Furanoya — Restaurant in Furano

This place is a must skip if you have places to be. Firstly, they do not allow for any form of reservations, you have to write your name and the pax on a list and wait outside the restaurant until a waitstaff calls your name. No emails, numbers or other ways of contacting, you have to be prepared to give 1-3 hours of your time to wait outside the restaurant to be invited to sit.

But the food isn't worth the wait, it's literally a standard soup curry. They use fresh, locally sourced vegetables, which is a plus, but almost every soup curry shop in hokkaido does that. They also got our order wrong despite us repeating ourselves and pointing to the menu items. The waitress told us we had ordered what came, and was adamant about it. We accepted the food cause we waited so long and we were tired.

The time taken to serve once seated was long as well, took around an hour from getting seated to getting our food. Overall, we wrote our names at 5:20, and got our food at 7:15.

The atmosphere was good, it resembles a quaint cottage in the woods.

Overall, it was an old-fashioned and slow-paced restaurant. Standing outside for hours, hungry, peering into a restaurant of people eating, after a long day of physical activity, was definitely an experience I do not want to pay to go...

This place is crazy popular. We tried THREE times before we were able to get our hands on some curry. First time we arrived, they were sold out on curry, the second time it was a rest day, and finally, third time’s the charm. We got there 40 mins before opening time, soon after, many other people joined the queue. Parking in front of the shop is limited, however there were car parks available just around the corner or opposite the shop. Expect a long wait during peak time (more than an hour). Rest days are irregular, and you only find out via a written blackboard posted at the door. For the month of july, it appears to be every Tuesday. The wait for food didn’t take too long. We both ordered the chicken curry with Hokkaido veggies, which was delicious. Soup curry is obviously their most popular dish as everyone else had ordered that. Come early to avoid disappointment. Be prepared to queue and wait. They had a simple English menu, accepts cash...

Probably my favorite soup curry in Hokkaido and I’ve had quite a few! Definitely miles better than those super famous ones in Sapporo that have ridiculous lines out the door and endless tourists. This is a famous one in furano too and they even have their own curry in vacuumed prepackaged boxes to go, but even then, the lines aren’t as long and the quality is waaaay better! Ingredients are fresher and the flavor of the soup is richer and deeper. Service is however immensely slow (we got in without having to wait for dinner and yet it took over 30 mins for our food to be served). I’ve noticed this with soup curry places because presumably they cook everything to order. The space is comfortable though so it isn’t too bad to wait. I added the pork slices to mine and they were also really tender and good. Veggies so fresh as well. I’d really like to come back if I’m ever around...