Sapporo is very famous for its soup curry, and Soup Curry GARAKU is one of the classic Sapporo soup curry restaurants in Sapporo. I visited Soup Curry Karaku on my trip to Sapporo a few years ago. And I enjoyed it so much that I went back this year on my solo trip to Sapporo.
Location / Opening Hours
- 11:30 to 21:00 (15:30 to 17:00 break)
Soup Curry Karaku is located close to Susukino Station, the center of Sapporo.
Waiting
When I was here a few years ago, it was a system where you had to wait in line, but this time it’s changed to a system where you go to the restaurant and get a waiting list. I can say that it’s much easier than before because you can spend time elsewhere until you get your order, and you can check your order remotely on Line Messenger. When I went before, I remember waiting for about an hour and a half to get in, even though I went before it opened, and it was a very cold winter with snow, so I was shivering.
Now, when you go to the restaurant, you go right down the stairs to the basement, and there’s a tablet, and you put the number of people in there, and you hit OK, and it gives you a receipt, which has your number and a QR barcode on it. If you have the Line messenger installed on your smartphone, you can scan the QR, and you can see how many guests are left remotely.
I arrived at 12:00, pulled number 102, and expected a one-hour wait, but it took much longer. After long wait, I got a noticed via Line Messenger to come to the restaurant at 2:30. When I got there, there were still a lot of people waiting at the entrance of the restaurant. The lunchtime waitlist had already ended and they were covering their tablets. I was called and went in, but I still had to wait another 30 minutes. That’s almost 3 hours of waiting to eat.
For reference, the restaurant opens at 11:30, but they say you can start waiting at 11:00. If you arrive before 11:00, get a table, look around, and eat, you’ll probably have a shorter wait.
I spent some time exploring the surrounding malls while I waited, so it wasn’t too bad, but the wait was longer than I expected, which delayed my dinner plans.
You can check the menu at the entrance of the restaurant, as well as at your table. When you enter the restaurant, you can look at the menu and decide what you want to eat while waiting for your order. The menu is also available in English, so I didn’t have any trouble ordering.
The menu only has soup curry as the base and then you can choose how you want to add toppings and meat. The soup curry with chicken legs is the most representative menu, and you can also choose sausage, vegetables, and pork. However, the pork soup curry is very popular, so when I visited, it was sold out, so I couldn’t order it. I remember the pork soup curry was sold out before. I think it’s one of those dishes that you can only get if you go early.
As for how I ordered it, first, I wanted the soup curry to be spicy, so I ordered it at level 19 for an extra 110 yen. However, I’m a Korean who loves spicy food, so it was just the right amount of spice for me, and if you’re not used to spicy food, even level 5 can be spicy as well. Next, I ordered a lassi, an Indian yogurt drink. And I ordered the rice in the M size with no extra charge, topped with the highly recommended cheese and a soft-boiled egg. Finally, I ordered the extra broccoli, which was fried in oil and was very flavorful and tasty, even though I don’t usually like broccoli.
Soup Curry Karaku
After ordering and waiting for a while, Rassi came out, followed by the soup curry and then the rice. The lassi tasted like the usual sweetened yogurt. It came with a stick to stir the syrup underneath. It went well with the spicy soup curry.
The first time I tried the soup curry broth, I was very impressed with it, and this time it was just as delicious. When I was traveling in Sapporo, I had a soup curry for breakfast at the hotel where I stayed, but I was disappointed because it was too watery and didn’t have much flavor, but Karaku’s soup curry is a watery soup, but the flavor itself is incredibly rich and has a strong flavor. So, it went very well with rice, and the spiciness level of 19 was just right for me, just a little bit of tingling, and I liked it because I like spicy things, but if you can’t eat a lot of spicy things, you can choose the basic level.
And the egg and cheese toppings on top of the rice were nice to neutralize the spicy soup curry and make it a little more savory and soft to eat. The toppings on top, like chicken legs, wood ear mushrooms, and lotus root, were also very tasty. And the first bite of broccoli was just as impressive as before. This time, I paid extra for the broccoli, so the portion was larger, but I definitely realized the second time around that this was a deep-fried vegetable. Whereas the first bite was savory, the second time around I could actually taste the oil on the broccoli, but it was still delicious.
This time, I went all out with the toppings, and I was satisfied with it. In conclusion, adding too many toppings made it more expensive than I thought it would be. Next time I go, I think I’ll just eat it as a base without all these toppings. I think it’s satisfying enough as a base.
Instant Products
They sell instant soup curry at the entrance of the store. There are retort products that can be heated up and eaten immediately like 3-minute curry, and they also sell liquid sauce products that you can make yourself. When I was traveling before, I bought retort soup curry at Don Quixote, although it wasn’t Karaku’s soup curry, but I didn’t eat it as much as I thought because the taste was disappointing, so I didn’t buy any instant products.
So far, I’ve introduced you to Soup Curry Karaku, a famous restaurant in Sapporo. It’s a really good place, and for me, soup curry has become one of my favorite foods and a reason to visit Sapporo. If you’re traveling to Sapporo, I highly recommend checking it out, but even if you don’t have to wait in line, you’ll want to get there early to avoid the long wait.
