Furano Pizza Factory — Restaurant in Furano

Milk made this town. In Furano, you taste Hokkaido’s big-sky dairy dream in every scoop, slice, and bite. The Cheese Factory lets you peek into real production, then eat the proof—fresh camembert-style cheese, butter, and ice cream made from local milk. Downstairs: a pizzeria turning that same milk into molten, stretchy joy on blistered pies. Pro tip: try the cheese cheese pizza with extra cheese—pure dairy decadence. Upstairs: a shop that’ll wreck your luggage allowance (in a good way).

This place isn’t just tasty—it’s a postcard from Japanese food history. Dairy didn’t go mainstream here until the Meiji era, when modernizers pushed milk and meat to “make the body strong,” and Hokkaido became the nation’s dairy heartland. Today, Hokkaido produces roughly half of Japan’s milk; Furano’s creameries are part of that story. Taste it and the history clicks.

What I loved • Watching real cheesemaking, then eating the results—zero disconnect, maximum flavor. • Hands-on workshops (cheese, butter, ice cream; sometimes bread/pizza). Book ahead; slots go fast. • The pizzeria: local produce + local dairy = simple, soulful perfection.

Pro tips • Reserve a workshop if you’re traveling in peak season. • Bring a cooler bag if you’re hauling cheese on trains or buses. • Leave time for a soft-serve—Hokkaido milk soft-serve is a minor religion here.

Why it matters Hokkaido’s cool climate and wide pastureland made it Japan’s dairy engine; the Milk-to-Table line here is short, clean, and proud. If you want to understand why Japanese desserts, breads, and pizzas got so good, start where the milk is born.

#familyfriendly #handsOn #localmilk #Hokkaido...

I hardly give any bad reviews to businesses in Japan, as they are mostly far above the global standard. And this is the first time. First of all, they call the place a cheese factory, we expect we could see how they produce the cheese. In fact, you could only see a man working from the window, that’s it. We even suspect that he is doing it like a performance as the small workshop there is not possible to produce large quantities of cheeses. It’s meant to show to tourists.

One floor up, it’s a retail store. They have a bit of cheese history in Japan on the wall, that’s it. Basically, don’t expect you could learn any new info from this place.

Then, it’s an ice cream store and a pizza shop. We ordered the onion pizza and it was far below average, not even in the Japan standard. We had a pizza a day before at a hotel and it was far bettter than this. The onions didn’t taste much, and most importantly, you can’t taste much of the cheese, it was like a piece of bread that’s it, that bad.

The environment was great and it’s surrounded by trees and green. But they should name it as a pizza and cheese shops, instead of a factory. Their intention is to sell you stuffs, don’t expect you could know any...

Visited the Furano Cheese Factory which also includes an ice cream shop and a pizza kitchen. We even saw classrooms where students were learning how to make waffles and other desserts, which added a nice, hands-on vibe to the place.

The most eye-catching item was the asparagus ice cream. It felt a little too adventurous for me, so I gave it a pass and tried other flavors instead. The ice cream was light, not too sweet, and really let the fresh milk flavor shine.

Important heads-up: both the ice cream and pizza shops only accept cash. We were already running low on Japanese yen, so we ended up skipping the pizza despite being completely tempted by the amazing smell. Unfortunately, we had already bought the ice cream first. And since both of us are more into savory food, that was a bit of a regret. Lesson learned.

Inside the main hall, there was a cheese tasting station where we sampled all the different cheeses on sale. We bought the one we liked most right after.

Overall, it’s a chill and family-friendly stop with fresh milk, light desserts, great-smelling pizza and a fun little cheese lesson. Just remember to bring cash if you plan to indulge...