Occidental noodles can be found at Chirorin Mura, which opened in 2004 at Tanuki Koji W6. This chain is a longtime pasta favorite, with other downtown branches at S2W2 on the B1 floor of the Ships Building, and at N1W2 on the B1 floor of the Tokeidai Building next to the Sapporo Clock Tower. A generous plate of pasta will set you back 600 and 800 yen, 100 yen more for the heaping ohmori (large serving).
Because the Japanese menu is many times more extensive than the "Engrish Menu" (rare candor there), I'll give the Japanese names of recommended dishes. There's karubonaara (carbonara; 1000 yen), ebi no tomato sohsu (shrimp with tomato sauce), ika to nasu no tomato sohsu (squid and eggplant with tomato sauce), and chikin no kuriimu sohsu (chicken with cream sauce, garnished with spinach). A funkier choice is the asari beikon suupu supagetti, pasta in a salty broth of clams and bacon, the perfect meal for a chilly day. I shy away from the even wilder selections, like pasta with potatoes (that taco butty haunts me still). Sets, from 1300 yen, include a pasta entre, drink, salad and dessert, but the only reason to order the set is for variety, since the a la carte servings of spaghetti are ample.

My only quibble is the smoky air, and this applies to all their locations. The good news at the Tanuki Koji branch: You'll rarely have to wait for a seat, even during the lunch rush. As at Ootoya and Hoshino, the menu is the same for lunch and dinner, weekdays and weekends, making these places super value all the time.

Why are the great Chinese restaurants always tucked away in residential neighborhoods? It's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, as Churchill might have said, although judging from his girth he'd have enjoyed Yohgenkyoh, two and a half blocks west of Nakajima Park, at S12W8, behind Nakajima Junior High School. I cook so much that I rarely eat out in my neighborhood. For Yohgenkyoh I make an exception.
The weekday dim sum (yamu-cha) lunch is a steal. Choose from among 17 stir-fried dishes, buns and dumplings, at 700 yen for 4 dishes, 800 yen for 5 dishes, and 900 yen for 6 dishes. Hearty soup, pickles and tea are complementary with these sets, but rice is extra. You might want to choose fried rice as one of the included dishes. It's dotted with savory Chinese sausage. A delightful study in contrasts is the kikurage tamago itame (stir-fried eggs with tree-ear mushrooms), available as a dim sum choice and a dinner entre. The dim sum photo-menu is intuitive.
Dinner is pricier, but the choices become more exotic. Even with the photo menu you may not know what you're looking at, which will either frustrate you or give you a thrill, depending on how you feel about the culinary deep end of the pool. The buta-niku hosogiri to tenmenjan itame (1200 yen) is a must: Strips of pork are flavored with sweet bean sauce and served with scallions and cilantro. You roll these in skins made of bean flour, with the fragrant coriander offsetting the tangy pork. Yohgenkyoh's specialty is Northeastern Chinese home-style cooking, as seen from the great number of potato and bread dishes. The chuugoku inaka-fu no chi-no-sachi itame (900 yen) features potatoes and green peppers. It translates as "stir-fried harvest of the Chinese back-country." Soup entres include the kaisen booru-iri hoorenso suupu (900 yen): fish balls and spinach in a clear broth. Expect to spend about 2000 yen per person on dinner, well worth it for Chinese this authentic and hearty, and service this warm and able.

I love ethnic food, but I hate esunikku food -bastardized cooking that blunders into taco butty-land. Sapporo finally got its first real Thai restaurant when Jitrada opened in 2000 at S4W5, two doors north of the Sunkus convenience store. Behind the suspiciously windowless wooden door is the finest Thai food in Sapporo, brought to you by a Thai cook and her Japanese husband.
The menu is trilingual, so I'll give the dishes by their English names here. The standards - raw spring rolls (580 yen) and fried rice noodles Thai style (phat thai; 780 yen) - are solid. The spicy grilled chicken (1000 yen) has enough heat to let you know they're not fooling around. The green chicken curry will have you sweating, and the red pork curry, marked with a triple-chili on the menu, will have you crying like the woman in the Thai travel commercial (Hontoni naku, yo!). My personal favorite is the minced chicken salad (750 yen), whose light dressing captures all the fire and subtlety of Thai cuisine: oniony sweetness balanced by lime sourness, hot chilies balanced by cool mint. The stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts (780 yen) borrows from Chinese and is safer for those with a delicate tongue. More unusual is the stir-fried morning glory (850 yen), a classic Thai vegetable. Order it in season, from spring through fall.
On weekends Jitrada caters to a sell-out crowd, so it pays to make reservations. Unlike the restaurants mentioned above, Jitrada is closed for lunch.

French food in Japan depresses me. It never seems worth it to pay 5000 yen for expensive tablecloths and food that looks better than it tastes. It's all so superficial.
Ichiro is that rare French restaurant of substance, worth the ten-minute hike from the Nishi Nijuuhatchome Subway Station to Miyanomori 3-jo, 5-chome. Named after the owner and not the baseball player, this modestly priced gem belongs in the big leagues of Sapporo French cuisine.
The menu, in Japanese, features a 3,500-yen set that includes an appetizer, soup, main dish, bread, dessert and coffee. (There is an extra charge of a couple of hundred yen for a few entre selections.) The list of appetizers and main dishes goes to only seven each, but this is understandable for a neighborhood restaurant like Ichiro. What's important is that every dish is sublime. For seafood, don't miss the saamon marine (marinated salmon) appetizer. The pooku roosu niku no sumibiyaki entre is charbroiled tender pork of a grade far above what you see in the supermarket. The broiled suzuki (sea bass) entre is crisp and succulent, with an herbed sauce. I can never figure out what's in it, but it brings tears of joy to my eyes. It's the best fish I've had anywhere in Japan.
The 4000-yen set entitles you to a second main dish of your choice, but that might not leave room for dessert - or, rather desserts. You see, Ichiro has the sweetest of dilemmas. They're rightfully proud of their crme brule, but they want to leave you some choice. Their solution is to include the crme brule with every set dinner, but to give you an additional dessert of your choice. Two desserts: dilemma solved.
The house wines are reliable, usually a Chilean for 600 yen per glass, a Californian for a little more, and a French above that. Visit the cozy wine cellar to see the fine collection, or just to steal a kiss from your date.
Ichiro has lunch sets from about 1500 yen, but dinner is a better value. The terra cotta walls and stone floors are fancy enough for a romantic date, but casual enough to make you feel comfortable. The service is impeccable, and they take reservations. Although Ichiro is the most expensive of the restaurants here, it gives even greater value than the others, quite a feat for a lineup like this.

Phone
Ootoya: 011-219-1187
Hoshino: 011-221-8808
Chirorin Mura, Tanuki Koji Branch: 011-261-1112
Jitrada: 011-232-3150
Yohgenkyoh: 011-533-7751
Ichiro: 011-644-0610



<< BACK