My favorite places to eat the 10 Most Popular Hokkaido Dishes!
- Miso Ramen
- Shio Ramen
- Curry Udon
- Jingisukan
- Soup Curry
- Butadon
- Asahikawa Ramen
- Robatayaki
- Matsumaezuke
- Uroko Dango
1. Miso ramen
Miso ramen is a ramen noodle that originates in Sapporo, in which the soup is miso base, broth, and onions in a wok. It is then topped with bean sprouts, sliced pork, and green onions like the other ramen, but it is also popular to add sweet corn and butter as it is a specialty of the region.
While many other ramen use noodles that are straight, the miso ramens have curly noodles called chijire men=ちぢれ麺, which the locals love! I definitely prefer the curly noodles, too...!
My personal favorite miso ramen shop is Shirakaba Sanso and Shingen!
- Shirakaba Sanso Chitose Airport and Sapporo Station
- Shingen
2. Shio Ramen
Distinguished by the use of salt as the main seasoning in the broth, shio ramen is one of the four main flavor-based ramen categories. Like other ramen varieties, it combines three crucial elements: flavorful broth, noodles, and various toppings.
Although pork is occasionally added, most versions employ seafood-based or chicken-based broths, which yield a light, clear soup with a strong, salty taste. The broth is usually paired with straight, thin noodles, and comes topped with Japanese-style pork belly known as chashu, scallions, hard boiled eggs, and wakame seaweed.
Out of the main ramen broth which is tonkotsu, miso, shoyu, and shio (salt), I'd say shio is the least common. But in South Hokkaido in Hakodate, shio ramen is the norm!
It's believed that migrants from China from Guangdong and Nanjing are the ones that introduced shio ramen to Japan when Hakodate port opened during the late Edo Period.
The base of the soup is called Chintan 清湯 soup, which is a clear-looking broth from chicken and pork bones.
My personal favorite shio ramen is Ajisai!
Ajisai can also be eaten in Ramen Kyowakoku in Sapporo Station!
3. Curry Udon
Curry udon is a thick Japanese noodle made from wheat flour, served in a bowl of Japanese curry.
The curry is more of a thick gravy, so we add dashi to the curry. It's very common for Japanese households to make curry udon when we don't have enough curry left to make it in a dish.
I've never actually eaten curry udon in Biei, but it sounds tempting to try as the area is very well-known for pork. Next time I'm there, I will give the curry udon with shabu shabu pork a try :)
But curry udon is all about the dashi broth mixed with the curry. Dashi is the best in Kyoto!
Konaya and Tsurutontan are easy-to-access chains in Tokyo that I loved. If you are into udon, then Tsurutontan has a unique vibe/concept in each outlet, and there is also an outlet in Haneda if you're using the airport!
4. Jingisukan
I remember being surprised that the typical meat the Sapporo people eat as shabu shabu is lamb when my family first moved into Sapporo.
Mutton and lamb are very popular among the Hokkaido people and we have a local dish Jingisukan. The dish is typically prepared on a convex-shaped grill. It will have sliced mutton or lamb meat, along with various vegetables such as bean sprouts, onions, cabbage, and leeks.
Matsuo Jingiskan from Takikawa is a well-known chain from Takikawa City. They marinate grated apples and onions in the meat to enhance the flavor of the jingisukan!
I've only had jingisukan in Sapporo Beer Museum. The traditional building has a nice ambiance, and it's a good experience. I personally prefer beef, pork, chicken, and seafood... We have all sorts of ramen, soup curry, ...and even Italian and French restaurants are exceptional. So I haven't had the opportunity to go for jingisukan often, but reading about Matsuo Jingisukan made me want to try!!
5. Soup Curry
Winter is perfect for soup curry in Hokkaido! My go to shop is just 5 min walk from Sapporo Station.
— Ryu Aomi (@ryu_aomi) January 21, 2023
The deep fried veges are worth the wait. The chicken is nicely tender, broth very fragrant.
Usually no crazy wait like Garaku which is nice, too :)#soupcurry #Hokkaido #Foodie pic.twitter.com/VkseUgMKNJ
Soup curry is a fragrant curry soup from Hokkaido. It is usually served with chunks of meat such as chicken legs and bigger-cut vegetables.
It's believed that the owner of a cafe Ajenta was the first to come up with the idea. The owner is from Toyama, one of the biggest medicine areas in Japan, and wanted his customers to have a healthier curry. He came up with Yakuzen curry=薬膳カリィ which translates to "medicinal curry." Yakuzen curry was a medicinal curry soup without meat and vegetables.
A restaurant Magic Spice later took the idea of Yakuzen curry and an Indonesian chicken soup dish Soto Ayam to make it into the current Soup Curry we have today.
There are so many soup curry restaurants in Sapporo...but I personally like these two!
6. Butadon
Butadon is a bowl of rice that is topped with sliced fatty pork cooked in a slightly sweet soy sauce.
Where the dish originates in Obihiro, which is a huge meat and dairy area of Hokkaido. If pork or beef is your thing, this city is one of my favorite destinations to recommend.
Butadon's history started here!
Not only butadon but yakiniku is amazing! Dorobuta or Mud pork is a pork brand that comes from Obihiro, and even the fat has a rich but also clean taste...
I used to live in Sapporo and Niseko area, so I used to go for butadon in Rusutsu!
Rusutsu Pork is famous as the pork is fed with a lot of local herbs. Kitajima Pork from Yoichi is also a brand from Yoichi that we love.
7. Asahikawa ramen
Asahikawa is another very interesting gourmet area of Hokkaido. It's a big city relatively in the center of Hokkaido, and the best ingredients of Hokkaido are usually from East Japan.
So in a lot of cases, the ingredients are shipped to Asahikawa to be distributed elsewhere. This is why you'll find very tasty food here, and the bill is very friendly, too.
Santoka is a ramen shop that is famous across Japan, for having umeboshi salted plum on top. But my personal favorite is Tenkin. It's an orthodox shoyu soy sauce ramen, but it's so rich in flavor... I keep going back when I'm in Asahikawa. Along with Kirita Seimen, these two are my favorite shoyu ramen!
8. Robatayaki
Robatayaki 炉端焼き or robata which can translate to "fireside cooking" is a traditional Japanese cooking technique originating from Sendai and Hokkaido. According to the restaurant Robata in Kushiro, the shop was founded in 1953. The founder heard about a restaurant in Sendai that has a fireplace that is surrounded by customers' seats, and the fireplace will be used to warm the Japanese sake. The cooking of traditional dishes will be done in a separate kitchen and served to the customers.
The founder of Robata took the idea to the current style where the cooking is done in the fireplace so the customers can actually see the local ingredients being cooked.
The customers were mainly officials and executives visiting the fishing town, but restaurants that adopted the same style spread in Kushiro, then to major cities of Hokkaido like Sapporo and Asahikawa.
In the fireplace, mainly local vegetables, seafood, and meat are cooked over hot charcoal.
Kushiro is just 1-hour drive away from one of the best oyster towns in Japan, Akkeshi. The raw oysters taste absolutely beautiful but I'm tempted to robata eat it!!
9. Matsumaezuke
Matsumaezuke 松前漬け is a Japanese pickle we eat with rice, which is a mix of thin slices of dry squid and konbu seaweed, and chunks of herring roe. The ingredients are pickled in a mixture of sake, soy sauce, and mirin.
Matsumae is a small town near Hakodate. It's along the Tsugaru Kaikyo which is known to have the best tuna in Japan! It's also a big squid and herring area, which is how Matsumae zuke was invented. It's very cold in the winter, so matsumaezuke was traditionally made to stock for winter!
You'll find it sold in supermarkets and department stores in Hokkaido! 100g will be around 600~1200JPY, but I actually prefer the cheaper ones that are more konbu than there are roe. If it's just konbu, it's too simple while having a little bit of the roe and squid makes it very rich in taste and texture!
10. Uroko Dango
Also known as fish scale dumplings, uroko dango is a Japanese dango variety originating from Fukagawa city. The wagashi 和菓子 or Japanese dessert has been sold in Fukagawa Station since 1913 when Fukagawa was connected with Rumoi to transport coal and herring to the major cities of Hokkaido!
Uroko Dango is made of rice, flour, and sugar. The ingredients are kneaded together, steamed, then cut into triangles with a serrated knife, making the final product visually reminiscent of fish scales, hence the alternative name of this dango.
Uroko Dango Honpo is the place that came up with the dango!!
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