Hanayoshi

It’s worth coming all the way out to Niseko Town for Hanayoshi, famous for their sushi and seafood. They’ve now moved a couple of blocks down the road and the new place is really nicely done up – clean, bright, comfortable, with the option of sitting at the chef’s counter, tatami room, or regular tables.

Apart from the impressive wine/sake/champagne list, ranging from USD30 to USD850, so there’s something for everyone. I opted for a dried plum shochu mixer and the hubby asked for his usual, draft Sapporo.

The house specialty was the seafood salad with deep fried potato, coming in a 3-4 person (950 yen) or 1-2 person portion (600 yen). No brainer, definitely the bigger portion for the two of us. And was it worth it. A tall pile of crispy, super thinly grated potatos that resembled vermicelli rice sticks more than the earthy tuber sat atop plenty of fresh crispy lettuce and plenty of tuna, swordfish and octopus sashimi, all jet fresh and brimming with flavours of the sea. The second most impressive dish was the crispy fried chicken with vegetables, and with 6 large pieces of chicken, this dish is definitely enough to go around a few people.

And they have an English menu! So that made our work much easier. Apart from the usual sushi, sashimi, they have rice bowls and temaki rolls. We went for the conger ell rice bowl which was a huge portion of eel, topped with cucumber and a lovely bowl of sweet pearly rice. The miso soup was a delicate bowl of fresh homemade umami goodness, this is a notch above the rest, and puts those dried miso soup packets to shame. The grilled cod was nicely seasoned and executed well, but compared with the other dishes it wasn’t much to write home about.