In 2020, Shinji Matsudaira made the unusual move of opening a hawker stall at Kelantan Lane. The owner of a bookkeeping company in Singapore, he had moved here from Ehime in 2011 with his wife Ayana and their son. His stall, Reiwa Soba, offered soba dishes with fresh house-made buckwheat flour noodles.

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  1 of 7His business kept expanding

  To let customers from around the island try his freshly-cooked soba, Shinji opened two more Reiwa Soba outlets in succession at Clementi and Bedok. He closed his Kelantan Lane stall last December when its tenancy contract expired, and more recently, his Clementi outlet in March this year due to “staff medical issues”.

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  2 of 7New casual soba restaurant in Chinatown

  But Shinji is now back with a new Chinatown eatery called Soba Kappo Reiwa. “This time, our shop concept is soba kappo style. It’s kappo with soba, [this] combination is only [at] our shop in Singapore,” he tells 8days.sg.

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  3 of 7What is kappo?

  Kappo means ‘cut and cook’ in Japanese. Simply put, it’s a type of Japanese cuisine that focuses on homely dishes with ‘cut and cooked’ ingredients that are presented in a more refined setting than izakayas, but less formal than omakase restaurants. “It’s like higher-end izakaya,” Shinji jokes, describing the food as “light and healthy”.
  
  He adds: “All sauces and food items are [house-made]. And some of the items are exclusive only to Chinatown. Also we have some seasonal items every week. and soon we’re starting [a] course menu as well.”

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  4 of 7Soba Kappo Reiwa’s menu

  Prices are kept reasonable here. In fact, you pay the same prices as you would at Shinji’s hawker stall, except there’s GST and service charge at the air-conditioned restaurant.
  
  There are five types of signature soba on the menu including Reiwa Pork Soba ($12) with Spanish pork and a mildly spicy dipping sauce, Bukkake Salada Soba ($12) with a fresh salad and cold soba, as well as Kake Soba ($10) with yuzu-spiked broth.
  
  There’s also a seasonal hot soba dish, Sea Bream Kake Soba (pictured, $15). You can also get kombu-marinated Sea Bream ($9 for four slices) and Grilled Hokkaido Wild Trout ($28; $16 for sashimi).

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  5 of 7Kappo appetisers and sides

  For appetisers and sides, Shinji offers dishes like homestyle Fried Oysters with Fermented Butter ($12), Ryukyu Sashimi Zuke (marinated amberjack sashimi, $12), Tasmanian Beef Tataki ($12) and Soaked Spinach & Mushrooms ($6) in house-made dashi.
  
  Other than soba, the menu has a Reiwa Tendon ($16) with buckwheat flour tempura over rice, sushi (from $30 for a platter) and limited-quantity a la carte sushi like Hokkaido Wild Salmon ($4 a piece).
  
  As the eatery serves alcoholic drinks like Homemade Umeshu ($9 a glass), it also has an agemono (Japanese deep-fried food) selection like Fermented Soya Karaage ($12), Assorted Seafood Tempura ($18) with sea eel, garfish and prawns, and Deep-Fried Burdock Chips ($6).

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  6 of 7The look

  Located in a shophouse along Trengganu Street, the eatery looks like a hip little Kyoto diner with an industrial concrete-and-wooden door entrance.

  

  The quaint entrance

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  7 of 7The interior

  The space offers both counter seating and communal tables. We recommend making a reservation, as there aren’t many seats available.
  
  #01-12, 25 Trengganu St, S058476. Tel: 9355-1618. Open daily 11.30am-3pm (last order at 2.30pm); 5.30pm-10pm (last order at 9.30pm). www.facebook.com/reiwasoba
  
  Photos: Alvin Teo/ Soba Kappo Reiwa