Hokkaido sushi & ramen — Restaurant in Saint-Malo

man, idk. this is just not legit.

first, the attitude - we got there before 7 pm, and they immediately told us they were fully booked but could “squeeze us in” if we finished in 45 minutes. ok, fair enough, but the service felt unwelcoming, which was unexpected. normally, you’d expect the friendly, super-polite japanese hospitality, but not here. the response felt abrupt, like they were in a rush to turn us away or make us order to go.

second, the food - absolutely disappointing and unauthentic. we ordered two ramen and some beef skewers. the skewers? made from thin, frozen beef slices you can get from the supermarket for 10 euros a box, except here, you get two tiny slices for five euros, stuffed with some random cheese. like… why? then the ramen—soggiest, most flavorless bowl of noodles i’ve ever had. feels like they boiled the noodles hours before and just let them sit there until someone ordered.

my friend loves adding vinegar to his food, especially noodles, so we asked for some. weirdly, they responded, “we don’t have chinese vinegar.” but we had only asked for vinegar in general, not anything specific. since we were speaking chinese to ourselves, we talked to them only in english, they seemed to assume we wanted chinese vinegar rather than just any vinegar at all. it was surprising that they didn’t have any vinegar available. 🥸

when my friend confronted them about the soggy noodles, the response was even worse. they straight-up said, “this is how we do it, we don’t do it the chinese way.” like… what? girl, are you for real? the racial profiling was obvious. mind you, we’ve both been to japan countless times—don’t lie and act like this is standard when it’s not. after some back-and-forth, they clearly didn’t want to make a scene, so they eventually made my friend a new bowl.

and about the soggy noodles—so bad i just didn’t eat. i didn’t see the point in asking for a remake since the broth itself lacked flavor, so i just left it. my friend, though, got his new bowl, and for that i will give them two stars instead of one.

the pic is my bowl of ramen and the video is to show how soggy the noodles were—you can literally split them...

Clearly labelled vegetarian options but you have to check with the waiter if they are vegan. I had the veggie (which is also vegan) poke bowl. There were elements on the menu listed that didn’t appear in the actual dish eg the edamame beans and cashew nuts, but that wasn’t too bad, they just didn’t tell you. The portions were quite small and served in takeaway tableware. There are about 3 tables in total as it’s a very small eatery, but you can get a takeaway and sit in if someone leaves in the time you’re waiting to collect it. The service is super smiley and friendly. Little to no knowledge of English so you’ll need some basic French to order, if you’re coming from afar...

A small place which mainly serves sushi, ramen and poké bowls. The staff were friendly. Based on the other reviews we decided to avoid the ramen and ordered sushi (ones without raw fish), yakitori and poké bowls. We liked the food and found it a welcome change of cuisine on our trip to St Malo.

The food is available to eat in or takeaway. However, there are only a few tables inside and I believe they don’t take reservations so you may have no choice but to have it as a takeaway.

There is street parking which was free after 7pm when we visited...