イタリアンで食べる沖縄そばが滅法美味い！肉の味が良いね～!!!・・・うちな～イタリアンSOLA（我如古） : SOLA

"I'd love to come back here to eat Okinawa Soba again" was what my eldest son said in the car on the way home. Since he was little, my eldest son has accompanied me on food tours, and he is a cheeky guy who gives extremely harsh reviews of Ramen and Okinawa Soba, but this time Italian Cuisine praised it highly... This is about the "Okinawa Soba" lunch served at the Italian Cuisine restaurant that made him say such a thing. In early June, an article by "Aba" on My Review posted information that the Italian Restaurants "SOLA", located just past the Nishihara Tunnel on the bypass (National Route 330), was serving only "Okinawa Soba" for lunch. When nobuta saw this, he was very surprised... because that restaurant is a perfect Italian Cuisine restaurant, and long ago, nobuta had gone there to eat their "pasta lunch". After hearing such information, he felt a sense of mission that he "had to go". After staring at the photo in "Aba"'s review, he found out that they had several types, including sanmai pork and cartilage soki. I thought that I would have to take my wife and children with me to see all Okinawa Soba in one go, so I decided to go on a weekend Saturday. If that happened, I couldn't just sit back and enjoy it!!! From that day on, nobuta's mood was leaning towards "Okinawa Soba" on weekends and Saturdays. And then, it arrived. It was lunchtime on a Saturday in early June. I pulled into the parking lot (in my geta sandals) of "Okinawa Italian Cuisine SOLA" along National Route 330, about 45 minutes from my house. Sure enough, there was a banner saying "Okinawa Soba" along the road. I thought, "I can't believe they serve Okinawa Soba at an Italian Cuisine restaurant..." and went up the stairs with my wife and children. SOLA is a very spacious restaurant with a capacity of over 50 people for a reserved party. The kitchen is in front of you from the entrance. There are four tables to the right for 16 people, and more than six tables to the left... one customer ahead of you, and one customer behind you. It seems that not many people know that this restaurant specializes in "Okinawa Soba" during lunch time. Now, let's check the menu. Okinawa Soba is as follows: Medium Okinawa Soba 500 yen, large 600 yen Sanmainiku soba medium 600 yen, large 700 yen Cartilage soki soba medium 600 yen, large 700 yen Grilled meat soba large 750 yen. The noodles are described as homemade and smooth and chewy, and the boiled noodles are 250g for the medium and 410g for the large, which is quite a lot. There are two types of noodles, noodles without egg (normal Okinawa Soba noodles) and noodles with egg (thick and chewy). As side dishes, there is beef tendon stew bowl 250 yen and juicy 150 yen. Furthermore, below that, there is soba with all the meat on top medium 850 yen, large 950 yen, and there seems to be a great deal where you can add juicy to it for +50 yen. As for toppings, cartilage soki, onsen egg, and sanmainiku are both 100 yen. This is quite appealing...I was right to bring my wife and children. My wife chose the large Okinawa Soba and egg noodles, and my eldest son chose the medium sanmai pork soba, noodles without egg, sanmai pork topping, and beef tendon stew bowl. Of course, nobuta only has one option: the large all-meat soba and juicy set (lol). We patiently waited for Okinawa Soba to arrive. I thought it would take a while to boil the noodles based on the description of the homemade noodles, and that was true (we didn't have to wait a long time, but it was longer than other Okinawa Soba). First, my wife's large Okinawa Soba is in the photo. My eldest son's sanmai pork soba + sanmai pork looks like this! It's pretty amazing. 700 yen for this is a great deal (lol). Moreover, the sanmai pork is clearly thick and looks delicious! And here is the beef tendon stew bowl with a soft-boiled egg on top. On the way home after eating these two dishes, my eldest son made his first remark. He said, "It was a big hit Okinawa Soba after a long time" (lol) And finally, here is the first photo of Nobuta's all meat large, but from a different angle. The egg is in the way, so I'll move it aside to show you the meat (lol) The meat in the foreground is "seared meat", which is very delicious. Or rather, it's meat from an Italian Cuisine restaurant that you won't see at Okinawa Soba restaurants. This taste is in a class of its own, and it would be good to simply order the "seared meat soba" large and enjoy the taste of the seared meat (I'll do that next time). The other dishes, the sanmai pork and cartilage pork ribs, were also wonderfully cooked, and since Nobuta likes meat that is exquisitely cooked so that it falls apart, I thought it was the best (lol) By the way, the broth was made from bonito broth, which was also rich. As expected, the homemade noodles were chewy and elastic, which made it quite filling. These noodles are likely to be a matter of personal preference. Next time I'll try it with noodles without eggs. Either way, the meat in Okinawa Soba made at an Italian Cuisine restaurant is just too tasty!!! And that's the reason why it received such a high rating in nobuta's Okinawa Soba eating tour standards (lol) Oh, and I have to mention how juicy it was. The juicy one in the photo had a great chunky texture to it, and it was also delicious and just to nobuta's liking. Then, when I went to pay at the register, there were grissini on sale next to it for 200 yen. As you'd expect from Italian Cuisine restaurant (lol) nobuta loves grissini. It's a joke that you can buy grissini at a restaurant where you eat Okinawa Soba, but I bought some as a souvenir! Apparently, they still serve Italian Cuisine food at night, but it's now an Italian Cuisine Izakaya (Japanese-style bar), and although this sounds like a joke, it's 3,520 yen for all-you-can-eat and drink for 3 hours (lol). From nobuta's memory, it seems like it was a restaurant that served regular Italian Cuisine full courses (fairly cheap), but maybe this is also due to the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has continued for over a year. Anyway, the Okinawa Soba lunch here was amazing! It's a little far from nobuta's house, but we'll probably have a chance to visit again in the near future. After all, my eldest son seems to like it (lol). Thank you for the meal!!!