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Soup Curry Garaku Sapporo Main Store in Chuo-Ku, Sapporo

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+81 112529843

Closeest to Bus Center Mae Station (Tozai Line)

プレサント南３東２ B1F, Minami 3 Jyo Higashi 2 Chome 6−1, Chuo Ku

[see on the map]

We have been building a very extensive list of the best soup curry in Sapporo. If you know soup curry at all, you of course know Garaku. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is our review of the Soup Curry Garaku Main Store, located just off the Nijo fish market, in Chuo-ku, Sapporo. The soup is very good – but the lines are very long, my friends.

Garaku is perhaps the biggest empire in the soup curry category. They have multiple stores, several in Sapporo, two in Chitose (there is a Garaku store at New Chitose Airport), several more across Hokkaido, some in Tokyo, and a few stores international stores (in Thailand and Vancouver Canada). Even in this same neighborhood (less than five minutes walk), there is the Soup Curry Treasure store (which has all the same flavors, a much shorter line). Closer to Sapporo Station, they have their Soup Curry Garaku Sitatte shop (also has long lines, but it’s all indoors and more comfortable). If you really want to try the main store, this is the place to do it.

Down the ally that runs behind the Nijo fish market, is the (“new”) Garaku Main Restaurant (the “original” Garaku shop relocated to this location). This is a super-crowded tourist spot, but…

Garaku’s soup curry is very good. At this moment in time, I’m happy to say they have earned their reputation as the best soup curry in Sapporo.

If you’re local, sometime in Sapporo in the off-season, it will probably be easy to get into the main Garaku shop without much of a wait. It is a huge basement-level shop, probably seats almost 70 guests (?). But if you’re a tourist, perhaps here for the Sapporo Snow Festival, you will be fighting every other tourist to be at this spot, during the time everyone else wants to be here as well. Crowded.

Since this spot is “ninki,” there is a pretty solid line to get in.

The first time I came to the Sapporo Garaku Main store, I arrived at 11:15, 15 minutes before they open, and there were at least 40 people in line (that was before I knew that there is another indoor line as well). I gave up immediately, I decided I would just come back even earlier.

All these people waiting. Waiting for… soup. Amazing.

I came back even earlier the next day. This time I arrived at 45 min before they opened, there were already maybe 20 people in line. It was cold, and the streets were icey, and I watch I watched tourists falling down in all directions; slipping on the ice, tripping over the crowd-control chains used to organize the line at Garaku. In the crowd, there were Thai voices, some Beijing accents, but not only foreigners, the some Japanese tourists as well.

Maybe 30 minutes before they start seating people, they open the front door, and bring the first part of the line inside. I happen to be in that part of the line. They brought us in, and we could wait the next 30 minutes inside (which is better than waiting outside, for sure). I had a nice young Japanese couple behind me (there were the last ones inside), both of them visitors from other parts of Japan.

If it has been a while since you’ve had a good look at your phone, this is perhaps the best spot in all of Sapporo to really score some screen time. You, and 30 other people on the staircase, all staring at your phones. For people that love to wait in line, this is an excellent place to do it.

We actually took this exact same photo when we did our review of the original Garaku store.

Sometime close to 11:30, they brought us down inside to the basement restaurant.

The interior is huge (the first interior shot below only shows the smaller of two rooms). It is not a cafeteria (it is nicer than that), but it is big enough to make that comparison. The room I was seated in probably seats at least 30 people. Past the cash register is yet another room, which is bigger – maybe another 40 people.

It is amazing that the line is this long, considering how much seating they have inside. They are running a massive soup curry business.

If you come to Hokkaido, you should have some soup curry. I do like soup curry, but I don’t like these super-hyped tourist experiences. Personally, I would recommend Garaku – maybe the best taste in the city. But this location is too choked with crowds – all of the other Garaku shops offer the same flavors and a better experience.

However; the Sapporo Garaku main store soup curry menu does have some special versions of soup curry. For those specific flavors, the Main store is only place to find them.

The most popularly-served Hokkaido soup curry is a chicken leg soup (Garaku calls this the chicken thigh, technically it is both drumstick and thigh) with vegetables. That is what I usually order at Garaku (there are pictures in our review of Garaku Sitatte). The Garaku Main Store has this Tender Chicken Thigh with Vegetables Soup Curry (1480 JPY), a Slow Roasted Kakuni Pork Belly Soup Curry (1640 JPY), Kamifurano Pork with Assortment of Mushrooms Soup Curry (1590 JPY), a Fried Chicken Thigh with Vegetables Soup Curry (1530 JPY), and finally a Pork Sausage with Smoked Bacon and Cheese Soup Curry (1590 JPY).

Unique to the Main Store, their main special is a localized a seafood soup curry, ostensibly connecting Sapporo’s Main Garaku Store to the Nijo fish market.

Marina Seafood Bowl with Snow Crab Gratin: Snow Crab Gratin, Shrimp, Scallop, Cod, Squid and Octopus Fish Cake, G Set Vegetables (3790 JPY)
— From the Soup Curry Garaku Sapporo Main menu

Soup curry is simple food. It’s literally soup. But most soup curry restaurants in Sapporo have at least one very high-priced option. A few blocks away, the very touristy Okushiba Ekimae Soup Curry shop has an Extra Meat Soup Curry for 4400 JPY. For the very hungry, of for guest that would like to relieve their wallet, seems like smart psychological play from the owners of these restaurants. The seafood option fills that “go big” option at Sapporo Main Garaku.

“The shredded crab meat and crab miso were placed on the shell and grilled with cheese. This is a menu exclusive to the main store, packed with seafood!”

If you translate the name of the Garaku crab seafood soup curry from the Japanese menu to English, it comes out “Blessing of Sea Port.” I like that.

You may notice in the descriptions of most of the soup curries on the menu includes “G Set” at the end of the list of featured ingredients. What does G Set at Garaku mean?

“G Set” is a somewhat cryptic way of announcing their lists of standard vegetables in the soup curry including Potato, Carrot, Broccoli, Cabbage, Wood Ear Mushro (which we can assume is in fact mushroom), Lotus Root (locally known as renkon), and the very non-vegetable Quail Egg.

While Garaku is nice enough to provide simple table menus, they want you to order at the screens provided at each table. I hate these kinds of systems, definitely makes for a less friendly atmosphere. I am almost certain they would take your order in person – they have a lot staff, and everyone was very friendly. But if you want to get started on your own…

Look for the “Language” button in the upper right corner. The tablet menus at Garaku menus start off in Japanese, but offer service in English, Korean and Chinese.

I had every intention of ordering the chicken “thigh” soup curry, but as I like to show some variety for you readers, I decided to try the Camembert cheese special.

Garaku Special Hokkaido Camembert Cheese Wheel: Chicken Thigh, Pork Sausage, Bacon, G Set
— From the Garaku Main Store soup curry menu

That description sounds like there might be cheese in the soup curry (which sounds good, actually), but the cheese comes separately on the rice. They have an additional option for a slice of cheese on the rice, but this is a small “wheel” of local-Hokkaido, French Camembert cheese.

Here is what the ordering process looks like (for one person) after you’ve made your choice.

All of these screen-based menus are terrible, (Garaku’s physical menu is low-tech, and very easy to understand. And at the Garaku Sitatte store, you get to order with a real human.), but the menus at their Main store are not too difficult to use or understand, they are better than most. You may notice the “tabs” for 1. spiciness, 2. amount of soup, 3. size of rice, and 4. toppings.

My food came out fast. The doors opened and they let us in at 11:30, and I had my order by 11:39 (faster than the guy next to me, who ordered before me). It probably takes longer once all the seats are filled.

Look at that. That is beautiful soup curry.

While I usually comment on the first bite, today’s review of the food begins with the aroma; as my food was delivered the smell hit me first; it was that cheese.

That Camembert Cheese smell is rich. Cheese can get a little funky, but it wasn’t that “gym locker” smell. The Camembert Cheese has a strong, bold smell to match the flavor. Very creamy. Served warm.

The dish is called Garaku Special Camembert Cheese Wheel, but most of the firepower in the meal comes from three kinds of meat; there is full chicken “thigh” portion, a pork “frankfurter” sausage, and a thick slice of bacon.

I tore into the chicken, which was amazing, as always. I am happy to call Garaku the best soup curry in Hokkaido, and I am happy to base that almost entirely off of the standard chicken soup curry (which owes a lot to their excellent signature broth),

The sausage had plenty of fat, almost too dominant in taste, but not quite. Tasty. I didn’t expect to like the sausage, but it was good. And that thick slice of bacon was amazing.

From my first tastes of soup curry in Hokkaido (most of which were at the Garaku Treasure soup curry shop nearby), I have always been surprised at how much I like the broccoli, which comes to you in blackened as it sits in the broth. For this meal, it seemed more greasy, too oily, but the blackened bits were as delicious as ever.

Maybe the biggest surprise of the meal was the thin-slices of wood ear mushroom. In the pictures, you can see something that looks like strips of seaweed; black, both chewy and crunchy (as wood ear can be). They had a flavor of their own that was a wonderful addition to the soup.

While this shop was full of tourists from neighboring Asian countries, the guy next to me was a native Japanese, also a tourist, visiting from Tokyo. He wanted to try the “famous Garaku shop.” This guy ordered the pork belly soup curry.

Slow Roasted Kakuni Pork Belly Soup Curry: Braised Pork Belly, G Set
— From the menu at Garaku Main Store in Sapporo

That is good looking soup curry. If you look close, his rice (in the background) has a slice of cheese on it. That is not standard (it’s extra), but looks like a good idea to me. He also ordered some karage (fried chicken) as well (which is on the menu somewhere).

If you’re following the timeline of this post: I was in line at 10:40. I had my food at 11:39. There is a beer in these photos. That beer is for you, for the picture – soup curry looks better with a beer next to it. I do like alcohol, but I wasn’t ready to start drinking at 11:30 AM on that particular day.

I did have a sip to two (for “Science™”), and… that was a tasty beer; dry, bitter, reminded me of lemon. Delicious, and an excellent palate cleanser versus all that savory soup. A shout-out to the brewer, Otaru Beer. Good stuff.

It was a very big lunch. Surprising myself, I finished it all. I ended like I always do, by sipping the broth off my spoon.

The broth (which they call “soup”) at Garaku is amazing. It’s a home run combination of sweet, salty, and spices. It is also thick with fat, velvety, that makes it almost like a cream. Excellent.

I like their letter board sign, and the creative use of English makes me laugh. That “soul” reference does remind me to mention the music – which is a part of the Garaku experience I have come to expect (and that I genuinely enjoy).

On this day at Garaku, they were playing the usual funky, 70s American classics like “Sugar pie, honey bunch, you know, that I, love, you, cain’t help myself” by the Four Tops, and an almost gospel-version Bridge Over Troubled Water (that broke down to full funk) by Aretha Franklin. On other visits, I have heard a lot of disco. But a good way to describe the music at Garaku, is, “soul.”

I like it. At the original Garaku, there was a red-white-blue motorcyle helmet. The owner seems to have some eclectic love for Americana.

They have a massive table for Garaku shwag to take home, if you’re feelin’ it. I bought a sticker. I have been tempted by that sticker many times, and now she is mine.

Highly recommended.

The food here is excellent, but I can’t recommend the shop; the crowds, and the screens on the tables, are a turn off. If you want the Garaku flavor, Soup Curry Treasure is in this same neighborhood, and provides the same “spice love.” The Garaku shop in the B1 level of the Sitatte building is also a better experience. And for the best soup curry experience in Hokkaido (if you are willing to take a short trip, with what could be 15-minute walk), check out Okushiba-chan Grandma’s Soup Curry in Miyanomori.