Like, they could’ve just said 蕎麦屋 rather than そば屋 if that restaurant is selling dishes involving soba noodles for example. I’ve seen うなぎ more often when there’s a Kanji for it (鰻) but decide to transcribe it using Kana, same with supermarkets or stores on them writing たまねぎ (玉葱), にんじん (人参), りんご (林檎), まぐろ (鮪). Also stalls that sell takoyaki often write it as たこ焼き (they’ve could used the Kanji for たこ which is 蛸).

For instance: Switzerland has maintained permanent political neutrality since 1815 as they refuse to join military alliances (not a member of NATO), avoid participating in foreign wars and treating warring parties equally under international law. Even though Switzerland has their own military, they rarely get deployed outside their borders (not invading a ME country to commit war crimes) & definitely don’t have over 800 military bases worldwide.