hokkaido ramen & sushi bar — Restaurant in Pocatello

Hokkaido is a mixed bag for me. I've worked as a cook in japanese restaurants previously, and it's very apparent that there a lot of corners being cut.

I've tried many of the appetizers here ranging from the hawaiian poke salad, salmon misoyaki, and takoyaki, to the tempura shrimp and chicken karaage. The karaage and misoyaki were decent and the poke salad was exactly what I was expecting. The takoyaki was absolutely buried in bonito flakes and incredibly one-note as a result. Finally, the tempura shrimp were unfortunately the worst I've had in town. The tempura batter was beyond bland and reminded be, quite disappointingly, of dry rice krispie cereal.

The sushi is passable but the rice is incredibly mushy and bland. The variety in rolls and fish is nice but I've yet to have any of the non-fried specialty rolls that I thought were worth ordering again. The fish themselves are all solid, and work well for sashimi, but the nigiri is not something I'd recommend due to the very sub-par rice.

The ramen is easily the main draw food-wise. The simpler the ramen option you order, the better it will be in my experience. The normal shoyu and shio options are pretty good and the price makes them even more enticing. The noodles are better than other options in town and the broth is reasonably deep and flavorful. Unfortunately, these qualities disappear in the tonkotsu and spicy ramen options. Here, the broth became very bland and serving sizes were artificially inflated with mounds of simple toppings. Overall, the basic shoyu ramen is likely the only dish I will continue returning for.

Finally, the service. Every server, cook, or employee I've met here has been very professional and fun to interact with. Food comes out blisteringly fast, with me never waiting more than 10-15 minutes for my meal. That said, it's very obvious that the majority of the service staff are still figuring out their responsibilities. Many of the servers I've interacted with have very little knowledge about the menu and there have been several times I've had to point out items on the menu that they didn't realize were even options. I mostly chalk this up to the location being new and many of the servers still in the very early stages of learning the menu.

Overall, I think that Hokkaido is a profoundly status quo option for japanese fare in Pocatello. The ramen is certainly better than the other option in town, but the sushi and appetizers fall short of their local...

I love this place, great food, great people! I've probably eaten here 30 times or so, and if I had to recommend anything it would be the Jasmine roll, the Volcano Roll, the Spicy Beef Ramen, and the Chicken Kaarage.

I've had plenty of great customer service experiences here. I have introduced many of my friends to this restaurant, and all of them sing its praises. However, if I were a first-time customer (and much less patient) the most recent experience I had might have turned me away. So, to first time customers, my following experience in no way outweighs the good experiences I've had here:

Since they don't offer regular matcha tea lattes, (just matcha with cheese foam) we brought in matcha from elsewhere. I'd never seen it posted that no outside food or drink is allowed, but I was mistaken, it was posted inside on the counter, and we were asked not to bring it in. Not a big deal at all, we just opted to order takeout instead, it was by no means an unreasonable expectation.

This is the annoying part. While we were waiting in the lobby for our food, two people walked in holding drinks from outside. They clearly knew some of the people from the crew, and were allowed to sit at the sushi bar with their drinks. The person who I am fairly sure is the manager also approached them and said nothing. They also charged us $4 for sauce and chili oil that we had to return to the store to get, but I was very satisfied with how they handled that problem, giving us a variety of sauces to make up for it.

Again, the experience was a bit irritating, but not a dealbreaker. I can appreciate enforcing rules for your business, but it felt a bit like like having my feet spat on to be on the receiving end of a double...

This was our first time dining here and probably our last. Our waiter didn’t really know how to talk to humans so it was an awkward experience there. Maybe he was new so that’s okay. We never got offered refills on our drinks and he didn’t come back until the check once the food arrived.

Hokkaido offers a good sized menu with lots of sushi options, however $16ish per roll in Idaho quality sushi is high. The appetizers are well priced.

We dined in and ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen, Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl, Gyoza, and Chicken Karaage.

The gyoza was 6 pieces for $6, which is fair, and the best part of our meal. Perfectly pan seared with a good taste.

The karaage was juicy but not crunchy at all. I expect crunchy out of karaage so this was disappointing. This dish also needed more seasoning as it just tasted like moist friend chicken, instead of relying on the sauce that tasted like salsa at first.

The Tonkatsu Ramen was bland. Not anything to talk about.

The Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl was a good sized portion but the chicken was dry and they don’t give you enough sauce.

Overall: The restaurant has a good feel, the staff could be better, and the food needs more...