When Michelin published its first Hokkaido guide five years ago, it left an exciting trail of stars and restaurant recommendations in its wake.
It didn’t reveal any secrets that Niseko locals and regular visitors didn’t know already, but it was certainly interesting to see just which restaurants piqued the attention of the global guide’s judges, and see many of our friends and favourites receive more well-deserved recognition.
Michelin updated the guide in 2017, reaffirming some of its previous recommendations and adding several more. In total, there are now 15 restaurants that have had stars or recommendations bestowed upon them, or have been newly set up by chefs who operate one or more Michelin-starred restaurants elsewhere and bring the same level of quality and service to their Niseko offerings.
By the time you read this, some of these restaurants may be fully booked for the period you’re in town. The beauty of Niseko is that there’s so much to experience that it’s a destination you can keep coming back to.
If you want to book one of these restaurants for next winter, check with them how to go about ensuring you can lock down a seat. The other option is to come back in the off-season when there are fewer visitors and much greater chance of securing a table.
01 Michel Bras TOYA
Two Stars
Less than an hour from Niseko is this region’s best kept secret – Lake Toya. The volcanic caldera lake is almost perfectly round, with crystal-clear blue water and several cone-shaped, deer-inhabited islands rising out of its centre. Overlooking the scene high on a peak of the caldera’s rim sits the Windsor Hotel, the host of world leaders for a G8 summit in 2008. It’s also home to another of the region’s premier gastronomic experiences, Michel Bras Toya. The restaurant is a replica of a three-star restaurant Michel Bras in Laguiole, France, and inherits the unique gastronomic philosophy and world view of the restaurant’s namesake via Head chef Simone Cantafio.
www.windsor-hotels.co.jp
02 KAMIMURA
One Star
Kamimura was modern Niseko’s first headline restaurant. Opened in 2008, chef Yuichi Kamimura trained under three-star Japanese-born Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda during a working holiday in Sydney. After returning to Japan he made a splash with his first small restaurant in Sapporo, before moving to Niseko and making waves with a level of dining and service Niseko hadn’t seen before. Kamimura’s colourful, creative degustation menus blend the best local produce from land and sea in a style best described as “Hokkaido French”. When Michelin first visited, they gave Kamimura Niseko’s first star, which he retained in the second guide.
www.kamimura-niseko.com
03 Asperges
Three-star Restaurant Head Chef, One-Star Sister Restaurant
Asperges Hanazono is the sister restaurant to one-star Hokkaido French restaurant Asperges in central Hokkaido. When this restaurant closes for the winter all its furniture, fittings, cooking and dining utensils are shipped down to Niseko and set up in one of the two base buildings at the Hanazono ski resort to serve an entirely different clientele. While Asperges Niseko doesn’t have a star of its own, its pedigree is evident in the quality of the dining experience here. Head chef Hiroshi Nakamichi presides over what was, until this last guide, Hokkaido’s only three-star restaurant, Moliere in Sapporo. Asperges is in its fourth year in Niseko and its creative and colourful course menu experience is not to be missed.
www.aspergesniseko.com
04 Bistro Kutchan Sakaba
Founded by a One-star Chef, Michelin Recommendation
After Yuichi Kamimura paved the way for fine dining in Hirafu, he set his sights on the main town centre in Kutchan, 15 minutes’ drive away. The town of 15,000 is inhabited by grids of brutally ugly, ageing concrete and plasterboard buildings. It does however have a thriving dining and entertainment precinct, mainly made up of old traditional Japanese izakaya and sushi restaurants and different varieties of bars. Bistro Kutchan Sakaba was the first upmarket Western-style restaurant designed for the international market here, and changed the face of the main street. The warm, tapas-style bistro, headed by Kamimura protégé Tsuyoshi Kawaguchi, combines simple but beautifully presented dishes that showcase the flavours of Hokkaido.
www.kutchansakaba.com
05 Rakuichi Soba
Michelin recommendation
Soba is a simple dish of buckwheat noodles with a small selection of flavours and toppings. Our guess as to why Michelin recommended this tiny, 12-seat restaurant over dozens of others in the area is as much for the exquisite traditional kaiseki dining experience as the quality of food. Upon crossing a long wooden bridge to an old mountain cabin (the first building in the resort of Annupuri), guests are invited inside by host Midori Rai, exquisitely dressed in kimono. Inside, her husband Tatsuru-san, also in traditional garb, prepares the noodle dough and cuts it by hand in view of diners seated for either a simple soba noodle lunch, or nine-course dinner. In a country renowned for exquisite hospitality, it scarcely comes more refined than the Rakuichi experience.
06 Satou
Michelin recommendation
Just when we thought we had eaten at all the best restaurants in Niseko, we are introduced to another. In the heart of Kutchan’s dining precinct, Satou is a small, traditional sushi bar style restaurant with chef Hirokazu Satou wielding the knives behind the counter, his wife in the kitchen, and one waitress doing a remarkable job waiting the floor on her own. It’s only a small restaurant with three tables and half a dozen seats around the counter, and makes for a charming, relaxed evening (there is extra space upstairs if required). Excellent sushi and sashimi is the order of the day, with a small selection of other complementary Japanese dishes also available. Satou is only several years old and not widely known, so this was nicely highlighted by Michelin.
Other restaurants Michelin singled out (and some of our favourites too)
01 Del Sole
Bib Gourmand recommended
While we’ve always loved this unassuming wood-fired pizza joint, it wasn’t until an Italian friend said Del Sole was the best pizza he’d eaten outside of Italy that we realised just how special it was. Dine in or take out.
www.pizza-delsole.com
02 Maccarina
Recommended
Based in nearby farming village Makkari, this is another restaurant presided over by three-star master chef Hiroshi Nakamichi. In the vein of Asperges but featuring the local produce of the village.
www.maccarina.co.jp
03 Houzuki O-udon Cafe
Recommended
This one is a little hard to find, but if you make it you will be duly rewarded. At the foot of Mt Yotei, this classic Niseko restaurant serves a variety of udon noodle dishes out of beautiful, heavy ceramic bowls.
04 Hanayoshi Sushi
Recommended
Long considered the best sushi restaurant in Niseko, Hanayoshi serves an extensive menu of fresh sushi in the centre of Niseko Town. Its charming chefs and staff make this a dining experience to remember.