Food Guide to Japanese Cuisine in Hokkaido and Sapporo | Introducing Local Specialties and Famous Products

Sapporo, the central city of Hokkaido, is a gourmet destination blessed with abundant nature and ingredients. You can enjoy a diverse range of specialty dishes including sushi, seafood bowls, and soup curry. Crab, Yubari melon, craft beer, and other specialties unique to Hokkaido are also popular. The city has many long-established specialty stores and local restaurants, allowing you to enjoy food tours alongside sightseeing.

This article introduces the specialty dishes and local products you should definitely try when visiting Sapporo. Please use this for information gathering before your trip or for finding gourmet spots while you’re there.

Sapporo, the central city of Hokkaido, has numerous specialty dishes including seafood and local gourmet foods that make travel enjoyable. Here we introduce classic gourmet foods you’ll want to try between sightseeing, organized by genre.

Hokkaido, surrounded by the sea, is known for having one of the nation’s largest fishing volumes and as an area where fresh seafood is available. Sapporo in particular is popular with tourists as a place where you can quickly taste seafood delivered from the ports.Especially at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market and Nijo Market, many sushi restaurants and famous seafood bowl shops beloved by locals line up, creating a lively atmosphere from morning.

The appeal of sushi and seafood bowls lies not only in the freshness of the ingredients but also in each shop’s particular attention to sourcing and presentation. Bowls using abundant seasonal seafood are visually gorgeous, and one bite will surprise you with their melting texture and umami. When sightseeing in Sapporo, experiencing exceptionally fresh sushi and seafood bowls is essential.

Soup curry is one of Sapporo’s representative local gourmet dishes, characterized by its smooth soup made by carefully preparing broth from chicken bones and vegetables and adding spices. While it looks like curry soup, it has a completely different taste from typical thick curry, providing many tourists with fresh surprises.

Ingredients include deep-fried vegetables and bone-in chicken arranged boldly, creating a colorful visual presentation. The eating style is also flexible, with the standard being to dip rice into the soup. Sapporo has many unique soup curry specialty restaurants with abundant choices for soup types, spice blends, spiciness levels, and toppings. Soup curry, said to have medicinal curry as its roots, also attracts attention from health-conscious people.

Ishikari hot pot is a representative local dish of Hokkaido, a hot pot dish made by simmering fresh salmon and plenty of vegetables in miso-based broth. It’s popular with tourists as a local gourmet food that warms you to the core during cold winters. It features plenty of ingredients like cabbage, daikon radish, green onions, and tofu, along with umami-rich soup.

The name derives from the Ishikari region at the mouth of the Ishikari River, famous for salmon fishing.It’s said to have roots in fishermen’s cuisine from the Edo period, and during the Showa era, it began being served as hospitality for tourists and spread nationwide. The eating style is also flexible, with many people enjoying adding rice porridge or noodles at the end. The collagen-rich salmon skin is also said to be good for beauty. This is a dish you’ll definitely want to try when visiting Sapporo in winter.

Zangi is a type of fried chicken beloved in Hokkaido, and it’s a specialty dish you’ll want to try at least once when visiting Sapporo. The difference from regular fried chicken is that it has a rich marinade flavor from being soaked in soy sauce-based sauce, and zangi is characterized by being crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.

Its origin is said to be a chicken restaurant in Kushiro City, and there’s a theory that it comes from the Chinese dish name “zhaji” (fried chicken), with “un” (luck) added to create “zangi.” In recent years, zangi made with octopus and salmon has also appeared, enjoying strong popularity as a local standard gourmet food. It’s also appealing that you can easily enjoy it at restaurants, izakaya, and takeout shops.

When visiting Hokkaido and Sapporo, Jingisukan is definitely a specialty dish you’ll want to try.This is Hokkaido’s representative local cuisine where lamb (young sheep) or mutton (adult sheep) is grilled on a special pan, characterized by its refreshing taste. Meat is grilled on an iron pan with a raised center, and the meat juices soak into the vegetables arranged around it, making even the vegetables delicious. It has excellent compatibility with alcohol and is a dish that keeps you reaching for more.

Its roots lie in sheep farming that began around Sapporo during World War I, and edible sheep also became popular. In 2004, it was selected as a Hokkaido Heritage site and has long been beloved by both citizens and tourists.

Sapporo ramen is Sapporo’s representative local gourmet food, characterized by rich miso soup and medium-thick curly noodles. Ramen specialty shops line the streets throughout Sapporo, and many tourists visit to enjoy ramen crawling.

Sapporo, considered the birthplace of miso ramen, has shops with various innovations in soup and ingredients, and bowls topped with bean sprouts, char siu, butter, and other ingredients are beloved by both locals and tourists. The wavy medium-thick noodles pair well with the soup, offering an appealing combination of rich flavor and satisfying texture.

Hokkaido and Sapporo have many local products that take advantage of the rich nature and climate. From luxurious flavors like crab and Yubari melon to beer and dairy products that can be enjoyed daily, all are things you’ll want to try at least once when visiting Sapporo. Below we introduce local products you should definitely check out in Sapporo.

When talking about local specialties you definitely want to try in Hokkaido and Sapporo, it’s definitely crab. Sapporo has everything from long-established specialty stores like Kani Honke and Hyosetsu no Mon to affordable all-you-can-eat options. Particularly popular are king crab and hair crab.

King crab is characterized by thick, juicy meat and can be enjoyed in various ways including boiled, sashimi, and shabu-shabu. Hair crab, on the other hand, is appealing for its rich sweetness and abundant crab miso. Though small, it has concentrated umami, and when eaten boiled or as sashimi, it has exceptional deliciousness. Hair crab, whose production areas change by season, can be enjoyed deliciously year-round, which is a pleasant feature.

Yubari melon, a luxury fruit representing Hokkaido, is one of the local products you’ll definitely want to try during your stay in Sapporo.Characterized by red flesh and juicy fruit, rich sweetness, and aromatic fragrance, it reaches its peak season from June to August. In Sapporo, you can enjoy it in various forms at markets, restaurants, and sweet shops.

Yubari City is the production area, and Yubari melon bearing that name is a special brand managed by the Yubari City Agricultural Cooperative under strict standards. Only those meeting sugar content and appearance standards are certified, so quality is guaranteed. It’s also popular as a gift, and this luxury fruit sometimes sells for tens of thousands of yen per melon at markets.

Sapporo is considered the birthplace of domestic beer, and beer culture has been rooted here since Hokkaido’s pioneering days. The most famous is Sapporo Beer, and at the Sapporo Beer Museum and Sapporo Beer Garden, which utilize Meiji-era buildings, you can learn about history while enjoying craft beer and Jingisukan.

Additionally, Hokkaido has abundant local beers with unique characteristics in each region, such as Otaru Beer, Abashiri Beer, and Okhotsk Beer. The beautiful natural blessings and cold climate create aromatic and mellow flavors. When visiting Sapporo, comparing various local craft beers and finding your favorites is one of travel’s pleasures.

Hokkaido is the center of dairy production nationwide, and in Sapporo, you can easily enjoy fresh, high-quality dairy products. Milk from dairy cows raised stress-free under the vast land and cool climate has a rich, creamy flavor. Cheese, butter, yogurt, and ice cream made from this milk are also popular as Sapporo specialties.

The city has many ranch-direct cafes and sweet shops where you can taste freshly made soft serve ice cream and handmade cheese. Rich soft serve ice cream that you’ll want to eat even in winter can be said to be one of Sapporo tourism’s pleasures.

Sapporo has diverse specialty dishes including seafood and local gourmet foods. Representative dishes include sushi and seafood bowls using fresh seafood, spicy soup curry full of vegetables, warming Ishikari hot pot with a miso base, zangi with rich marinade flavor, Jingisukan grilled on special pans, and Sapporo ramen with rich miso soup.

For local products, fresh crab such as king crab and hair crab, luxury fruit Yubari melon with a season from June to August, Sapporo beer and local beers befitting the birthplace of domestic beer, and rich, creamy dairy products are popular. When sightseeing in Sapporo, you can fully enjoy this rich food culture.

*This article was created based on information as of July 2025.