Hokkaido is famous for its culinary delights, including Genghis Khan BBQ and ramen, both excellent choices.
Additionally, soup curry is another must-try.
One of the renowned soup curry restaurants, Okushiba Shoten, has a branch near Sapporo Station.
The branch is located in the basement of this building.
This building looks like an ordinary office building.
Okushiba Shoten is in the underground mall of this building (Hokuren Building),
and the entrance is marked “PEARL TOWN.”
Once you go down, you’ll find a short underground mall with about 5-6 restaurants.
You’ll immediately spot the famous ramen shop – Ichiryuan.
Walk a bit further, and you’ll see Okushiba Shoten.
I arrived at 11:18, just after it opened.
Quickly, I joined the queue.
At the restaurant entrance, there’s a menu you can study to decide what to order.
The ordering process is as follows:
1. First, choose the soup base. The basic option is chicken broth, but you can add ¥100 for shrimp broth or ¥200 for oyster broth.
2. Next, select the spice level, ranging from 0 to 13, with 0 being non-spicy for children. Levels above 6 require an additional charge.
3. Choose the rice portion size: small, regular, medium, or large. The regular portion is 220g, and the medium is 400g.
4. Finally, select the soup curry toppings.
You can choose one free topping.
The basic vegetables in the soup curry include carrots, cabbage, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, onions, soft-boiled egg, and mizuna.
After waiting for 30 minutes, I finally moved from the last spot in line to the first.
As mentioned, there’s also a Chinese menu available here.
While waiting, a server will come to ask for the number of people and what you want to order.
The poster at the entrance suggests that their signature dish might be the cheese hamburger steak soup curry.
After 46 minutes, I finally got a seat.
Since I was alone, I was seated at the counter.
At this point, there’s no need to order again.
The restaurant provides forks, spoons, and chopsticks.
Generally, using chopsticks and a spoon is sufficient.
You can see two staff members in the kitchen, one handling the soup and the other managing the fryer and griddle.
After sitting down, my meal was ready in 5 minutes.
Let’s take a look at the rice first. It’s only 220g, not much, but the next size up is 400g, which is too much for me.
Since I have plans later, I don’t want to eat too much rice.
Additionally, you can squeeze some lemon on the rice.
When paired with the soup curry, it offers a different flavor.
Now, let’s look at the soup curry.
I added burdock and a soft-boiled egg, so my bowl has a whole soft-boiled egg.
Here’s another angle.
I chose spice level 3.
The hamburger steak is small, just slightly larger than an egg.
Chicken leg.
Soft-boiled egg.
The way to eat soup curry is to scoop a small amount of rice with a spoon, then some soup, and eat them together.
However, I feel that the curry flavor in Okushiba Shoten’s soup is not very strong. You can taste the shrimp, but it’s not overpowering.
Moreover, the soup portion is small, so there’s no need to worry about gout.
The hamburger steak is quite solid and tasty.
Let’s look at the chicken leg.
The chicken leg meat isn’t as tender as rumored; it’s just cooked through.
The chicken leg and soup curry feel like two different dishes forced together.
I’ve experienced this with many other soup curry places as well.
In the end, I finished everything!
The bill came to ¥1700.
Before leaving, I took a photo of the restaurant’s interior.
There weren’t many people inside, plenty of empty tables, but the kitchen couldn’t keep up, so customers had to wait outside.
The counter area.
The counter also sells spices and soup bases, available for purchase if you’re interested.
You can pay in cash or by card.
Receipt ¥1700.
After finishing, I saw at least 30 people waiting in line.
Here’s a summary of my dining experience at Okushiba Shoten near Sapporo Station on February 5, 2020:
My personal conclusion is:
The shrimp soup base is unique, the shrimp flavor isn’t too strong, but the Japanese cabbage is a bit tough.
The chicken leg is moderately tender but lacks flavor.
The hamburger steak is quite good, highly recommended!
Spice level 3: It only tasted mildly spicy, but I was sweating profusely. So strange…
Next time, I’ll skip the chicken leg and just order the hamburger steak.
Okushiba Shoten – Ekimae Soseiji Branch (Mobile Website)(Tabelog)
Payment Methods: Cash, Credit Card, PayPay, Alipay
Business Hours: 11:00~22:00
Address: 〒060-0004 Hokkaido, Sapporo, Chuo Ward, Kita 4 Jonishi, 1 Chome, Hokuren Building B1F
Transportation:
1. About a 7-minute walk from JR Sapporo Station
2. About a 1-minute walk from Exit 23 of Sapporo Subway Station
Map：
『Original Source：https://nicklee.tw/2784/soupcurry-okushiba/』
