Soup Curry Sapporo -Five restaurants reviews

Soup curry is one of my favorite Japanese cuisines and Sapporo is the birthplace of this phenomenal invention. To know more about Soup Curry itself and its history click here. I am always on a hunt to find the best soup curry among the 200 odd Soup Curry shops in Sapporo. Below are the reviews of few of the Soup Curry restaurants in Sapporo, some of which are popular, while others are unknown gems.

 1 Okushiba Shoten Ekimae Soseiji Soup Curry Shop

2. Soup Curry Tatsuki

3. Tiger Soup Curry

4. Voyage Soup Calyi

5. Cocoro Soup Curry Restaurant

6. Asian Bar Ramai (Update)

7. Rojiura Soup Curry Samurai (Update)

Ordering a soup curry usually follows the norm of choosing a soup base, the main ingredient (meat or vegetables), free or extra toppings, hotness level (kara sewa) and the size/type of rice. Although all restaurants have a range of drinks, I always go for the Lassi.

Okushiba Shoten Soup Curry  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

One of the best soup curry shops in Sapporo. I have been to Okushiba Shoten in Pearl town twice and had to wait as they do not take reservations. The restaurant has a nice and cozy wooden interior. You will also find notebooks to scribble and photo albums with picture of the staffs on your tables to keep you entertained while waiting for your meal to arrive.

Okushiba`s soup is flavorsome and comes with a choice for both the soup base and meat. The dishes are loaded with a variety of fresh vegetables. Recommended dish is the Shrimp based soup with Hokkaido Chicken leg. They also serve a smoked shrimp soup base, but this elusive dish is very limited and never available after 1pm. If you like your curries really hot, then order Kara Sewa more than 4. I love the Berry Lassi at Okushiba.

Price : 1500 JPY per person approximately.

Website  and  English menu is available

Location :  PearlTown

Soup Curry Tatsuki ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Soup Curry Tatsuki is a hidden gem in Sapporo. It was suggested to me by a local friend. I was skeptical about this restaurant during my first visit, mostly due to the odd location. To my surprise, Tatsuki has a unique charm to its atmosphere. It`s a Jazz themed restaurant playing really cool Jazz and the 70`s and 80`s soul music. The décor is very nice, complete with a collection of many old records. They also have a separate menu for Hamburgu (Japanese hamburger steak) .

Tatsuki offers shrimp-tomato and shrimp-charcoal soup base. The soups are rich and the charcoal base has a unique texture, which I love. So far I have never come across a charcoal based soup. Be careful of Kara sewa at Tatsuki, anything above 5 might burn your tongue. Recommended is Charcoal Black Ebi soup base with pork or chicken and Lassi. Don’t forget to smile after the meal to show off your beautiful black teeth 😆

Price : 1200 – 1500 JPY per person approximately.

Only Japanese menu is available but this place is so epic that I have translated in English for you.

Location : Catch a JR train from Sapporo station to Soen and walk for about 5-10 minutes. Click here for directions.

Tiger Soup Curry ★ ★ ★☆☆

I randomly visited Tiger soup curry and I am glad that I did.  As the name suggests, it has a quirky Jungle themed interior with tiger figurines everywhere. For all Rap music lovers, Tiger plays hardcore rap with all the expletives  😉 .

Tiger`s serves appetizing soups with a choice of meats such as beef, chicken or pork. The vegetables in the curry are also quite different from the other restaurants that I have tried. The soup curry will be served boiling hot so just be careful. Recommended is Stamina Pork soup curry with Coconut Lassi.

Price: 1200-1500 JPY per person approximately.

Only Japanese menu is available.

Location: 5 minutes walk from Kita 24 Subway or Bus station. Click here for directions.

Voyage Soup Calyi  ★ ★ ★ ☆☆

Voyage is probably one of the more popular soup curry restaurants in Sapporo. It has a very Indian/hippy theme. You might need to wait to get a seat at Voyage as it`s a busy restaurant.

Soup at Voyage has a lot of flavor to it and you can either choose the soup based on the day you visit or just go with a regular soup base. A bowl of soup curry at Voyage will have a decent portion of soup but the vegetables and meat amount is lacking in comparison to the other restaurants. Also, Voyage`s serving bowl has a weird mound in the middle, which actually made scooping of the soup difficult. Kara Sewa level is up to 5 and number 2 or 3 is perfect for people who like it hot. Recommended is Crispy Chicken and vegetable with soup of the day. The Lassi at Voyage failed to impress me.

Price: 1000 – 1700 JPY per person approximately.

 Website and  Japanese menu available.

Location – 5 minute walk from Kita 24 Subway Station. Click here for directions.

Cocoro Soup Curry Restaurant  ★ ★☆☆☆

Cocoro soup curry turned out to be my least favorite soup curry restaurant in Sapporo so far. It made my list because it is recommended my many. Although, the ambiance at Cocoro is quite lively, it doesn’t have anything unique about it. I felt, they made a halfhearted attempt to give the shop a music theme. The restaurant has good space inside and you will not feel crammed in.

Cocoro`s soup base was quite thin and lacking the depth of flavors. The soup base is primarily tomato and you can choose the main ingredient of your soup. The serving size was filling and the choice of vegetables was interesting. Cocoro has a kara sewa level up to 100, but anywhere between 6-10 is good for your cravings of chilly. They also give a piece of nori (seaweed) with rice and that goes well with the dish. Worth mentioning fact is that Cocoro was the cheapest restaurant among the list. The Lassi at Cocoro was quite pleasing.

Price : 1000 – 1300 JPY per person approximately.

Website and English menu available.

Location : Best option is to walk from Kita 12 or Kita 18 Subway station. Click here for directions

 UPDATE

Asian Bar RAMAI ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Ramai is a chain of Soup curry restaurants with shops at three different locations in Sapporo. We visited the restaurant at Kita-33 jyo and had to wait for a while as it was quite busy on that day. Ramai has a very different ambience to all of the above mentioned restaurants. I loved the Balinese style decor of the restaurant with a dungeon like feel to it.  The restaurant also has semi private rooms for groups and a parking lot as well. Asian Bar Ramai is the largest of all the other soup curry restaurants we have been so far.

The restaurant serves chicken based soup with a rich flavour and lots of vegetables. You can choose from chicken, pork, shrimp, tofu or more vegetables to go with your curry. They also serve miso based beef soup curry. Kara-seva ranges from 1-10 and anywhere between 4-7 is good for spice lovers. The recommended lassis at Ramai were very delicious and went great with the spiciness of the curry. My love for Soup Curry will definitely take me to Ramai again.

Price : 1000 – 1500 JPY per person approximately.

Website in Japanese and so is the menu.

Location: 8 minutes walk from Kita 34 Subway station on Namboku Sen (green line)

Rojiura Soup Curry Samurai ★ ★☆☆☆

Soup Curry Samurai has stores at four different locations in Sapporo and after reading rave reviews, we went to the store at Kita 19. The restaurant looked quite busy which further raised my expectations. However, as soon as I had the first taste of my fried Chicken and vegetables curry with tomato base Kara-seva  5, reality struck me in the face. Although I was happy with the crunchiness of the vegetables and softness of Chicken in my bowl, I was disappointed with the soup. It lacked the soupy texture and was thick like an Indian curry. To add up to my disappointment, the Berry Lassi I ordered was not sweet enough and also not properly aerated, giving me a feeling of drinking a thick Berry flavoured  Yoghurt.

On the positive side, the shop had a good service and ambience. English menu is also available. Will I ever go to Soup Curry Samurai ? May be not.

Price : 1150 – 2000 JPY per person approximately.

Website in Japanese .

Updated Location: 2 minutes walk from Kita 24 Subway station on Namboku Sen (green line)

Have you ever been on a soup curry hunt? Which is your favourite restaurant? Share your experience of these restaurants and others with me by commenting below.

As always thank you reading