"The house specialty at Soba-ya is, unsurprisingly, soba. They make the buckwheat soba noodles in-house, and there are a bunch of hot and cold varieties to choose from. But we tend to go for their rice bowls. Get one with tuna or salmon sashimi, and it’ll be like that bowl of poke you just had for lunch but without the unnecessary fried onions and spicy mayo all over the top. Soba-ya is in the East Village, it’s casual and reasonably priced, and waits usually aren’t too long on weeknights." - hannah albertine, bryan kim, will hartman