Onsen Ichiba — Restaurant in Noboribetsu

In Noboribetsu, a popular hot spring area with limited dining options, I discovered a Japanese restaurant that seemed to have the most reviews. I arrived early, as it was still relatively quiet. I decided to order the "Heaven Bowl" and the "Hell Bowl". The Heaven Bowl featured a variety of shellfish, while the Hell Bowl had spicy crab meat with a raw egg yolk. I also added a serving of scallop sashimi.

Let's start with the scallop sashimi. Although the waiter had warned me in advance that the scallops would be small, I didn't expect them to be as tiny as a coin. Nevertheless, the taste was fresh, but the portion size left much to be desired.

Moving on to the Heaven Bowl, I was surprised to find that the rice underneath the seafood was hot. I had expected the rice in a seafood bowl to be cold or at least at room temperature. Despite the temperature issue, the seafood itself was relatively fresh.

Now, onto the Hell Bowl. The spiciness was overpowering, completely masking the flavor of the crab. If you're a fan of intense heat, this dish might be for you. However, I felt that the spiciness took away from the enjoyment and made it difficult to appreciate the crab meat. It seemed like any meat would have sufficed, as the heat overwhelmed the delicate flavor.

However, everyone's tastes are different, so it's worth trying out for yourself if...

We came here on Thursday night at 4:15pm but there are 3 groups ahead of us. It took about 35 min to get seats inside. We ordered grilled scallop, grilled corn, otoro don with uni, and assorted sashimi.

The grilled scallop came first, and mine was half raw. My hubby's piece was more cooked, so I guess it really depends on your chance and probably don't order if you aren't fine with raw scallop.

The grilled corn was delicious, I'd order another one if I can eat more!

The assorted sashimi was fresh, but it came with two pieces of sweet shrimp. My husband doesn't eat raw shrimp, so they are both mine lol.

The otoro don was delicious, and the uni was sweet. There were too much rice and we had about 40g left.

I got baited and ordered the Noboribetsu draft beer, and of course it's nothing special but slightly more malty than Sapporo draft beer. I actually prefer beer that's less malty 😂!

Overall a great experience, we didn't wait for the food for too long, but the wait outside was brutal as...

Yes the service is a bit slow because there seems to be only two chefs but a lot of customers. If you are very very hungry and you see a lot of people inside, do not bother waiting because you will just be mad and will not be able to enjoy your food. They have hairy crabs, fish and abalone in an acquarium and you can choose which one you wish to eat. Of course, the price is per kilo. Food was ok for me but I got to eat the best tasting japanese corn as it was well cooked! Sugoi chef! Inside, it gets too smokey because of the grilling. Not sure if their exhaust actually works. It gets to your eyes. The grilled smell sticks to your clothes so you must remove your jacket and place it in your bag, if you don’t want it to smell. The restaurant has counter table where you can see how seafoods are grilled but that’s the too smokey area. They both have the normal sitdown western and japanese...