Niseko Ramen Kazahana — Restaurant in Makkari

Based on a friend's recommendation, we came here for dinner after snowboarding, while the place is not extremely small, it is very popular, there were queues the entire time we were there. Go for an early dinner (to escape the queue) or be mentally prepared to wait. There is a small board with a waiting list, so just add your name to the list and find a cosy spot to stand.

Before i mention the food, I must give kudos to the waitress (whom I neglected to ask for her name) for her service standards, despite the huge crowd and our request to seat 8 people together, she was smiling all the way and made sure we felt as welcome as possible and did her best to arrange the tables according to our requests. Her service standards are top notch.

Our group ordered the house specialty, Potato Miso Ramen and the standard Miso Ramen. There's an entire story/background on the Potato Miso Ramen so I was pretty excited about it, unfortunately I felt the Potato Miso Ramen is an acquired test , you will either like it or hate it, the potato thickens the soup so it becomes very thick and not easy to drink whereas the standard Miso is extremely easy to drink. The standard Miso Ramen is really very good, esp in the winter cold. I can understand why people would queue up for this.

In conclusion, if you are a traditionalist, go for the standard Miso Ramen, if you would like to try something different and unique, go for the...

TLDR: Horrible restaurant. If you're looking for a place with good/cheap food, go to Tozanken Ramen instead.

Let's start with the food first. Their signature potato ramen is indeed a unique and tasty dish with a good blend of creamy sweetness and savoury broth. And that's about where the positives end. The price of their signature dish is 1100, considerably cheaper than the rest of the area but too much for a dish without any meat. Their other ramen dishes (shoyu/miso) are way too salty and have just one slice of pork. Not worth it at all.

Waiting time was completely unacceptable. We queued for 1 hour and 30min out in the freezing cold before we could get a table. No they don't have any waiting areas indoors. You just write your name on a list and wait to be called. After getting a table, I asked the waiter how long the food would take to arrive as we had a bus to catch and he told is "about 15-20 minutes). Acceptable wait time. The actual wait for our food was over 40 minutes. Needless to say we missed our bus and had to take an expensive cab back. If you're looking for a place with good/cheap food, go to Tozanken Ramen. The ramen has better tasting broth, the food is served faster, the menu has a much larger selection, their waiting area is a warm indoor. And their queue system is much more advanced, allowing for customers to check the queue from the phones...

Be prepared for a long wait. You will need to put your name down and then wait outside. The wait is long because the place is quite small but also because the service is incredibly slow. Between arriving and getting our food, it was over an hour. You would think that once you got it, Ramen would be a quick meal that's in and out. But it's not. We waited almost half an hour for the food to come out. They don't serve in your orders based on who placed the order first. A couple came in and ordered after us but received their food first. The couple who went in before us finished their meal, paid the bill and left before we even got our food. The only food thing is the staff speak English.

The food itself is quite average. My partner and I both got the Niseko Ramen (their specialty) and then the pork. It's Ramen noodles with a layer of potato foam on top. The foam is light and creamy. The soup is quite salty. If you don't mix it then you get a little bit of both the creamy and salty. If you mix it in then it's just the saltiness that overwhelms everything else. The noodles are nice and chewy but don't exactly pick up the broth that way. The corn in the soup was a nice surprise. The pork was underwhelming and expensive and a small portion.

Overall too long to wait for some below average food....