Local friends in Hokkaido wanted to take me here during our trip in Otaru.

First impression, this place looks like ordinary shokudo restaurant. Menu pretty much basic, full of seafood, mostly raw or grilled. Took me a while to decide what to get but thanks to local friends once again, help me out with their recommendations.

Once everything arrived on the table, I was astonished at the monstrous size of every seafood ingredients! All the dishes look simple with minimal seasoning of salt. But you can taste the freshness of the seafood here, nowhere near what you expected!

Grilled hokke fish is a staple in Hokkaido. I’ve eaten Hokke in Thailand few times in the past which I was never a fan of, due to strange bitter taste. But here it’s completely different, Hokke here taste smoky, salty, the flesh was soft and fatty. I devoured a huge bowl of rice because of how delicious this fish was. Pro tip: ask staff for grated daikon radish, pour some soy sauce. It’s the perfect condiment with grilled Hokke.

Grilled hokki or surf clam also my friend’s recommendation which I never ate before. Crazy how massive these clams are. It’s soft and delicious, you can taste natural sweet flavor from it. I’m a big fan of hokki now!

Grilled squid also incredible but another pro tip here: you must ask the staff for Kewpie mayonnaise + togarashi. Grilled squid taste the most flavorful when dipped in mayonnaise. It’s a balance of sweet, umami flavors.

Grilled scallops and prawns also too delicious. Scallops miso soup with set meals was very memorable. Our table pretty much packed full with seafood, I thought we order far too much but then everything was gone within 20 minutes. Truthfully, we should’ve order more seafood lol.

Staffs here are friendly, service is efficient, grandmother chef can flawlessly grill seafood to perfection. We end up spent about 11000yen, meals worth of 3 people, surprisingly cheap because of these premium, fresh seafood.

I don’t find anything negative to say about this awesome place. Oh, few small flies inside the shop bother our table for quite some time. Eh such tiny problem. There are few bitter reviewers mention about the flies and gave low rating. I just can’t imagine being able to go anywhere while being extremely sensitive 😆

Anyway, this was easily one of the best meals I’ve had in years. Hokkaido truly is the seafood lovers heaven.