Here is my order of Kamo Seiro, cold soba with a soup of sliced duck breast. Duck in Japan is the same cut. A very lean inch and a half wide strip of meat capped with a thin rim of rich duck fat. Whether in soup or salad, always cut the same way. In the back is a dish of sansho - a peppery, tounge-numbing spice to add to the soup.
A good look at the soup. It was rich, but not salty. More flavored by duck and meat than soy sauce. I've had some that were way too soy saucy. The duch had given off its richness and fat. I'm regretting not taking a piece out of the soup and photographing it seperately. What set this heads and shoulders - and duck breast - above other chicken or duck soup preparations with soba was this duck was undeniably roasted and browned and the soup was made from the drippings. Clearly a western influence, but the flavor and umami of true browned meat can't quite be replicated by fermentation of soybeans and the natural MSG found in kelp. This was the bone sucking, finger-licking gravy good of a brown sauce, and everyone at the table, except host father, thought it was the best soup theyve had.
Last, but not least, the hand made- although machine cut soba. When you are cranking trhough probably about 300+ guests a night the handcut thing is hard, but they do make their own soba dough in Gonpachi and make it very well. I'd call it a medium bodied soba, not inaka, but not too fine either. 
Really an appitizer but I put it after the soba. Zaru, homemade tofu. Soft, creamy as any custard, with a sutble but not overpowering flavor of the beans from which it was made from. You eat this with a little sea salt and wasabi. I wouldn't go a meal without it at gonpachi. Supposedly Matsugen in NYC also has one that rocks.
A gi
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