ぶんぶく茶釜ラーメン館 — Restaurant in Hakodate

Foreigners Beware.

On our final night in Hakodate, we were staying at the Hotel Global View Hakodate. It was also towards the end of our amazing trip in Hokkaido and we were craving some ramen.

The family of 5 plus my one year old found Bunbuku Chagama right opposite a small street from the hotel so we were super lucky to have a local ramen place so close on this cold rainy night. (It seems quite a few establisments close early in the few nights we were in Hakodate)

As we went in we were greeted nicely by an auntie shop worker where I said we were a party of 6 people. In hindsight I should've asked if the restaurant was OK with us bringing in a young 1 year old toddler first (I should also specify my Japanese is not fluent but enough to survive and communicate).

We were directed to the back where there was a spacious large table and menus ready. As I was translating the menu items to the rest of the family (they're from Hong Kong) the other uncle in the kitchen walked over and without a greeting spoke to us in Mandarin saying "all six of you order the same thing".

Shocked I repeated it back to him and he confirmed saying "I'm the only cook, it's very busy" in Mandarin again. Still shocked, I politely asked if we could have one more minute to decide in Japanese, to which we received the rudest "tch!" And walk away from uncle (who I'm assuming is store owner/main chef).

Our whole family was astounded at the attitude and rudeness and after deliberation decided to leave. At this point no matter how high quality or delicious the food could've been we would've had sour tastes in our mouths (metaphorically) the rest of the stay there. My parents said sorry as they walked out, to which the worker auntie was surprised to see us all leave. My wife and I didn't pass a glance or give a word as we walked out, and decided to buy food to cook and eat in our hotel room instead.

As such I have no comments on the food quality, but the service was incredibly rude and uncalled for in a country like Japan well-known for their hospitality, politeness and common sense.

Some additional points to recap is that yes, it might have been rude to not ask if they could accommodate a 1 year old toddler. On the flip side, on both the walk in and walk out from our family, there were only 2 separate people sitting at the ramen bar. All other tables (4 x 4 seaters, 2 or 3 single seats remaining at the ramen bar, and our large table at the back) were all empty. To say "I'm busy so all of you order the same thing" is preposterous, even if he miraculously knew it would be a full house 10 min after our arrival.

So if it did become a full house at any point during the night, would everyone in the whole restaurant have to order the same thing? I speculate not. I'd offer some advice to which will fall on deaf ears, either reduce your relatively large variety menu to 5 items or less, or reduce your tables.

Next item is that he automatically assumed we spoke Mandarin, and that if we did, it seemed like his preconceived idea of people who spoke Mandarin was definitely a negative one. I don't know who did you wrong previously, but to treat anyone you've never seen before the way the uncle did to us tonight was disgusting to put it lightly.

So hence the title of the review, foreigners beware. Unless you're fluent in Japanese and can hide that you aren't from the great country of Japan, be prepared to potentially be stereotyped and given undeserved "hospitality".

To those that wondered what followed or want to take notes for a dinner backup plan, we went to the nearest supermarket (MaxValu Wakamatsu store) and purchased instant refrigerated ramen packs, some offcut beef slices, chuutoro tuna sashimi and sashimi prawns along with some veggies, and had a nice hearty dinner while recollecting the recent "what the.." moment at Bunbuku...

It looked good when we first came in, but it was kind of a letdown. My daughter was really sensitive to the smell and almost threw up. The fried rice with cheese didn’t even have cheese and tasted too salty. The old lady who was serving looked very sad and depressed. I feel so sorry for her. The waiting time was too long. Back to the fried rice, I asked if they could make another one because it’s way too salty (it tastes bitter) but they rudely said no. Finally they let us added white rice in it and left without caring. The siewmai was sticky and stuck to my mouth. One of the ramen we ordered had pork in it, the pork was not fresh. Anyway, it’s definitely over-rated by the near by hotel guests. I will have to give this place a fair rating. Don’t come! You can buy instant...

Arrived into Hakodate late at night. It was good that Bunbuku was open late into the evening.

As I only visited the one time, I was unsure how the work shift was maintained across the week. However, on the evening that I visited Bunbuku, the place seemed to be run by a husband and wife who were getting on in age.

It is a quaint, old place but with a homely feel. The place felt a bit tired and run down!!!

Dined in as a party of 4 and ordered 4 things to sample. 2 noodle dishes, 1 rice and dumplings. The noodles and rice serving were large! Butter corn ramen was one of the dishes.

When speaking to the staff, their famous dish is their noodles 🍜.

We were all actually very impressed with...