Afuri — Restaurant in Kutchan

The only good thing here was that the Tonkotsu Tan Tan broth was flavorful and the noodles were good with a chewy texture. That’s about it…

The spicy karaage is borderline supermarket quality. Soggy outside, the chunks were too big, the side dipping barely had any flavor. Probably the lower end of karaage I’ve ever had in my life.

The winged gyoza, I figured it was maybe known for their dumplings but I was wrong. I had maybe 3 pieces max but didn’t even bother with the rest. It was over fried on one side and under fried on the other side. Maybe good enough for desperate tourists but foodies shouldn’t even waste their time.

The wait was over an hour because its in the middle of a busy ski area and a lot of places need a reservation. The place is understaffed and they can only make soo many dishes at a time for the volume they get.

Be aware when you walk in from the street entrance the place may look half full, and you get your hopes up of having a quick sitting. This is false, they will direct you to the lobby behind the ramen shop and wait in the queue for whenever theyre able to process more orders. Don’t be fooled because they wont sit you by the amount of empty seats they have but by when they feel they can actually take/process/make your order.

The 3 stars is generous because if I just ordered the Tonkotsu Tan Tan it would have been a nice meal outside of the wait, service, and side orders. But given how crazy the place gets, it’s good to know what you’re getting into before stepping inside and giving up an hour of your time during the busy...

POV: you’re staying at the Midtown because you’re not trying to blow the kids’ ENTIRE college fund on a Niseko trip, and you just tried to get the night bus down to Kutchan for a reasonably priced bowl of ramen but, of course, it was full. Kutchan is, as far as you can tell, not a real place.

So what do you do?

You go back to Afuri for the second night in a row.

Is the ramen here out of this world? I mean, it’s ok. It’s above average ramen. If you’re an Aussie fresh off the bus from New Chitose, chances are, you’re gonna love it. On the other hand, if you’re a dirtbag addict who has spent whole weekends crawling through back alleys in Tokyo chasing the hit even better than your last one that you know is out there somewhere, well, you’ll finish your bowl, shrug, and move on.

And how do we handle the Niseko factor? First of all, the prices are high. You can have this same bowl for ¥1100 at any Afuri branch in Tokyo, and it’s double that here. But you can’t deny it: when you’ve spent the day getting a powder facial because Niseko delivered (thank God), you don’t really care about the price of the beautiful cold beer in your hand and the carefully prepared food on your table.

And as for me? I went back two nights in a row, and I have a rule that that’s an automatic five stars. Otherwise I’d be tempted to go 4/5 for this. Bravo, Afuri, if I never make it to Kutchan then I guess I’ll just let you keep...

After holidaying in Japan the last two weeks going from Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Sapporo and and seeking out over 10 highly rated ramen from Shio,shoyu, tonkotsu broths, small hole in the walls to more popular shops all the ramen I’ve had has been fantastic and reasonably priced at roughly 1300 yen for a bowl.Now in niseko for next week I decided to try this as it was highly rated. I got the Shio and my partner the shoyu, quite honestly the ramen is well below what we have had so far this trip, the noodles were almost the texture of instant noodles and the broth lacked complexity with the add bitter taste of yuzu. This ramen was extremely disappointing. Now my review would not be so harsh but they are asking 2600 yen for a bowl. This price is daylight robbery for ramen that pretty much tastes like instant ramen. Heck the 7 eleven ramen I had in Sapporo the other day was better than this bowl. My advice is to spend your money on better food options from niskeo village and if you are wanting ramen try another place. Ramen is meant to be affordable and I’m willing to pay extra if it’s good...