Honke Tsuruki (本家鶴喜そば) has been making soba in Nagahama for generations, and the restaurant remains the most reliable address in the city for a proper bowl of handmade buckwheat noodles. The broth is a delicate kombu and katsuobushi dashi, clear and pale gold, gentle enough not to overpower the nutty flavour of the noodles themselves. You can order zaru soba (cold, with a dipping sauce) or kake soba (hot, in broth); both are good.
The wider Nagahama food scene is worth exploring beyond soba. Yakitori stands around the old streets do brisk business in the evenings, and izakayas near the station serve Lake Biwa fish alongside standard Japanese pub fare. For the adventurous, funazushi — wild carp from the lake that has been packed in salt and fermented in rice for up to five years — is the region's signature preserved food. It tastes intensely sharp and salty, with a funk that is challenging but interesting. A small serving is the way to approach it for the first time.