In July 2025 the first United States location of a major Japanese noodle spot will open in Japantown. Soba Dining Sora will open in the former Aloha Warehouse space, technically located at 1731 Buchanan Street, but found on one of the walking paths in the complex. This restaurant will live next door to Hinodeya Ramen, the original of now three businesses with the same name in the city. Keiichiro Yonekura, the U.S. manager for Sasala Dining which owns both businesses, says this will be a big opening for the restaurant group. “Finally we can open Soba in Japantown,” Yonekura says. “We’re so excited.”
Final details of the San Francisco aren’t yet available. That said, chef and owner Masao Kuribara’s menu in Japan is meant to provide an accessible and laidback approach for diners and will make the leap to this new location. The main star of the restaurant is the rustic noodle dishes. Yonekura says they will import Japanese buckwheat noodles for the restaurant, which typically arrive at the table alongside just-ground sesame seeds, ginger, wasabi, and bowls of soup or broth, depending on the set meal. The Japan menu also features tempura, fried skewers, and sake, some of which are expected to port over to the upcoming restaurant.
This pared-down approach counters Kuribara’s glitzy resume. He cooked at Kicchou in Tokyo before becoming the head chef at the Japanese embassy in Holland where, according to the business’s website, he cooked for emissaries including then-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Like its Japanese predecessors, Soba Dining Sora is the second restaurant not under the Hinodeya name.
The interior at the Japantown location is set to look a lot like the original in Japan.
Sasala Dining
Hinodeya is a huge deal in Japan, and no small operation in the United States. The modest restaurant Hinode-ya opened in 1885 and the family-run business went gangbusters slowly but surely, winning awards in 2008 as the business rebranded to Sasala. In 2012 the company opened Soba Dining Sora in Hasuda next to the original Sasala location. In 2016 the business expanded to the United States for the first time with the Hinodeya restaurant in Japantown. Downtown and Marina ramen shops followed, then Silicon Valley restaurants in Campbell, Newark, and San Jose. Since then they’ve added locations or have forthcoming outposts in Dallas, Texas and Little Tokyo in Los Angeles.
Soba Dining Sora (1731 Buchanan Street) is set to open in July 2025.
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