Nemuro Hanamaru at Sapporo Station — Restaurant in Sapporo

In the past couple of years, we've travelled to various cities and used to chase restaurants with Michelin stars or popular ones with long queues. Unfortunately, the experiences have been mixed.

I can't forget the time when we were served burned bread in a Michelin starred restaurant in Paris or the basic cafeteria food we got on the Eiffel tower after waiting for almost 2 hours. These tourist traps made me realize the difference between highly ranked or popular restaurants against those preferred by locals.

We learned that reviews really do not lie as they represent real customers with real experiences. We told ourselves we would never queue up for a restaurant again especially when we are traveling.

I ate my words immediately when we queued up for this conveyor belt sushi restaurant. We got there at around 5pm and there were already more than 100 people in line in front of us. We made the strange decision to wait because it was early and we were desperate for sushi.

Little did we realize that it would take us more than 3 hours of waiting. There were several times we wanted to give up but the sunken cost was overwhelming. At around 8:30pm we finally got to sit down, vowing never to queue up for any restaurant ever again.

We ended up finishing 38 plates of fresh sushi and sashimi at an extremely low price taking the quality of the food into account (fatty tuna, unagi, overflowing salmon roe, salmon, fresh scallops, etc). Where we're from, this kind of food costs a fortune so we were quite overwhelmed by the sheer quality on offer. The service was also extremely quick, leading us to consume far more than we normally would. My husband looked pregnant in the end.

Despite the long wait, we left the place happily. However, we did re-learn a valuable lesson: never commit to wait for food. . unless it's this kind...

Sushi was good.. one or two of the dishes were a bit underwhelming but the majority were very tasty. Try to use Google translate on the little signs that go around the belt which have the daily suggestions. That helps out find the fresh / in season stuff.

The fried chicken was AMAZING and the serving was huge for the price.

Some reviews mentioned issues with the wasabi. On the pieces you you order off the menu, you have the option of NOT adding wasabi if you check a box on the order slip. Otherwise most pieces will have wasabi under the fish.

The staff were super friendly and while limited in English, they would make every effort to understand/explain what was needed / how the system worked. English and picture menus were available and you have green tea for free at every station.

The basque cheese cake for desert was REALLY good as well. Surprisingly good.

We really enjoyed the unagi AND the salted / grilles salmón was melting in your mouth.

The wait is very long but the ticket you get when you check in has a QR that lets you check the status of the queue from your phone so we went shopping / walking around the massive station for a while. If you have Line (the messaging app) you can even get notified when the queue is getting close to your time. So no fear of missing your spot.

Without the app / virtual queue I wouldn't have waiting 1 hour... But this made it much more manageable.

I'm short, clearly touristy/hyped but definitely not a tourist trap and very good price/quality. Just keep the plate count...

Delicious food and a reasonable price. The atmosphere was excellent and the chefs kept the enthusiasm all through the evening. They have an English menu, which helps considerably.

Atmosphere: 4/5. Cheery with chefs that passionately exclaim when they've made a special dish. Not too noisy though, so you can easily have a conversation.

Staff: 4/5. Like all Japanese staff, super helpful and friendly. Reasonable English skills, so you shouldn't get stuck.

Food: 5/5. Really tasty fresh fish. There's not much more to say, other than it's superb quality. Portion size is decent. I had 5 dishes and was satisfied. I eat more than an average person though, so 4 would probably be ok for most people.

Price: 4/5. For a Japanese restaurant, prices aren't too bad. Two pieces of (rice rectangle topped with sliced fish) will set you back between 150-350 yen, depending on rarity of fish. Salmon or tuna, for example, was 200 yen (about 1.6 Euro) for two pieces. Crab soup (with half a crab in it) was about 3.5 Euros.

Waiting time: This is the major downside. The place is very popular, so when I went at 18:30, I took a ticket to reserve a place in the queue, but didn't get seated until 20:00. You can give your phone number and wander off and you'll get a call / text when it's your turn, but most people just sit outside...