Sapporo Food Guide｜Take a look at the food you can't eat outside of Hokkaido!

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🤗 Soup curry

One of Hokkaido's most famous specialties: curry soup stew with a very strong curry flavor at the bottom of the soup!

Curry heads will absolutely love it

The most classic style is the pistol leg soup curry

And it's one of the few dishes in Japan

And it's one of the few dishes in Japan where you get a lot of vegetables.

Pumpkin, potatoes, broccoli, okra...

It's all from Hokkaido.

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Restaurant recommendation: SHO- RIN

A small restaurant that is not very popular on the internet.

But inexplicably a lot of people go there

The soup is good but the vegetables and meat are not very flavorful.

But both the chicken and the pork have a good flavor.

(It may be fishy for those who don't like it)

You can choose your own spice level and add your own vegetables and meat.

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Other restaurants: Garaku

The most famous restaurant, with a long line during peak hours.

🤗 Genghis Khan Kebab

Grilled lamb, a Hokkaido regional specialty

Named for the fact that the grill resembles a Mongolian hat

Sheep were once raised in Hokkaido.

They don't raise them anymore, but they have preserved this way of eating them. Genghis Khan's barbecue involves roasting a fatty piece of meat first.

Then you put the vegetables on top, and then you put the meat on top of the vegetables and cook it.

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Restaurant recommendation: Kirin Beer Garden new building Urban store

A yakiniku and beer buffet in the center of Hosono.

There are many kinds of buffet sets to choose from

In addition to Genghis Khan yakiniku

There's also Hokkaido chicken, pork and wagyu beef.

The basic course includes the two most traditional Genghis Khan lamb dishes, and the beer is Kirin.

Reservations can be made in advance on the website:

https://www.kirinbeer-en.co.jp/mailform/ but only in Japanese.

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Other restaurants: Sapporo Beer Museum's Genghis Khan Grill

It's famous and has a good reputation. It has a wider variety of beers.

But it's far from the city center

🤗 Ramen

There are three major ramen in Hokkaido:

Sapporo Miso Ramen, Asahikawa Soy Sauce Ramen and Hakodate Salty Ramen I personally recommend the Miso Ramen The soup is very thick and rich.

The soup is very rich and can be covered with barbecued pork and Hokkaido's specialty corn.

Compared to the soy sauce ramen, it's a bit bland.

It's more seasoned.

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Recommended restaurants: Sapporo Ramen Street ramen yokocho

A famous ramen street in Sapporo.

There are about a dozen ramen stores in it.

There are a few popular ones where you have to wait in line.

At each store, you can see the chefs frying the soup through the glass.

The barbecued pork is also freshly roasted.

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Other stores: menya saimi

It's a small restaurant in the middle of nowhere, far from the city.

But the flavor is said to be authentic

🤗 Crab dish

Hokkaido is a great place for big crabs.

Matsuba crab, king crab, snow crab, hair crab.

These are Hokkaido's specialty.

Sapporo's Krab Honka, Shogun Krab, Ice Gate.

Crab restaurants like this one.

They serve crab as a set meal.

It's also expensive.

(The cheapest set meal costs 7,000 yen per person.)

In addition to crab restaurants

You can also go to a seafood market to buy live crabs.

(Nijo Market in Sapporo, Hakodate Asaichi in Hakodate)

You can get it processed at a nearby restaurant.

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Restaurant Recommendation: Furukawa-Funrai

A very local crab izakaya with moderate price.

The view from the window is very nice.

You can see the busiest part of the town.

The crab is not as good as the crab restaurant above.

But the price is more affordable

There are a lot of different ways to prepare crab.

Crab sukiyaki, crab sashimi, crab sushi, boiled crab...

I ordered boiled hairy crab and crab sukiyaki, and the crab meat was very fresh.

About 6,000 yen per person.

🤗 Milk & Ice Cream

Besides seafood, Hokkaido's other specialty is dairy products. Fresh milk and ice cream are worth trying.

You can buy milk at convenience stores.

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Store recommendation: Sapporo Nougakko Sapporo Agricultural College

There are many stores in Sapporo.

Their ice cream is 400 yen for a huge scoop.

It's creamy but not too sweet.

It's a good choice for desserts.

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Store recommendation: Kinotoya

A famous ice cream brand in Hokkaido

There are stores at the airport, train station, and Hakano.

The flavor is creamy and not too sweet, and it melts very slowly.

(I don't know how they do it)

It's definitely better than ordinary ice cream on the market.

🤗 Izakaya (Japanese style of Japanese pub)

Izakaya is a traditional Japanese food culture.

Izakaya is one of the few places in Japan where a few friends or a tired person can relax and get drunk.

It's one of the few places in Japan where you can feel free to make a lot of noise.

The food at an izakaya is not the main attraction.

Sake, shochu, beer... that's the main event.

（The first drink is always beer.)

Even if you don't drink, it's highly recommended.

A traditional Japanese izakaya.

The unique food culture and atmosphere

You can't feel it at home.

Some izakayas have a fee

You have to order an appetizer for a few hundred yen.

It's not a forced sale, it's the culture of the place.

The locals sit for a long time while they talk and eat.

The turnover rate is low, so they charge for the table.

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Restaurant Recommendation: Elephant Sake Brewery

Very traditional Japanese style izakaya

Mostly locals

The chef only speaks Japanese

There's no real food at the restaurant.

Just a few hundred yen for appetizers.

Some of them are Hokkaido specialties.

Hokkaido fried chicken, Hokkaido potato fries.

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Restaurant Recommendation: Emisu Shoten

A very lively izakaya

It's completely different from the Elephant and Castle.

But it's also very local, so you have to rely on translation software to communicate with the staff.

In addition to the sake and the atmosphere, the food is very cheap and plentiful.

They specialize in all kinds of skewers.

I highly recommend the sashimi platter. Ten pieces of fish for 800 yen.

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Restaurant Recommendation:Public Ozan Paradise Motsuno Asahachi

They specialize in a variety of beef dishes, including grilled beef kebabs, stewed beef, mixed tripe, etc. The staff is very enthusiastic and speaks a little bit of English.

But since we're full of locals, there's only a Japanese menu.

（There were still locals lining up at 8:30pm.)

The sake is poured right over the top.

There's a lean beef skewer that's so tender it's even more amazing than Kobe beef!

🤗 Souvenir

Hokkaido's most famous souvenir is the

White Lovers and the three French fry brothers.

But the locals actually eat more Rokkanotei sweets.

Japanese desserts are really exquisite.

They look so appetizing.

Sapporo New Chitose Airport has a lot of local brands.

It's more thoughtful to bring them back as gifts than to give them to white lovers.

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Store Recommendation: Rokkanotei

Famous dessert brand in Hokkaido

But not as famous as White Lovers in China

There are branches in Sapporo and Hakodate.

Not only can you buy souvenirs

You can also eat desserts and drink coffee

Highly recommended! Their specialty is the Rum Raisin Cookie.

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Store recommendation: White Lovers specialty store

An ISHIYA dessert specialty store near Odori Station.

Positioned as shown below

(Shiroi no Hito is its most famous brand.)

There are a lot of seasonal specialties.

There are also three-piece and loose White Lovers cookies.

You can only buy them at this store.

Small packages are good for gifts for less important friends.