality to some of the places I’ve been to in Gardena and Torrance though they seemed a little overcooked as they were a little mushy. I liked the oysters, tempura shrimp, green beans. Didn’t care for the mushroom and large pieces of bamboo shoot.
Soba combo w Kathy Don– neither of us love soba. We just eat it since it’s a healthier noodle. That being said, their soba was decent. I like that they were mostly smooth (not grainy) like other soba I’ve had. The broth was soy sauce based and a little sweet. The katsu don w pork was a little sweet. It was good.
I would come back here again to try other dishes.

This is authentic Japanese at its best. Sweetest wait staff ever; they always make me smile with their kind and attentive nature. If you go during rush hour, prepare to wait a bit before being seated as the restaurant is very small.

Classic Japanese noodle dishes with clean flavors. Their broth has deep aroma. Great service.
I went on a weekday night. There was only one party other than myself.
I would give it 5 stars, but I don’t believe that there was fair value for price.

They made some changes to their menu. I still think their Tonkatsu Lunch Combo is the best. I just wish they would offer the Tonkatsu during dinner too. Not as a special but offer the tonkatsu without drizzling sauces on top of it like the way they’re doing it now. Just a suggestion… because I definitely would come in during dinner time!

Traditional, Easy and Clean.
I love everything about Tanakaya. The food at this restaurant reminds me of Japanese home-​cooking. The restaurant design is clean, simple, and spacious. The menu is easy to read. The food is good and the service is great.
Menu Items Ordered:
Gomoku Udon (Pork/​Poached Egg/​Vegetable) — good quality pork, an abundance of noodles, earthy broth
Chicken Karaage — Golden, crispy, light batter — juicy chicken
Oyako Don (chicken mixed with eggs over rice) — perfect amount of sauce/​moisture in the chicken/​egg mix
I’ve found my new favorite Japanese staple.

This place used to be a very authentic Japanese soba restaurant, not so much now. I first discovered this place last year and thought I found the holy grail of authentic soba noodles. Not only was the food simple yet delicious, the service was outstanding! I don’t know what happened but the food is not to par and the servers were replaced with teenagers who could care less about serving people. Literally did not see a single server smile and no one ever came to refill our water. I’m going to keep coming here until I find another authentic soba place, then after that I’m breaking up with this place.

One of my friends recommended this place for great soba noodles. So, went here last week on Sunday with my boyfriend for dinner. (For people who are planning to visit this place, try to call ahead to see how long you are going to be waiting. If you are lucky, try to get your name on the waiting list.)
Décor/​Cleanliness
There is no décor, it just had tables and chairs for people to sit and eat. The place looks clean. However, I didn’t get to visit their restrooms in order to tell if they practiced good cleanliness in their kitchen.
Food
What I ordered was the dinner combi which was the Tanuki and Ten Toji Don, and my boyfriend got the Kamo Nanban The Tanuki was GREAT! The soba noodles were so good! As for the Ten Toji Don, it tasted standard. However, it was hard to even finish up the Ten Toji Don, because my belly was filled with the Tanuki!!! As for my boyfriend’s Kamo Nanban, the broth wasn’t great but the soba noodles!!! DAMN!!! So good!
Service
The service was GREAT! They were on point with their service. Our water glasses were always filled up, they checked in on us. The food were served timely and the check as well. Honestly, you can’t ask for more.
Overall Experience
4 Stars!!! Food and service was amazing! I recommend that anyone who loves soba noodles should go to this place!
Happy Eating Everybody!

We wanted to try out a new place so decided to hit up this place for some good old noodles. It’s located in the strip mall directly off newport/​el camino next to the Karaōke place. The deco is pretty bland with 2 rows of tables each with 4 chairs.
The menu consists of all types of noodles with there most well known hot/​cold soba or udon and your choice of style. They also have some classic Japanese rice dishes and sides. I went with the Sansai, veggie hot udon. Presentation wise portion size looks nice with your classic mixture of mountain veggies, mushrooms and spring onions. The noodles were also cooked perfectly and chewy as expected. The one thing that killed it was the soup base. Holy moly its SUPER salty to the point that you feel like you’re eating a bottom of soy sauce. This wasn’t just a one off saltiness every soup base noodle we ordered was extremely level 9 salty level as everyone commented at the table. I guess if you order the cold soba you’re better off since you can control your salt level by dipping your noodles.
Overall, just an OK kind of Japanese noodle place. The service was average. Food was soso if you don’t mind the saltiness or order other stuff. I don’t think we would come back here again.

If you want some really good udon you should come here!
Things you might want to know before coming here for the first time!
1. If there are more than 3 parties ahead of you, the wait can be pretty long.
2. Once you order, you expect the food to come out 30 – 40 minutes.
3. The prices for some of the items on the menu has increased.
The reason why I’m rating it ⁴⁄₅ is because the priced have increased and the time for the food to come out is still really slow.
Food:
Kara-​age Chicken
My favorite place to get Kara-​age chicken in SoCal! It’s piping hot when it comes out and you get juicy/​tenderness in every bite. I also love the dipping sauce that comes with the dish. It’s really really good and totally recommend!
Tanuki Udon [hot]
Just a simple bowl of udon with tanuki (tempura flakes). LOVE the flakes. I’m really glad how the flakes have some crunch to it. Most places serve tanuki soggy. and OH the BROTH is so delicious as well. Very flavorful and never too salty.
Chicken Curry
The chicken curry here is so delicious. It has a kick to it so beware if you don’t like spicy! The chicken itself is tender and along with the curry, OH SO FLAVORFUL. I absolutely love it!
Curry Don
The flavor is completely different than the chicken curry and it’s still delicious. Usually pork meat is dry and hard to chew, but my gosh! So tender! It’s also thinly sliced. It also comes with a kick :)
Service:
Delightful. The waiter here is on top of his game when pouring hot tea/​water! The food really takes forever to come out, but I always know that I’ll be pleased after I eat it. Been here more than 3 times and never had a disappointing experience!
Will be back soon~

I came at noon and there was no wait, but shortly 30 minutes or so after, there was one! Service is good b/​c my hot tea got constantly refilled and they always checked up on me. No complaints there.
The waitress recommended me the hot soba noodles with duck soup. The noodles were made to perfection and absolutely delicious! The duck was alrightt, but the flavorful broth balances it out. The $ 9.95 lunch specials combinations are a good deal too. It’s cheap and you get a good amount. I’ll be back to try more things, esp. the cold noodles next time.

I have never gone or even looked beyond Cream Pan in this complex that looks a bit old and tired and quite unappealing. It’s probably the last place where I’ll go to find some decent eats.
But thanks to several of my trusted Unilocal friends, I discovered this nice neighborhood gem which serves authentic Japanese noodles and other traditional dishes.
The tonkatsu lunch combo was a great bargain. It came with 3 slices of fried pork chop, rice, a large portion of coleslaw and a small bowl of plain noodle (choice of udon or soba).
The tonkatsu was lightly breaded and perfectly fried to golden brown. The meat was tender and flavorful. It came with a sweet and tangy dipping sauce as well as my favorite Japanese yellow mustard — mix that with the dipping sauce for a bold and robust flavor!
The udon with deep fried tofu was also good. The soup was a clear shoyu-​based broth which was quite rich and tasty, but not overwhelmingly salty. The noodles were cooked to a near perfect chewiness.
Overall, the service has been great. A server was always walking around to refill tea and water for all the tables. All the servers we encountered have been really friendly and nice.
On the front page of the menu it was printed in large fonts that every order is freshly made so the wait could be long, and they ask for your patience. And the wait for the food was indeed quite long. But the food was delicious and arrived fresh and piping hot, so it’s definitely worth the wait.

Ate a quick lunch at Tanakaya in the plaza with Cream Pan. This was a super lucky find! I pretty rarely get to eat Japanese food that isn’t ramen or sushi. Today, I tried their Kamo Nanban (鴨南蛮) or duck meat soba. I was so pleasantly surprised at the flavors and texture of fresh soba!
The only soba I really eat is the dried version you make at home. Let me tell you, freshly made soba is totally not even close to the same! This was a great experience and it tasted so well made, with all the flavors moving together nicely. The duck meat was just enough for the dish and just fatty enough to add a bit of light flavors to the depth of the soup. The soup base was nothing like I’ve tasted before, this is definitely not the cheap stuff. I mean, I don’t know, I’m just pretty sure this is the authentic stuff but never had this in Japan, so can’t be 100% sure. I did end up drinking a lot of water and tea while eating this, and another Unilocaler said there was a lot of MSG, so it’s possible that’s why it was so good… Eh.
The service was really great. I came early so there were tables for us. The buckwheat hot tea was one the best teas I’ve had in so long. The bathrooms — one for each gender, and I loved how they warmed tea instead of oils in there. Smelled so good. I just had such a great experience here and I’ll definitely be back again soon. Even though we didn’t have to wait, I can honestly say I would wait about 30 – 40 minutes for this.

I love noodles… I love soup. I love noodles in my soup! :P haha!
Homemade soba and udon noodles you can’t beat it. I love the Ume Shiso Soba (cold) very light and fresh, lots of veggies. I love shiso flavored anything.
The Kamo Nanban which is noodles with duck meat and spring onions had a great broth very flavorful. It tasted similar to Sanuki in Gardena that my grandmother and mother use to take us as kids.
We also order the Chicken karaage as appetizer just be aware it a BIG portion, you definitely get a lot for your money. We couldn’t finish it.
I can’t wait to go back and try more!

Came here with a buddy on a Sunday night. We pretty much had the whole restaurant to ourselves. Service was fantastic, came by enough, but not hovering.
Both of us ordered the same thing, Gomoku, which is apparently one of the most popular items. Every bit of the entrée tasted good, from the mushroom to the bamboo to the egg. The meat could’ve been a softer, it was overcooked, leaving it very chewy. The soba noodles were hand-​made, which tasted fresh and firm. Broth wasn’t too salty either.
The location itself may look out of place as it’s located in a plaza with mix-​match of stores/​restaurants/​extra curricular activities. However, there’s ample parking, and located on the edge of old town Tustin. I’m looking forward to my next visit.

This place has freshness written all over it. Tanakaya serves the most authentic cold soba I’ve had around. I’ve been a number of times now and I’ve seen the staff grow as servers as they’ve worked out the kinks in their system. The food is beautifully presented on wood trays with wooden spoons. As far as the atmosphere goes, I understand the clean, contemporary, minimalist look, but the decorations do feel a bit austere to me.
Also, reading other reviews the fried chicken gets a lot of comments (good and bad), but I’ve actually never tried it. You can’t go wrong with any of the noodle dishes, and I’ll definitely be back to continue exploring the menu. I’m really happy they opened in Tustin and provide a unique and tasty dining experience.

3.5 stars.
If you are going to come here, go for the 100% experience and get the cold soba noodles. Otherwise find an Udon place that’s close to your house.
A Japanese restaurant known for their Soba. I opted to get the cold soba to complete the experience. The cold soba was very enjoyable & tasted clean. You can get the hot soba (udon) as well. My fiancé ordered the hot soba (udon) and she wasn’t that impressed by it.
Kitsune Cold Udon (Cold soba) — Solid ⁴⁄₅ — $ 14 (w/​combo)
–The Cold Soba is pretty good. It tastes clean & the noodles have a nice texture. The sauce they provide tastes great.
Katsu-​Don (Pork Cutlet w/​Egg) — Average, ³⁄₅
–The katsu-​don was borderline «eh.» While I enjoyed the quality of pork, the outer-​layer breading was really lacking. The Katsu-​Don came out soggy and I prefer my katsu crunchy & hard.
TIPS:
–Located in the same plaza as Cream Pan
–I’d suggest going for the Cold Soba. While it’s not something you order that often, go 100% all in and go for «the experience.»

Came here 5 months ago with the bestie! We are lovers of All food, but we tend to go for soups, udon, soba, sushi. Japanese food basically. So, we were so stoked when we heard about tanakaya!
We came for a late lunch, so there weren’t as many customers during that time. Fine by us because we asked our waiter a million questions! Our waiter was extremely patient and helpful. She taught and explained to us everything there was to know about the dishes and how it’s eaten! She should have just sat down and ate with us!
Had the Ten Zaru which comes with cold soba noodles with a mixed of shrimp and vegetable tempura! I was a happy camper! Filled my dipping sauce with heaps and heaps of onions and was ready to indulge! Tempura was delicious! The perfect lunch with my best!
Bestie had the Sensai udon and pretty much loved it! Her bowl was spankin’ clean afterwards! Her dish was like a palette cleanser. so healthy and clean.
Took my manfriend here recently and I got the same dish as last time. But manfriend got the combo of udon and curry. Their curry is extremely flavorful and rich! I had to refrain from eating his curry because I wouldnt be able to finish my food. Definitely cant go wrong with their curry!
Service is great and attentive! Staff are really nice and helpful! Its in the same plaza as cream pan, so even more of a reason to stop by here!
Enjoy! :)

I’m glad Tanakaya opened up in Tustin. I love noodles– and who doesn’t love freshly made soba?
For appetizers, my SO and I ordered avocado sashimi and kaarage chicken. The avocado sashimi was delicious; who knew avocado would taste so good with soy sauce and wasabi? I never would have put the two together! The kaarage came in huge pieces of chicken and I didn’t complain; the meat was succulent and moist instead of dry.
For my entrée, I ordered the Yasai Tenjyu lunch combo and it comes with the following: tempura vegetables over rice, small udon or soba (hot or cold), a salad, and ginger. This combo was filling but I’m not gonna lie. I wish I got an even bigger serving of soba! Next time I’m definitely gonna get a full size and just order a bunch of appetizers!
I look forward to continue doing business at this establishment and try the different types such as the Ume Soba! Until next time Tanakaya

This place is new (opened 3 – 4?months ago) and similar to Fukada. Soba/​udon with rice bowl combinations. The place is clean and spacious. No wait on Sunday at 6pm.
Service: excellent. Everyone was friendly and polite.
Food: donburi bowls were too sweet and soup was to salty. If those could be adjusted, this place would be excellent.