Takashi Miyazaki, a restaurateur based in Cork city, initiates his day at 7am to prepare fresh soba, a form of thin Japanese noodles, six days a week. His soba preparation involves a considered 12-step method impacted by several factors. Soba is known for its delicious nutty flavour that comes from buckwheat flour, which lacks gluten. As a resolution, this flour is combined with wheat flour to achieve the right elasticity, with temperature, moisture and water proving crucial. After experimenting repeatedly, he has found the perfect combination to be 60% French buckwheat, 40% wheat flour, and Co Mayo’s Fior Uisce water.
The flours are sifted in a konebachi, a typical wooden bowl used to prepare soba, and water is gradually incorporated. The dough then is kneaded, flattened, and rolled out before being sliced into noodles with a pasta machine. Freshly made noodles are considered best and should preferably be consumed on the day of preparation.
Miyazaki radically altered his approach in the restaurant after receiving a Michelin star six months post its inauguration in 2018. He abandoned his €140, 15-course menu in December and reopened with a more relaxed bistro-style concept in January. The change was promptly noticed and appreciated by Michelin Guide inspectors, who awarded the bistro with a Michelin Bib Gourmand in February.
Although the room’s seating capacity increased from 22 to 35 with an additional counter, the food underwent a significant transformation. The previous items like sushi, sashimi and chawanmushi have been replaced by a casual a la carte menu featuring starters, donburi (rice dishes), hot and cold soba, as well as daily specials noted down on a blackboard.
Starting our dinner with hot edamame (£6), tossed in olive oil and sprinkled with garlic, chilli, crushed sea salt and black pepper, truly is a pleasure. Though sipping on a tokkuri of hot sake indeed adds to the experience, maintaining this throughout the night could inflate the tab as a 175ml flask costs £27.50.
Our initial course, an assorted tempura (£15.50), errs on the side of minimalism, comprising one prawn, a delicate circle of thin-cut corn and carrot, and a Japanese green leaf, adorned with spring onions and grated daikon. The batter is extraordinarily light and highly flavoursome when dunked into the tentsuyu sauce, a mix of soy sauce, rice wine known as mirin, and dashi (a Japanese broth).
The cod nanban don (£18.50) is a more robust serving – a warm bowl of rice, seasoned nicely with a hint of spiciness and mirin, topped with portions of fried cod lavishly covered in a sweet and sour nanbansu – a concoction of rice vinegar, mirin, soy sauce and sugar.
The traditional way to savour soba is cold (hiya soba), sweetened with wasabi, spring onions and tsuyu, and dipped in sauce. However, considering the damp, chilly evening, indulging in hot noodles seems the perfect antidote.
For our main courses, we now switch from sake to beer and wine – Ichigo Ichie’s original pale ale (£7), and Vino Di Anna Palmento Bianco (£11.50), a Sicilian, skin-contact wine from an easily navigable minimal intervention list.
Finally, the kamo nanban soba (£21.50) – a bowl brimming with broth and soba, and thick cuts of Skeaghanore duck. The noodles are as anticipated – mouthful after mouthful of slender, earthy buckwheat threads, peppered with succulent bites of rare duck breast, all topped off with a transparently rich, mahogany-tinted, duck-infused dashi broth, which is to be drained from the bowl upon finishing.
The Gubbeen baked cheesecake, complemented beautifully with plum ice-cream, is a dessert we opt to share, costing us €8.50. The unconventional addition of a smoked, washed-rind cheese works wonders, therefore, it comes as no surprise to learn that this choice originated from a Michelin menu.
Ichigo Ichie transfers the relaxed atmosphere of Miyazaki’s takeaway restaurant to a suave setting. In this space, you have the luxury of sitting at a comfortable table, rather than the uncertainty of securing one of the limited number of high stools. The service is exceedingly friendly and despite its composed pace, you can expect your dining experience to last roughly an hour.
The total cost of our dinner for two, with drinks included, was €116.
Our verdict is that this is a relaxed reinterpretation of a popular restaurant.
With regards to the musical ambience, Moby and Jimmy Whoo played subtly in the background.
The sources for the ingredients include the English Market, Caherbeg free-range pork, Skeaghanore duck, and Cork Rooftop Farm.
There are vegetarian-friendly choices such as mushrooms a la plancha, agedashi tofu, vegetable tempura, edamame, kakiage and soba, and these can also be modified to suit vegans.
While the restaurant provides wheelchair access, unfortunately, the toilet facilities are not wheelchair-friendly.