We also timed how quickly we could finish the hiyashi niku soba at this popular stamina pork rice bowl chain.
As part of its limited-time summer menu, Densetsu no Sutadonya began selling bowls of hiyashi niku soba (“chilled meat noodles”) last month. Densetsu no Sutadonya, which translates to “legendary stamina donburi shop,” is a chain known for its large pork rice bowls that are said to give you extra energy. The hiyashi niku soba menu item is an offshoot of the rice bowls with ramen-style noodles instead of rice in a chilled, garlicy broth that’s perfect on a hot summer day.
▼ Chilled dishes of all kinds are popular in Japan during the summer–just look for the kanji for “cold” (冷) on a menu.
Hiyashi niku soba sounded like the perfect treat for us to replenish our energy in the midst of Japan’s heatwave, so we headed over to our local branch of the chain. We were greeted by a ticket machine at the entrance with the summertime menu items prominently on display. A regular-sized bowl of hiyashi niku soba was 990 yen (US$6.74), a half-sized version was 490 yen, and a sutadon stamina pork rice bowl (“80-percent-full” size) + half-sized hiyashi niku soba set was 1,190 yen.
However, there was something else that we were after on top of the regular hiyashi niku soba. That thing was the Super Demon Meat Noodles Extra Large Add-on for an additional 880 yen. This extra amount of toppings contains 220 grams (7.76 ounces) of meat and 325 grams of noodles. We paid for our meal and took a seat.
▼ A demon-sized add-on of delicious things? Heck yeah!
Of course, being the intrepid foodie reporters that we are, we also decided to time ourselves eating the dish to see how quickly it disappeared. We figured that its chilled nature would make it fairly easy to down everything in record time.
After about five minutes, restaurant staff called us to pick up our order. The bowl contained a mountainous serving of floating pork rib meat accented with sliced spring onions, a soft-boiled egg, and bamboo shoots, all over a bed of noodles.
We thought the nickname “summer meat iceberg” would be a pretty accurate way to sum it up. It was monstrous!
Starting the timer, we decided to dig in to the noodles first. They were of medium-thickness and chilled, making it easy to slurp up a lot of them at once.
The slices of pork were rich in taste with a garlicy punch. Being chilled also made the umami flavor more distinct and stimulated our appetites at the same time.
At the five-minute mark, we were just over halfway done with the dish.
We steadily kept eating bite after savory bite.
At one point, a container of minced garlic on the table caught our eye.
It might sound crazy to add more garlic to an already garlic-filled dish, but we don’t often have this opportunity and wanted to see if more would enhance the taste.
True to our prediction, the flavor only spurred our appetites on even more as we ticked past the seven-minute mark.
Before long, the meat and noodles were all gone.
However, we weren’t done yet, because we had vowed to finish drinking every last drop of the broth.
At last, it was all gone.
Our final time to finish the bowl clocked in at just over 10 minutes. However, since we had been eating and taking pictures at the same time, we figured that we should only rightfully shave off a little bit of that time.
Densetsu no Sutadonya’s hiyashi niku soba turned out to be the perfect meal to beat the summer heat, and we’d highly recommend trying it for yourself while it’s still on the menu. We’d also caution diners from casually ordering the super demon-sized add-on unless you’re really ravenous.
If a different kind of chilled pork dish is more your style, you may instead want to try the hiyashi dashi katsudon currently being sold at Yoshibei.
Related: Densetsu no Sutadonya
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