Niseko Restaurants

Niseko's unique cuisine culture

In the early days of Niseko’s resurgence as Japan’s premier winter resort, it was often a case of not knowing what to expect, and finding charm in the simple delights of Japanese rural cooking. And in those early days, while presenting delicious fare, restaurants that existed were pretty rough and ready. In many cases, they were pre-fab huts and construction-site demountables - thrown up overnight to meet the demands of the sudden influx of hungry international skiers and boarders.

Those ‘simple delights’ continue to win over thousands of new converts to local Japanese cuisine every season. Apart from sushi, which has now almost attained ‘world food’ status, the staples are soba and ramen noodles with their seemingly endless variety of flavors, and a wonderful array of locally sourced healthy dishes of meat (including Hokkaido deer), seafood and vegetables. The secret is in the wide use of charcoal grilling and unforgettable sauces that rely heavily on soy, sesame, ginger and garlic, in addition to a number of others that are uniquely Japanese.

The modern Niseko dining landscape

But what a difference a few years has made! Today the village of Hirafu alone boasts more than 40 restaurants, and is the hub of a vibrant après ski culture that brilliantly complements the spectacular powder delights of the slopes that tower over it.

And each season sees the numbers grow in Higashiyama and Annupuri too, springing up - as the Japanese say - like bamboo shoots after rain. Add in the huge number of eateries in nearby Kutchan town, and the township of Niseko itself - easily accessible to visitors by bus or taxi - and the total number runs close to 200. It is this rich, foreign-driven restaurant culture that sets Niseko apart from other Japanese ski areas and supports its claim to be a truly international ski resort.

How the Niseko restaurant scene evolved

It is not often realised how different the Japanese ‘traditional’ approach to skiing and eating was, but a close look at the remaining older parts of the Hirafu Lower Village area - with its plethora of old-style Japanese pensions - reveals a lot of the story. With far more rigid time constraints than their Western counterparts, Japanese always had to cram their passion for skiing into concentrated weekend bursts. Arriving late on Friday night or early Saturday mornings, they would ski all day till they dropped, then return to their pension for an eat-in dinner and an early night in order to get up and do it all again on Sunday morning before the long journey home. Eating out - apart from lunch at on-slope huts or a straggle of noodle bars at the base of the lifts - was unknown.

From great value to gourmet

Today, some of the quaint old noodle bars and izakaya that captivated the early visitors still remain, and serve up ethnic Japanese delicacies at back-packer prices, but now they share the evening turf with an extraordinary array of culinary diversity that can genuinely claim to offer something for everybody, regardless of budget. At the top end of the spectrum is the eponymously-named Kamimura, where a disciple of the Sydney’s world famous Wakuda Tetsuya nightly enthrals Niseko’s better-heeled visitors with exquisitely elegant menus that would hold their own in the gourmet capitals of the world, arguably one of the best restaurants in Niseko.

Interestingly, these days the message about Niseko is gaining a lot of local amplification too. More and more Japanese skiers and boarders are abandoning their ‘regular’ ski haunts on the mainland, and coming from all over Japan as much for the multicultural restaurant and bar scene in Niseko as for the snow.

It’s no exaggeration to say Niseko has changed the face of winter snow sports in Japan forever.