Sapporo Food: Yonoji

S'UPDATE! March 31st 2012

I should really dig through these old posts more because places close down or move and I'd hate to mislead anyone as to the real 'state of play' 'on the ground' 'in sapporo' 'as it were'. Yonoji actually closed down in M's Place a while ago. It became a kind of online cake shop for a while perhaps (when I searched for it) and I just found a new address, which I think might just be the original address, but I'll check it out.

UPDATE! I checked it out, it was just the original address. No Yonoji anymore.

Anyway, point being, sadly this place isn't there anymore. I loved it, and I miss it.

- - - ORIGINAL BLOG POST FOLLOWS! - - -


If I'm really honest, my favourite restaurant in Sapporo is Kitchen Yonoji+Jr. That's a little shameful considering that this is Japan and there's so much great Japanese food here, and so many great local specialties and so on - but my favourite food in the world is the American hamburger, and Yonoji is perhaps the best in Sapporo:


That little one on the left is, I think, almost a kind of joke because their regular hamburgers (described in the menu as Deluxxx Killer Burgers) are so fucking big. That plate of food on the right is too much for any standard human to eat and feel comfortable afterwards. In fact for some people, the burgers and portions of fries are possibly too big, detracting from their overall enjoyment of the meal, but I'm usually ok. I generally don't order the fries when I go there, just the burger and I'd advise you to do the same because the temptation to fill up on fries is always there, and you'll miss out on savouring the burger if you do that. The bread is great, the meat is great and the sauces and relishes - particularly the homemade tomato sauce and the teriyaki sauce - are phenomenal. My recommendations are the "F40" cheese burger and the "Top of a Top" teriyaki burger, both of which I could probably live on for the rest of my life.

Actually Yonoji's concept is that the owners have travelled all around the world, so they serve bits of food from all over the place. There's Greek and Italian and whatever on the menu, maps on the wall and on the tables of international cities, that sort of thing. It's a nice idea, but to be honest it's wasted on me because I have no interest in eating anything other than their burgers. I've seen other people eat different things off the menu and they seemed to enjoy them, but I can't voice an opinion myself.

Their other concept is that the couple who own it bring their dog (sometimes two dogs) to the store with them. Is that a concept? Having a dog in the shop? I'm not sure, it's a cute dog though.

Yonoji used to be way out in the sticks and a bugger to get to, but this year they moved into the city centre. It's still hidden away pretty well though. Walk along Tanuki Koji, heading west until you get to the end of the 6th block (6 Chome). At the pedestrian crossing look to your right and you'll see a shabby, but well lit building called M's Place on the other side of the road that you're about to cross. It's the same place that has the Gaijin Bar (still a terrible name) and Cam Cam, the pan-asian place (which has great food too). Yonoji is up on the 1st (2nd, you get the idea) floor, on your right after you go up the stairs. They're closed on Sundays, and seriously, though Hamburger Risa is more authentic, I reckon these are the best burgers in Sapporo.