Home >  Lifestyle >  Restaurants

Friday, August 09, 2002

By Sarah Billingsley, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Soba is elegant, Soba is expressive, Soba is popular. Soba has style.

	Martinis and chopsticks await a pair of diners at Soba, in Shadyside. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

Soba exists to be stylish: It opened in 1996 as Soba Lounge to bring New York cool to Pittsburgh, and successfully reigned as the bastion of the hot and hip until that black-lacquered, red-velvet incarnation was destroyed by an electrical fire in May 2001.

In May 2002, after extensive renovation, Soba reopened, thoroughly redesigned by New York architect Riva Sloan, who designed Soba Lounge, Kaya and Mad Mex in Oakland and Robinson.

Soba still throbs with self-conscious coolness, but now it is sleek, airy, comfortable and adult. The redesign is a beautiful symbiosis of both Asian and Western Pennsylvanian elements: gleaming tropical woods say Chinese, orderly, spare tabletops Japanese, ochre silk wall hangings Thai. A wall of soot-colored slate with cool water coursing over it -- the renewed Soba's most stunning feature -- and the unobtrusive lines and angles of the interior evoke Fallingwater, a building that in itself evokes the Japanese influence on Frank Lloyd Wright.

Soba's nervy menu is Pan-Asian fusion, drawing together Asian and American ingredients and techniques. Executive chef Jamie Achmoody and sous chef Michael Humphries work at traditional preparations and devise entrees so creative they are almost inconceivable -- but they work.

The menu changes daily to accommodate the best and freshest ingredients -- heavy on good seafood and locally grown vegetables brought in from Penn's Corner Farm Alliance and Chef's Garden in Ohio -- an arrangement both engaging for the kitchen and exciting for the customer. Some items, such as the Pad Thai ($16), are menu constants.

Soba's best-selling dish, seared rare tuna with Korean barbecue sauce ($25), is proof of the kitchen's innovation and commitment to prime ingredients. The slab of tuna is perfectly, lusciously rare -- not just reddish in the middle -- and well-met by a gutsy, sesame-sweet sauce, gingery rice, spicy house-made kimchi and a refreshingly crunchy pickled onion and cucumber salad.

Trout, the all-American fish, is a tender-fleshed stage for a play of complexly sweet and citrus flavors ($24). The fish is stuffed with rich lobster and avocado, laid over a lemon grass-goat cheese risotto and dressed with a sweet orange ginger sauce that tastes different on each part of your tongue.

Panko-coated pork Tonkatsu ($20) is an uncommon treat: crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, sauced with a tingly, sneakily spicy Japanese barbecue sauce.

In an unusual presentation of seared halibut ($24) that reflects Chef Achmoody's training as a graphic artist, reddish Soba noodles, white arms of fish, bay scallops and bias-cut scallions and asparagus spill from a wonton bowl, resembling an exotic sea creature, marooned on a beach. The halibut was slightly overdone, but the scallops were buttery, the noodles firm and fiery.

Soba also does right by its vegetarian customers: one-third of the menu is vegetarian, there's a nightly vegetarian special and many of the small plates -- appetizer or tapas-sized portions -- are meatless. A meal could be made of small plates, split amongst the table, a bowl of electric Penang curry roasted corn chowder ($5.50) and tickly Penn's Corner sprout salad ($5), a jumble of lacy textures and green flavors: minty, woody, spicy.

Raw fish is not unfamiliar at Umi, the 38-seat sushi eatery on the top floor of Soba's building, but Tartar is new to Soba's menu. I'd never eaten raw grouper before, and though it lacked the muscularity and dense flavor of raw yellowfin tuna, it tasted young and floral. A dollop of tobiko caviar (flying fish roe) topped the Tartar -- black for the tuna and wasabi-cured on the grouper -- and I was prickled by hot pops of brine in my mouth until the next course.

Soba's kitchen puts out an occasional misfire. Light, spongy wild mushrooms deserved a crumbly burst of fragile skin, but they were thickly wrapped and under-seasoned as spring rolls ($5). A tempura maki roll ($7) was perfectly crisp, but asparagus, carrots and red pepper cream cheese didn't stand out against the creamy blandness of avocado.

Soba desserts ($5.50-7) are divinely exotic and seasonally light. The coconut creme brulee made me happier than any dessert in a long time: fired in a shallow dish, it was all flame-licked crust of brittle sugar. Starchy red bananas, as base for Soba's florid, nontraditional banana split, showcase homemade ice cream in unusual, delicious flavors like apple pie and avocado.

Soba also boasts an interesting, well-balanced and respectably priced wine list, with bottles from select New Zealand, Australian, German, French, Portuguese, Italian and American vineyards, as well as weekly featured wines. The Callaway Coastal Reserve Viognier we drank by the glass ($10) went nicely with our meals; it's good to have an alternative to merlot or the usual round, buttery chardonnay, a mismatch to a fiery green curry.

Soba also offers sakes ranging in flavor from mineral to sweet, sparkling wines, aperitifs, ports, 14 fanciful martinis -- the Sobatini is ginger vodka, dry vermouth and pickled ginger ($7) -- and drink specials, such as a watermelon Mojito and an Invisible Mary, a Bloody Mary drained of its blood red color and mixed with Thai chili pepper vodka.

At Soba, everything is homemade, from sours mix to kimchi to sorbet. This attention to detail -- and Soba's sleek, Asian style -- is carried through the entire service, from the food on your tongue to the tabletop lanterns to the pebbly chopsticks holders and the oblong, jewel-tone plates.

All this makes Soba an oasis of style in a city of Plain-Jane dining rooms. A long, luxuriant meal at Soba can work up quite a tab, but it's serious, swank food, and they're serious about making you linger, to dine in ease, to return.

Soba
5847 Ellsworth Ave.,
Shadyside
412-362-5656

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

The basics: Upscale pan-Asian cuisine. 140 seats including patio, 20 in lounge; reservations recommended; all major credit cards; first floor is wheelchair accessible, patio and second-floor are not. Smoking is allowed in the lounge and on the patio. Small plates $5 to $9, soups and salads $4 to $8, large plates $16 to $29, desserts $5 to $7.

The last word:

Sarah Billingsley can be reached at sbillingsley@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1661.