Kineya

***Update 3/29/2019***
Daie/Aeon mall is now closed!!
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Rating: OK
Meal:  Lunch
Price:  700 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Hot soupy dish with egg and clams on hot soba noodles.
English Menu: Yes

Smoking: No

Cold noodles are the best!

As I get closer to cleaning out Daie Mall, I'm going back to places I haven't tried in a while.  Kineya is fairly common chain specializing in udon and soba dishes.  Actually, when I go here I usually get a katusdon or oyakodon with cold soba noodles.  But I was suckered in by the seasonal special this time.

As with most Daie places, they have an english menu and take credit cards.  They do have the unique feature of a full time noodle chef who is prominently displayed at the front entrance where you can watch him chopping up fresh noodles.  I believe these are primarily the udon noodles, as fresh soba would be quite unusual.

There it is...

Someday I'll review a cold soba noodle dish (one of my favorites), but today I went with the aforementioned special, a hot soupy mess.  I couldn't quite translate the name, but I can say that it had clams and egg in it.  And some kind of pocket of possibly fried potato?  Or something else, but anyway it was a very bland tasting dish.  I poured every available spice into it and it still tasted like nothing.  The soba noodles were very soft and mushy (which is why I almost always eat them cold, this tends to happen to soba) and there was no texture to the meal.  Great for when I lose all my teeth I guess.  I generally dislike the hot soba/udon dishes, but this was quite unpleasant.

I'll give this place an overall OK due to past experience, but just barely.