The pandemic has deprived us all from traveling to our favorite places and countries – mine being Japan. I consider myself lucky though that somehow, there are places in my hometown that takes me there, without having to actually fly there. Soba Kamakura is one of those places. It’s a soba restaurant hidden in a small quiet street somewhere in Mandaue which serves authentic Japanese food (and soba of course)!

Last July, the weekend after my birthday, I went with my friends to Soba Kamakura. It was my first time and TL;DR, I was impressed!

I ordered the Kamakura-Gozen set (P 1,440), which already includes several dishes, from appetizer, soup, soba and even dessert! It’s like a tasting menu but you really end up full after the entire thing. It really felt like I was eating at a countryside soba restaurant in Japan.

Pictures won’t do this justice so I’m sharing the vlog I made for this visit! Haha.

I can’t wait to eat there again. I will bring some friends who are visiting from Manila to try it out because to be honest, I haven’t been to a similar restaurant there! The price is on the expensive side but I can say that it’s really worth it, especially if you compare it to how much it would have cost were it in Japan. Since I couldn’t travel, this was the next best thing to feeling like being in Japan for a few hours.

If you want to give it a try, you can check out their website. You need to make a reservation – call them at (032) 417-2481 or 09067192512. Their lunch service is from 12 noon to 1:30 pm, while dinner is from 5 to 6:30 pm. The place is quite small (they could probably only seat 11 people max) so it’s an intimate experience.

Let me know if you’ve been or if you have other recommendations (in Cebu or in Manila) I can try out!