We’ve been slurping down news of all the new Japanese noodle shops in Seattle. Samurai Noodle’s pretty good; people like it enough that they’ve got a second location. The noodles themselves are better at Kaname, but the broth is lacking. And we’ve heard some good things about Boom Noodle, though our Japanese friends tell us the ramen is disappointing.

As we hear more and more about great noodles in New York, LA, and Vancouver, our search in the Seattle area continues.

We got a tip that we could find some at Taka Sushi in Lynnwood, the kind of tiny place we typically like. The chef is from Okinawa. We love Okinawan food, from braised pork belly to bitter melon to chanpuru (stir-fry), but the only regional dish on the menu was Okinawa soba. No problem. After sampling some sushi (it was just so-so), we said bring on the noodles!

Nine bucks bought us a bowl that had two tender, fall-off-the-bone pork ribs, along with pickled ginger, fishcakes, and noodles in a pork-dashi broth. As much as we like the liquid bacon taste of Samurai Noodle’s tonkotsu broth, we liked this, as well. The noodles were especially good—thicker than ramen with the right amount of bite. But while we know Okinawa soba isn’t really soba (buckwheat), why did the menu say egg noodles? After finally catching the chef’s attention, he told us he imported them special from Hawaii. We wanted to ask more, but he wasn’t exactly the friendliest guy in town. (No, he wasn’t busy. No, we weren’t trying only in English; one in the party was from Japan.) So we simply slurped away, trying to figure it out on our own, and trying to figure out whether we’d want to return in the future.