Sumire Sapporo Susukino Shop — Restaurant in Sapporo

I was informed you can't really visit Sapporo without popping into Sumire, especially if you're as massive a Ramenophile as I am. There is always a bit of a wait, or so I'm told, and there was one when we arrived. But it being a Ramen joint, it's a quick in and out thing, so you don't really wait long. Was it worth the wait? Well, I am going to be a bit controversial here and say, had I'd waited as long as we would have done had the group in front of us not left, then my answer would be no. But a 10min wait is not that long, and we were seated as a group so even better Now the dish. Ramen, being what it is, different people will judge it by different categories, according to personal taste. MY personal taste is such that I judge every bowl I eat, first by the charsiu and the broth, with the noodles being second to this and finally the toppings. You can have charsiu that's not great but amazing broth with good noodle, and I'll give you a pass, but I won't accept Ramen with an average char, bad broth but good noodle. And I found the charsiu here to be below average, a bit dry, and just lacking in that flavour I kinda expect from experience. In comparison to other Ramen I'd had this trip, and I'd eaten some fantastic Ramen this trip, this was a bit lacklustre. I'd been blown away in the Ramen factory in Sapporo station, so I was expecting this place to be as good if not better, and don't get me wrong it's good, but it just feels kinda, commercial.... I don't know, it just wasn't as amazing to me as people were saying it is. But I will say the broth is very good. And the noodles were great, so they get a pass. I was Just so disappointed with the char.. Would I recommend it? Well, if you want to say you ate in Sumire, then fill your boots, you will get a good bowl of Ramen here with a great broth. But...

Tl;dr: Okay miso ramen, long queue, sold out of chashu 1 hour after opening.

One of Sapporo's most well-known ramen restaurants, even for the locals. This is evident from the long queue every time we walk past. We arrived just before 6pm and there was a line of around 15 people in front of us. It was a fast moving line and we only had to wait for less than 20 mins. There was a vending machine to place your order, and they are available in english, and you can pay with your card.

Unfortunately, albeit the restaurant being open only for 1 hour (they open at 5 pm), we found that they sold out of their chashu ramen. That's half of the menu gone. We decided to order the original miso ramen (extra portion shown on the picture) with an extra boiled egg and fresh spring onions on the side.

This could be a preferential thing, but our miso broth was very salty and very oily. It was so salty that once we had finished our noodles, we couldn't enjoy slurping the rest of the broth. We wouldn't say there's complexity to the flavour of the broth. Noodles were cooked al dente, and boiled egg was nicely cooked with soft but not runny yolk. The one piece of chashu that came with the ramen tasted okay, on the dry side, and it was thin.

When we went out, there was a massive line of around 30 people, and wondered if it's because it was Friday night. We decided to check if ramen alley had the same amount of interest, only to find that they're not as busy as Sumire. Maybe the locals do like the flavour of Sumire, but it was not a good balance of...

It took quite a long time to queue at this restaurant — about 45 minutes at around 7:30 PM. The place is quite legendary, having been operating since 1964. Like most ramen shops, orders are made through a vending machine that offers several language options, including English, which is helpful for tourists. The restaurant is quite compact and the serving time is rather slow, which contributes to the long queue outside.

Since the restaurant is famous for its miso ramen, we ordered the pork chashu miso ramen. As expected, the miso flavor in the broth is quite dominant and very oily. The noodles are thin, curly, and chewy. The toppings are pretty standard: pork chashu, dumplings, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, and...