Greenpoint Soba Noodle Shop With 100% Buckwheat Bowls: Uzuki

Uzuki, at 95 Guernsey Street in Greenpoint, makes its soba from 100% buckwheat, and the whole menu is marked gluten-free, which is rare even among New York's dedicated soba restaurants. It serves lunch and dinner seven days a week, takes reservations on Resy, and prices its plain Towari Soba at $35. Chef Shuichi Kotani trained at Edo Soba Hosokawa in Tokyo, a shop the restaurant's site notes holds one Michelin star.

Shuichi Kotani's biography on the Uzuki site lists his time at Edo Soba Hosokawa and an appointment in 2022 as a Goodwill Ambassador of Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, a role tied to promoting Japanese food abroad. He has been one of the most visible soba teachers in the United States for years, and Uzuki is where that work turned into a full restaurant.

Uzuki opened on September 7, 2023, according to the local site Greenpointers, inside the newer 50 Norman development that also houses other Japanese food businesses. Three years in, it has settled into the neighborhood as a destination for people who travel specifically for buckwheat, not a casual noodle stop.

Most soba in New York is ni-hachi, a blend with some wheat flour to hold the noodle together. Towari, the style Uzuki serves, uses no wheat at all. The result is a darker, more fragrant strand with a slightly grainy texture that breaks more easily, and it is the only kind of soba that is genuinely safe for people avoiding gluten.

That is why the Towari Soba at $35 is the order to judge the kitchen by. It arrives cold with a dipping sauce, and every bite tells you how well the dough was kneaded and cut. If you only eat one thing here, make it this, and resist the urge to drown the noodles in sauce.

The composed bowls are where Uzuki gets more playful. Ume Shio Soba at $34 is bright and salty with pickled plum, and the Uzuki Soba Salad, also $34, is the lightest plate on the menu. Salmon Ikura Soba at $45 brings salmon and cured roe. Duck Shio Soba at $47 is the richest of the clear-broth bowls and the best pick on a cold Brooklyn night.

Tempura Mochi Vegetable Soba at $42 adds crisp vegetables and chewy fried rice cake, a combination that rarely shows up on New York menus. Black Truffle Curry Soba at $58 is the most expensive bowl and the one to skip on a first visit. Truffle and curry are both loud flavors, and together they bury exactly the delicate buckwheat you came to Greenpoint to taste.

Uzuki serves lunch and dinner every day of the week, and Sunday service wraps up earlier than the rest of the week. Its own homepage and its event sheet list different daily timings, so book a Resy slot rather than turning up near either end of service. A weekday lunch is the calmest way to eat here, with the room half full and the staff free to talk you through the menu.

Reservations are on Resy, and Friday or Saturday dinner deserves a booking. The restaurant's event sheet gives the dining area a capacity of 40, with a patio for 30 more, so walk-ins have a chance on weeknights and on mild evenings when the patio is open. On Sundays, aim for an early dinner rather than a late one.

Uzuki feels more like a modern Brooklyn restaurant than a Tokyo soba counter, with high ceilings and big windows rather than a tiny wooden room. The crowd reflects that: Greenpoint locals on weeknight dates, diners with celiac disease who have finally found soba they can eat, and Japanese food enthusiasts who have followed Kotani's classes and want to taste the restaurant version.

Service is relaxed rather than rushed, which is a contrast to the fast-turning Manhattan soba shops. You can linger over a second bowl without feeling the line pressing behind you.

Uzuki is not the budget option. With the plainest bowl at $35 and most plates in the forties, a meal for two with drinks runs well above what you would pay at a Manhattan soba counter. If price matters more than gluten-free buckwheat, Sobaya on East 9th Street sells a cold Mori Soba for $14, and the trip from Nassau Avenue is a reasonable subway ride away.

The G train at Nassau Avenue is the closest subway stop, a few minutes' walk from the restaurant. From Manhattan, the fastest route is usually the L to Bedford Avenue and a fifteen-minute walk north through Williamsburg into Greenpoint, or a ride on the East River Ferry to the Greenpoint landing followed by a walk inland.

Biking is easy here too, since Greenpoint is flat and the streets around McCarren Park have bike lanes. Leave extra time on weekends, when the G runs less often.

McCarren Park sits just south of the restaurant and is the natural place to walk off a bowl of soba. The track, the playing fields and the restored public pool building fill a long green strip between Greenpoint and Williamsburg, busy with runners and dog walkers until dark.

For a second Japanese stop, the 50 Norman complex itself is worth a look before you leave, since it was built around a group of Japanese craft and food businesses. Then walk up Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint's main street, for Polish bakeries and bars.

Uzuki is at 95 Guernsey Street, Brooklyn, near the Nassau Avenue G stop. The official site lists email contact rather than a phone number. Lunch and dinner are served daily, with an earlier finish on Sunday. Reserve on Resy. The whole menu is 100% gluten-free.

Prices from the current menu: Uzuki Soba Salad $34, Ume Shio Soba $34, Towari Soba $35, Tempura Mochi Vegetable Soba $42, Salmon Ikura Soba $45, Duck Shio Soba $47 and Black Truffle Curry Soba $58. Karpo APP can plan a Greenpoint afternoon with Uzuki and a loop of McCarren Park.