Izakaya Aiyo Minami 4-jo Store — Restaurant in Sapporo

So.. the taxi driver says to go to any izakaya around Susikino area and you should be able to get pretty good local food.

We chose this placd due to the high rating, so far places with above 4 stars have been pretty good. Not. This. One.

I figured the only good thing here that warrants 4 stars will be the 90min free flow. We came for ala-carte since we are not big eaters nor want to be pressured to drink fast.

Ordered a few things that were really something I think we can cook better at home. Felt a little sad that even the kani miso was reduced to being presented in a bakeware.

The 890 yen sake came with a little tray to catch excess sake when pouring and given the experience, usually thry will pour to the brim until it flows into the little catch tray. Today it stopped short at slightly below the shot glass level. So why the tray again?

The last thing was a local specialty but it came surprisingly not special. I would not take this as a local specialty because im sure Hokkaido has more to offer. Maybe I just went to wrong shop after realising its a commercial izakaya with many branches.

Only two things that were nice - the female staff shouting 'aiyoooh' while pouring the contents for a mini don (that was cute) and my sapporo beer. Well onto the...

Good drinking place with great atmosphere. Service is great. Smoking is allowed indoor (which I disliked but doesn't affect rating as it's JP culture). However the food was a bit disappointing, especially the pork & chicken skewers. It wasn't charred right on some of them. Asparagus and Okra became the highlight of all the skewers we had. I hope the quality of meat skewer went down because it was on the night before coming of age day (busy). The ikura don is good, make it to a 3.75 stars.

Drinks - All-you-can-drink (AYCD) package available as well as A la Carte. AYCD includes nonalcoholic drinks and the packages are following at per person unit: Highball cocktail AYCD is ~950 jpy. AYCD +1 draft beer is ~1050 JPY. AYCD +2 draft beer ~1200 JPY AYCD +3 draft beer ~1350 JPY. AYCD (inf draft beer) ~1450 JPY.

My food rating here is based on a Izakaya scale (because Izakaya shops tend to be lower quality food throughout Japan). This means I'm comparing this izakaya with other izakayas in JP.

With...

great atmosphere with birthday celebrations friendly young energetic staff Service is great Limited english but can using translations

Food definitely is not fresh Except chicken n pork yakitori The squid is not fresh and lack of flavour The salmon sashimi seem reddish and fresh however when the moment you put in mouth you realised wow this is like discounted items in supermarket after a long day. Oyster and scallop are not fresh

Beer is great Hot drinks like tea Wine and sake are available

The price is on the slightly higher side. overall i do recommend to a visit however dont set high...