Sushi Bar Siki Hanamaru 四季花まる (Sapporo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Everyone had a good sleep last night so we all got up a little earlier this morning to catch more action before we leave Sapporo. There's still one outstanding item on our agenda before we skip town - we have yet to have any sushi since touching down two days ago.



For the convenience of shopping, I decided to bring everyone to Sushi Siki Hanamaru (四季花まる) for an early lunch. It's directly connected to Sapporo station and most importantly it's really close to the underground shopping streets which made all the ladies happy campers.



It wasn't even noon hours but there's already a small lineup in front of this popular sushi place. Both the sushi counter and regular tables were filled with customers already. And we thought we were early!



I guess this had something to do with its popularity. A lunch menu that offered great value for money. 800yen for a lunch set at this prime location, are you kidding me?



Nigiri Sushi Set (1,160yen) - This came with 9 pieces of sushi, fish soup and traditional steamed egg custard. To be honest, I thought the assortment of sushi was a little rough around the edges but at this price, I wasn't complaining much.



Chutoro - I forgot how much these cost but they were cheap (comparing to Hong Kong). It did offer that melt-in-the-mouth experience but I expected so much more from a chutoro.



Scallop - Very fresh and sweet but would we expect anything less from our beloved Hokkaido scallops?



Torched salmon - Decent but not as fatty as I originally hoped.



Salmon roes - Nice burst of flavors and always a crowd pleaser. Probably right behind the scallop sushi if I have to rank our sushi today.



Eggplant with miso sauce - This was interesting. The eggplant was very juicy and the miso sauce complemented the sweetness of the eggplant very nicely. I ended up getting another order of this just to fix my craving for Japanese eggplant.



Let's be honest about it. This popular sushi bar is far from the best sushi restaurant in town but its prime location inside Sapporo station makes it a viable option. My two cents is to order from their a la carte menu instead of the set menu because there's pretty big gap between the two when it comes to quality.





Food Rating: 4.5/10
Price: ￥￥
Address: PASEO WEST B1F, 1-7, Nishi 2, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-0806 Japan
Closest Metro Station: Sapporo
Tel: +81 11-213-5870
Website: www.sushi-hanamaru.com