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The story
Kazlaser (42), one half of the comedy duo Maple Chogokin, shared on his YouTube channel an episode about visiting a soba shop with glowing online reviews. The soba that came out was only about toothpick-length, cut into ragged bits and piled into a heap, with a texture so mushy he couldn’t even make out the aroma — in the end he had to scoop it up with a spoon. Following this scathing review, 5ch users debated the reliability of online reviews and which chain restaurants actually serve decent soba.
9/10 (Thu) 19:45
Kazlaser (42), of the comedy duo Maple Chogokin, appeared in an episode of the YouTube channel “Kazlaser and Shoinji’s Chill Room [Official],” updated by the 10th, where he described being let down at a restaurant that had rave online reviews.
Kazlaser said he visited a soba shop with high ratings online. The place had the look of a long-established, storied restaurant, and he’d gone in with high hopes — but, he said with a wry laugh, “Every single piece of soba that came out was only about as long as a toothpick. It was cut into ragged little bits, piled up in a heap. It was so mushy I couldn’t even tell what it smelled like, and since I couldn’t pick it up, I ended up just scooping it with a spoon.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
I figured they must've forgotten to add the seasoning and planned to go back and check… but the place went under before I could.
Any of you have a guess?
I hear they can't slurp noodles, so maybe that's why the soba's cut short.
the flour is old
it's been sitting a while since it was made
the water mixing (a key step in working the dough) was botched
it was overboiled
it got rinsed too roughly
Basically every sin a soba shop could possibly commit, all in one bowl.
After that it all comes down to the owner's eye for ingredients and the dipping sauce.
Probably not getting to eat as much meat as he wants.
He complains about something every single day.
Maybe he's just frustrated.
3.5–4.2 is the safe zone.
Not a restaurant, but check out this motorcycle shop — it's sitting at 4.9, which is nuts.
Apparently you get a discount for leaving a good review.
The comments are blatant about it too, it's bad.
The stand-and-eat counter "Kasai" in front of Nakano Station.
The owner has a bad reputation for customer service, but the food's good.
Lots of repeat customers.
Well, even if they didn't like him, a shop that tanks its own quality out of spite has no pride and is trash. (^_^;)
Though places like Gyoza no Ohsho (a chain) really can vary wildly depending on which cook is on duty.
The udon place in Umeda I went to today charged ¥1,450, but I'm sure Marugame Seimen or Sukesan Udon (popular udon chains) taste better.
Udon's such a simple food, it can't be that different no matter where you eat it.
https://video.fc2.com/ja/content/20220228U77Wdv4z
And then started using fake reviewers (sakura) to boost the ratings.
Tendon Tenya
Nakau
Komoro Soba
What about Ogisoseifun?
Their operations are a mess
Not tasty
The only good part was the free sobayu (the soba-boiling water you drink at the end).
I assume it means something like the smell of soba tea, but if so I'd just drink soba tea instead — and you season sobayu with the dipping sauce before drinking it anyway, right?
I don't get it, I'll just have zaru udon.
The noodles themselves don't need to smell like anything.
What matters is the texture and the flavor of the dipping sauce.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Online reviews typically run on a 5-star system, but in recent years there have been reports of businesses nudging ratings upward — offering discounts for good reviews, or having part-time staff post favorable ones — which has made many consumers wary of shops rated 4.5 stars or higher. The “soba cut to toothpick length” described in the thread points to specific failures in the cooking process itself — stale flour, poor dough-mixing technique, improper boiling — and is hard to write off as mere personal taste. On the other hand, the theory floated in the thread that the noodles were cut short to suit inbound tourists who supposedly can’t slurp noodles is pure speculation from commenters, with no confirmation from the shop itself. This article also leaves out baseless comments tying the story to Kazlaser’s married life, and is instead framed around the broader discussion of online restaurant review reliability.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Kazlaser Visits Highly-Rated Soba Shop… Ends Up Trashing It: “Mushy… Seriously Unbelievable. Better Off Not Eating It.”“
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