After reading a San Francisco Chronicle food story recently, in which reporter Elena Kadvany lamented that there were only three Japanese restaurants in the Bay Area that offered fresh-made soba, my interest was piqued, especially when chilled fresh noodles would hit the spot like nothing else during our recent, week-long heatwave.

Sobakatsu in San Francisco is the latest place to offer the buckwheat noodles, joining Soba Ichi in Oakland and Leichi in Santa Clara.

The latter is where I headed, located in a nondescript strip mall. Leichi is a small, mom-and-pop Japanese restaurant that puts such unexpected care into everything it does, including simple yet well thought out presentations coupled with the motivation to make so many items in-house.

That includes a zippy ginger ale ($6) that’s full of sweet heat and slices of fresh ginger at the bottom of the glass.

It also includes tofu ($8) made fresh every morning from soy milk. It arrives with soy sauce, sea salt, bonito flakes, ginger, and green onions to garnish as you like. The tofu is the star, though, as soft and creamy as pudding, and imbued with a deep bean-y taste.

Hamachi carpaccio ($14.50) brings slices of the raw yellowtail, buttery and sweet, and dressed with a light soy dressing, sesame seeds, and dabs of a crunchy chili crisp-like condiment minus the heat. The slices are fanned out on a long plate with cherry tomato halves for added color.

Sweet raw shrimp ($4.50 each) are large spot prawns that are indeed so naturally sweet tasting. Remove the body from the head, and your server will ask if you’d like the heads fried to enjoy. Moments later, the heads return, having been dipped in tempura batter then fried to a golden crisp to crunch down on.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an eggplant dish look as pretty as the nasu dengaku ($9.50). A Japanese eggplant gets sliced in half lengthwise and fried. One half is slathered with yellow miso; the other with red miso. Use a spoon to scoop some of each out, both of which are custardy soft. The yellow one is salty and a little sweet, while the darker one more salty and robust tasting.

The grilled salmon collar ($14) is actually larger than my photo shows. But my dining companion, who couldn’t help herself upon seeing the beautiful shiny and charred fish, tore into it before I got a frame off. I can’t blame her, as the fish was so succulent, with a sweet-soy glaze on it.

Leichi’s soba is 80 percent buckwheat flour and 20 percent wheat flour. You can enjoy it either hot or cold, and with tempura or chicken or just broth. When I spied duck soba ($18.50), I zeroed in on it immediately since it’s such a rarity.

Given the torrid weather, I oped for the cold version. A tangle of chilled buckwheat noodles arrived, mounded on a bamboo mat, along with a dish of sliced green onions, and a bowl of warm duck broth with about four slices of juicy, tender, skin-on duck meat in it.

Pick up some noodles with your chopsticks and dunk into the broth to enjoy. The noodles are firm and slippery, with a clean taste that lets the nuttiness come through. Sip the broth and enjoy bites of the duck meat in-between, as you grow more and more content with each mouthful.

In keeping with the soba theme, there’s soba pudding ($7.50) for dessert. Served in a small ceramic cup, it’s creamy, dense, a little grainy, and roasty-toasty tasting. Candied buckwheat groats dot the top to add crunch and subtle sweetness.

When it actually starts feeling like fall, you can bet I’ll be trying the soba hot next time.