Garden Dining WARAKU （ガーデンダイニング環樂）| Japanese restaurant | Sapporo Grand Hotel

If you like to eat Japanese food while appreciating a beautiful Japanese garden in the Sapporo downtown, I recommend "Garden Dining WARAKU" on the 4th floor in Sapporo Grand Hotel, between JR Sapporo station and Odori Park.

Let's enter the restaurant!

I reserved a window table so that we can enjoy the Japanese garden!

Look at the dry landscape garden! It's so beautiful!

Let's start the sparkling water! The tongs are made of bamboo. So fashionable, don't they?

I ordered this udon set.

This is Inaniwa udon, one of the three famous udon in Japan.　The noodles have a typical chewing texture derived from the combination of toughness and elasticity!

I love tempura! The ingredients; prawns, eggplant, and shiitake mushroom are of course delicious, and I love the crispy deep fry batter!

This is today's spacial including sashimi (tuna and yellow tail), grilled cero, fish paste with sea urchin, salted shrimps, fried egg, cooked vegetables, and so on. We can enjoy some in-season ingredients here!

The restaurant is a little bit expensive, but the garden is so recommendable!

■Where is Sapporo Grand Hotel?■

The restaurant is on the 4th floor in the hotel.

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■Tour guide information■

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I'll guide you! Plz click here!

Hoku-Hoku-An （ほくほく庵） | Tempura & Nabeyaki Udon Restaurant | Naganuma

On the weekend, I was driving in a rural area to go to my favorite udon restaurant.

*Udon is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle popular in Japanese cuisine. It is usually served hot as noodle soup in a mildly flavored broth.

I've found it! This is a sign of the restaurant!

”Hand-kneaded udon Hoku-Hoku-An" is always packed with customers during the lunch time.　

The owner had run a popular udon restaurant in Sapporo for about 20 years and now has this shop in Naganuma, 1 hr drive from Sapporo. He had learned the secret recipe in Shikoku, a sourthern part of Japan, which is the home of Sanuki udon! That's why his udon is special and has a lot of fans!

This building is very fashionable!

It has a small garden........

a pretty wreath.........

and cute cactus pots.

This noren, short curtain, has also charm!

The restaurant has some normal tables but I like to take a seat at this LONG table just behind the BIG windows so that I can enjoy eating udon while looking around the rural beauty!

The window frames are just like painting frames! I like the sense of the owner!

We ordered one cold udon and one hot udon, because the texture and flavor of udon can change depending on the temperature!

This is a special nabeyaki udon, hot udon served in a pot with broth. We were surprised to see the BIG size!!! 

HOT, HOT, HOT!!! But delicious!

I really enjoyed this udon! The mission completed!

Then we ate udon with tempura!

The udon noodles are shiny! If you enjoy udon itself, I recommend cold udon! Combination of toughness and elasticity is the essential chewing texture of a tasty udon!

This is tempura! They use local ingredients.

I like shrimp,

but I love local vegetables like this↓

They serve sweets without food additives. I like the policy of this restaurants!

I bought a tube cake!

I really enjoyed the weekend!

■Where is Hoku-Hoku-An?

If you don't like to wait for a while, plz avoid the lunch hours!

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!

Iwaki （いわき）| Gigantic Tempura Rice Bowls Restaurant | Naganuma

It is snowing in Hokkaido even in May!! It's spring right now, right?  Do you believe it?????

Today I went to Naganuma town in order to eat famous huge tempura bowls! It takes within 1 hr from Sapporo, but look at the traffic signal! It has only one color, blinking the light ((((((ﾉﾟ⊿ﾟ)ﾉ

This is the destination! I cannot wait to eat jumbo tempura!!!

I was so excited to see this menu! Wow wow wow wow.......(-_＼)(/_-)三( ﾟДﾟ)

This is a tempura bowl set called "Akajidon, or Tempura Rice Bowl in Deficit!" I like this name о(ж＞▽＜)ｙ ☆
I put my iPhone as a measure beside the tempura bowl! You can imagine how titanic it is!

 

Five pieces of massive prawn tempura !!!!!

And Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong!

This is a different tempera bowl set, named "Kurojidon, or Tempura Rice Bowl in Surplus"! Hahahahah (*^▽^*)

It has five pieces of mammoth crab tempura! It's more than I can imagine!

If you need more source, you can pour it like this!

There are small jars on the table like this and we can eat pickled green chili and salt-cured squid guts, if you like!

 I love them! The squid really goes well with sake or beer!

You can take flakes of tempura free of charge, but I was too full to enjoy the great service (￣_￣ i)

■Where is the restaurant in Naganuma town?

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!

Koropokkuru-sansou （コロポックル山荘） | Soba Restaurant in the Forest | Ebetsu

Today, I set a quick access to my favorite soba (buckwheat) noodle  restaurant in my navigation system.

We went through a countryside like this↓

The restaurant is on the hill and we turned off the pavement onto this dirt road↓

We arrived the destination! 

There's nothing but this building.

But whenever we visit this shop, some customers are always enjoying soba here even though it is located on the hill. Amazing! Where do they come from????

We entered the house.
Look at the atmosphere! Very traditional Japanese style, isn't it?

I remember this "museum" clock was in my grandma's house !! That reminds me of my grandma smiling all the time!

Through the window, we can enjoy the nature and fresh air! Very relaxing!!!

I've already known this owner takes apprentices, but today I discovered "A" name on the plate. I met the person through my job last month! What a small world!

Whatever you order, you can eat this deep-fried soba as an appetizer.
It's full of soba flavor!

First, we ordered this cold soba with vegetable tempura!

If you appreciate soba itself and its flavor, I really recommend cold soba! The handmade noodles are unbelievably wonderful!!!

 

Next, we eat this warm soba with tempura!
This is a warm version of the first soba, but tastes really different!

Last but not least, we ate this cold soba with grated bitter daikon radish, the most popular soba menu in this restaurant. Usually Japanese eat soba with grated wasabi condiment, but I prefer this Japanese horseradish.

Looks & smells very delicious, doesn't it? I love this soba flavor! Do you know that it's polite to slurp up noodles in Japan? Of course, I enjoyed slurping :)

After eating soba, we enjoyed this soba soup. I love it!

I want to come here again in the soba harvesting season in order to eat freshly harvested soba! Smells very different!!

■Area information■
This restaurant is in Ebetsu.
See? The shop is in the forest :)

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■Tour guide information■

Do you need a nationally-licensed English-speaking tour guide when you travel to Hokkaido?

I'll guide you! Plz click here!