Inaba, specializing in Japanese soba noodles, has moved into the inconspicuous South King Street spot previously occupied by Dairyu House of Noodles. It's the newest addition to a chain of seven California restaurants.

Local noodle houses consisting mostly of venerable saimin stands, Chinese-Japanese ramen eateries and Vietnamese phô shops have dominated the scene until recently. Although there are now a few restaurants offering Japanese udon, Korean mul naengmyon (cold noodle soup) and Malaysian-Singaporean laksa, these places often seemed more popular with transplants from their respective countries. Noodles in steaming broth still seem to have the upper hand over somen salads and stir-fried plates of yakisoba.

Inaba takes a risk in setting up shop outside Waikiki and away from Japanese tourist foot traffic. With a very limited menu featuring just a few traditional Japanese favorites, its appeal might be lost to those who desire the inexpensive, hearty portions with assorted toppings that most islanders associate with noodle bowls.

Inaba focuses solely on meals with soba — noodles made from a blend of buckwheat and wheat flours. But this is no ordinary soba. The noodles are made fresh daily from soba flour imported from Nagano, Japan, and the buckwheat itself is hand-harvested.

The most highly regarded soba in Japan, known as Shinano or Shinshu soba, comes from Nagano. The process of hand-making soba is regarded as a skilled art form, and according to some, it takes at least 10 years to master the trick of kneading the dough well.

Buckwheat flour gives soba a subtle, earthier taste, compared with wheat noodles, and well-crafted soba also has a certain elasticity. A complementary sauce or broth — made of varying proportions of dashi, mirin and shoyu — adds a simple but exquisite depth.

However the dough is prepared, noodle-lovers look for particular qualities: that certain chewiness with just the right amount of toothsome give; texture and a bit of character, not stuff gone soft and boring, defeated by time spent too long in hot water.

At Inaba, soba comes just two ways: hot or cold. Served hot in a broth, it is called kake soba. Zaru soba is the cold version, accompanied by a room-temperature tsuyu (dipping sauce), whose flavor can be enhanced with the addition of wasabi and thinly sliced green onion.

Despite a light, clean-tasting broth, I preferred the noodles refreshingly cold; they retained their resiliency better than when sitting in soup. Hot or cold, the broth or tsuyu are pleasantly flavored and not too salty, an all-too-common occurrence in such straightforward food.

Inaba's menu offers only four choices other than plain soba ($8.99 lunch; $10.99 dinner), which includes veggie rice (lightly seasoned with a few edamame beans for color) or steamed rice and a side of crunchy tsukemono (pickles). The set meal selections, all paired with a mini soba, are tensoba (tempura), tempura box (tendon), a slight vinegary battera-zushi (Osaka-style pressed sushi made with mackerel) or a meaty zuke tuna bowl (maguro zuke-don, which is shoyu-marinated tuna over rice). Add $2 and you can get a regular-size portion of noodles ($11.99-$12.99, depending on choices).

Dinner sets range from $16.99 to $20.99 with the addition of two small side dishes. Another change between day and night is the availability of various side orders of crispy tempura in the evening. Two pieces cost $2.99 for vegetables such as lotus root (hasu) and crown daisy (shungiku, an edible-leaved chrysanthemum) and $4.99 for shrimp and whiting, a small, tender white fish.

I enjoyed the texture of pearly, chewy hitomebore ("love at first sight") rice, and a small mound of Okinawan sea salt in which to dip the tempura, leaving a residual sweetness lingering on my tongue. But my guess is that only very discerning customers will be able to notice and appreciate these details for the price, which makes the use of such premium ingredients a gamble for Inaba.

The restaurant's moderate portions will satisfy most people comfortably, but some may look at such a meal as merely appetizer-sized. While slurping noodles inside the eatery's small interior, I felt like I was dining in a simple masu — a box-shaped sake cup surrounded by variations of blond wood and bamboo. Tranquil music usually heard in spa settings has a distinctly water-like quality and aids in creating a relaxing, Zen-like atmosphere.

One word of warning: Skip dessert. Tempura ice cream ($3.99) consisted of small, bite-sized poppers that didn't taste at all like ice cream or even remotely creamy. A waitress explained they were frozen mini cream puffs. Cream mitsumame ($4.99) contains ice cream and a Japanese-style canned fruit cocktail with a few beans in sugar syrup. I'd rather go out for halohalo.

Relatively steep prices, limited menu selections and restrained serving sizes mean that, although I savored the tempura and fish, I would recommend Inaba's glistening zaru soba only to discriminating noodle aficionados willing to splurge a little.

Reach Helen Wu at hwu@honoluluadvertiser.com.