After our brief stay in Hakodate, we spent a couple of nights at Lake Toya (a town with no reliable sounding vegan options) and then arrived in Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido, ready to eat! Again, it was not an amazing vegan scene but there were enough obviously vegan places or options that we felt pretty confident and were generally satisfied with what we had. As always in Japan, you do have to do your research and check the opening hours because lots of vegan places close early in the evening or are only open a few days per week. Never assume somewhere will be open!

There will be one more post about vegan options in Sapporo, coming next week. In the meantime, here are some of the restaurants we tried.

Ramen Takanotsume Nangoten

This place is not all vegan, but has a well-labelled and well-advertised vegan option. We met up with friends here, so we were looking for somewhere that would cater to meat eaters, a vegetarian, and two vegans – all of us were pleased with what we got, so this is a good option if you’re travelling in a mixed group.

There’s just one vegan ramen, so Dr HH and I both ordered that. Orders are placed at a vending machine at the front of the restaurant, but then you have to take your printed ticket from the machine to the staff, and then they bring your food to the table. The machine only accepts 1,000 yen notes, which we were not prepared for, and you can only order one dish at a time. The staff did change our 5,000 note for us, but you may want to prepare some smaller notes if you can.

The ramen was a big portion with plenty of noodles. The broth was really tasty, we loved it. However, there were not a lot of toppings, mostly just some bamboo, bean sprouts, and mushrooms. I would love to see them add some tasty tofu or mock meat, a bit more protein would be great. It’s a promising start to have one vegan option, but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Veggy Way

An all-vegan establishment! We both had the shio ramen and really enjoyed it. There were plenty of noodles, and the broth was very tasty. It was quite salty (‘shio’ means salt, so we were prepared for this) and had a good peppery kick as well. The toppings were not too remarkable, some greens and bamboo chunks. The meaty chunk had a nice texture and coating but tasted a bit too sweet, which was a little unsettling.

We also got a plate of chicken kaarage to share, because we can never resist. These had a good texture and coating but they lacked a bit of seasoning. They had the same slightly sweet taste as well, which we weren’t too keen on. Overall, fine but not the best we’ve had.

We don’t generally get a lot of desserts in Japan, but Veggy Way had quite an enticing dessert menu. Dr HH was keen to try a vegan butter sand, basically an ice cream sandwich. They had lots of different flavours and he chose a chocolate biscuit with a raspberry filling. It was pleasant because it was a bit richer than just a regular ice cream in the filling. (Forgive the poor photograph, we forgot to do a proper one.)

I’m no fool, so I went for the banana chocolate parfait, which was huge in comparison to the tiny sandwich! It had lots of soft serve, chocolate sauce, bananas and almonds, as well as some cornflakes in the middle. It was delicious and the textures were really fun, especially the cornflakes. Parfaits and butter sands are classic Japanese treats, so we were pleased to get to try them.

We also got a couple of muffins to takeaway for breakfast the next day. The chocolate muffin was hearty and well flavoured, but a little bit dry.

The banana muffin was also good, it was moister than the chocolate one and had a good banana flavour without tasting of horrible artificial banana flavouring. I heartily recommend this place, but definitely look at the opening hours before you go, because this was one we had to carefully fit in!

Jyoti

We were searching for somewhere that would be open late after a long day trip – most vegan places close quite early in Sapporo. Last time we were in Japan, we relied on Indian restaurants quite a bit, but this was our only foray on this trip, which feels like a good sign. The online menu doesn’t match up to the restaurant menu – the vegan labelling isn’t fully clear online but it is in the restaurant. Everything is very clearly marked as vegan and they also suggest letting them know you’re ordering vegan too.

We both had two samosas for a starter. They were a good size, well filled, and crispy, but a little under seasoned for our tastes.

For mains, Dr HH got the aubergine and potato curry (and requested level 4 on the spicy scale). The vegetables were well cooked and the sauce had a good texture. The chilli level was about what he was hoping for, as a fan of spicy food, but overall the dish felt like it lacked a bit of flavour.

I got a spinach and potato curry (level 3 on the spicy scale) and also felt it was a bit lacking in flavour and seasoning. Generally, we just wish everything had been a bit bolder. Perhaps the seasoning is tailored more to the Japanese palate though.

We both got aloo parathas with our mains and really enjoyed those. There was plenty of filling and they were well cooked. It was good to get some exciting bread options, as in Prague you’re lucky to get a plain vegan bread.

Generally, we thought this place was fine especially for a late meal. Unfortunately, it seemed like lots of people had the same idea and loads of people arrived immediately before/after us, which meant it was absolutely packed and there was a backlog of orders. Service was slow, but it seemed like we were just very unlucky with our timing. It wouldn’t deter me from going again if necessary.

Activities Around Sapporo

As mentioned, we stayed a couple of nights in Lake Toya, but it’s also doable as a long day trip from Sapporo – about two hours on the train, followed by a 20 minute bus ride. There are a few things to do there. We enjoyed taking the tourist boat out to the island in the centre of the lake, where we did a short hike on one of the three trails – the trails close to new arrivals by about 3pm I think, so don’t go late in the day if you want to do some walking. We also took the ropeway up Mount Usu and did the 90 minute walk around the volcano crater. Getting to the ropeway required a taxi, there’s no buses there, but we managed that easily from near the bus station. There were about 600 stairs in the trail, so it’s not too easy. The views were amazing though! And back at sea level, we also enjoyed a walk around the lake, which has some fun sculptures on display. In summer there’s a firework display at the lake every night, so that was a treat too, if you are staying over.

We didn’t do anything in Sapporo itself, just used it as a base for day trips. We combined a day trip to Noboribetsu and Otaru. The geothermal park in Noboribetsu was really good fun with lots of colourful rocks, bubbling rivers, and billowing steam. We didn’t need too long there, just a couple of hours to walk around the main trail in the park.

Less enjoyable was our afternoon in Otaru, which took a few hours to reach on train. We had got the impression from the travel blogs we read that this would be a charming little town, but if you don’t enjoy seafood or shopping then I’m afraid it might not be for you. These was a pleasant canal to stroll along, which we enjoyed but it didn’t take long. We were looking forward to going to the music box museum, and then were devastated to find out it was not a museum at all, merely a gift shop filled with the shrill chimes of hundred different music boxes playing at the same time. I’m really baffled why all the travel blogs I read were dishonest about it, and I’m beginning to suspect the bloggers might not actually have been there at all! Possibly one to avoid, anyway!