Sushi Hanayoshi — Restaurant in Niseko

Below average, don’t come.

We arrived and ordered the Hana omakase set and a bottle of sake. We were not asked at any point if there’s anything we didn’t prefer or didn’t eat. We ordered a ¥15,000 and we got cheap tall sake glasses.

The sashimi started out fine but it was rare to find octopus sashimi at an expensive restaurant.

Then we had a seafood salad, it was interesting and the friend shoestring potatoes gave the salad a nice crunch. But the seafood was lacking and overall not high quality - scallop skirts, thin slices of tasteless tuna and salmon and some octopus bits. The salad dressing was a store bought sesame dressing.

Before we had finished the salad, we were served chawanmushi (steamed egg custard). But before we could even start that, a massive tuna collar was served. Pacing was definitely very off. We asked for the meal to be slowed down.

The star of the dinner was the grilled tuna collar. This was well executed, very flavourful but missing a citrus sauce to cut the fattiness.

We were served a giant oyster (no explanation where it was from) and it was super milky and creamy. It is fine but I personally prefer crispier oysters. This is a preference and not an issue with the oyster.

After that we were served sushi. The ikura had no flavour, the toro was tough and had ligaments, the pre prepared gunkan had soggy seaweed and the raw surf clam is just not for everyone. 80% of the surf clam was left on the table. And they serve staff didn’t ask if everything was okay and also just left lots of plates with a few bits of food left on the table. The second round of sushi was better, but nothing really interesting or unexpected. We ordered a second bottle of sake ¥20,000 and we were given normal glass cups this time.

Was it terrible? Some parts were. Would I come back? Definitely not. There are so many better options at...

You know it's not good when you go to a sushi place, pay for the most expensive course, and one of your main dish highlights is the started salad.

Staff was accommodating to foreigners, but sitting at the bar was an underwhelming experience. Having dined with Michelin Starred sushi restaurants in Tokyo, it was clear that there was a huge gap between them and Hanayoshi.

The food presentation was only okay, and sometimes poor from what you'd expect. For instance, the reverse uni nigiri was inventive, but the oozing uni visible from the outside and the rice falling apart made the dish subpar.

The sushi portion of our course was okay, but the rest was just extremely underwhelming. Unfortunately, we left the restaurant with a sense of wastefulness on our part. Luckily for us we had a 3* Michelin booked the next evening in Sapporo which restored our faith in high end dining (and it was cheaper than Hanayoshi).

It's a shame, we were truly excited...

Despite specifying that children under 12 were not allowed, there were two local children.

There were two local women at the counter.

And our party.

We ordered a decent sake, no ritual choosing of our sake cups.

There was only a set menu with no specifics e.g. chawanmushi, grilled dishes, 8 pieces nigiri sushi, dessert.

Service was perfunctory and fast, too fast until we asked them to slow down (after the seafood salad arrived with the grilled tuna collar).

Seafood salad contained unidentifiable bits except for 4 slices of salmon and loads of leaves.

Chawanmushi was very plain and I found 2 lumps of chicken, a ginkgo nut and a slice of fish cake.

The sushi was ordinary and in some cases bland. No one had asked us whether we had any dietary restrictions or preferences so we all left pieces we don’t normally eat.

A disappointment as I’d been there two years running pre Covid with friends who hv a...