Japanese restaurant specializing in Hokkaido-style ramen and authentic northern Japanese cuisine
Hokkaido-ya is a contemporary Japanese fast-casual eatery launched in June 2018 by the established team behind Sushi Tei, specializing in authentic Hokkaido-inspired cuisine and premium Japanese comfort food. The restaurant concept focuses on bringing the distinctive flavors of Japan's northernmost island to Singapore through carefully sourced ingredients and traditional cooking methods.
The restaurant's signature offering is their selection of artisanal ramen featuring three varieties – chashu, hotate (scallop), and beef – each available with a choice of three soup bases: paitan, miso, or spicy. The standout Hokkaido Butter Corn Chashu Ramen showcases the region's famous sweet corn and rich, creamy broth. What sets Hokkaido-ya apart is their commitment to authenticity, sourcing ramen noodles and most ingredients directly from Hokkaido, while using premium Niigata rice and fresh Norwegian salmon for their dishes.
Beyond ramen, Hokkaido-ya offers an extensive menu of donburi rice bowls, Japanese curry, and other northern Japanese specialties. The restaurant embraces modern technology with "smart" self-ordering kiosks powered by artificial intelligence that can identify guests' dining preferences and provide customized meal recommendations. This innovative approach to ordering, combined with their focus on premium ingredients and authentic flavors, makes Hokkaido-ya a unique destination for experiencing the comfort food culture of Japan's Hokkaido region.
The sides taste better than the main dish.
To use 'Hokkaido' in a restaurant's name sets a high bar. Singaporeans go to Hokkaido so frequently that they can tell the difference between ramen from Osaka, Hokkaido, and Tokyo.
They are currently running a free promotion: on weekends, if you buy a meal, you get a free chawanmushi. The chawanmushi has crab sticks and is delicious. 10/10. The miso soup is also delicious. 10/10. These are the sides that taste good.
Now onto the reviews of the main dishes.
The Chaysu ramen is a 6/10 at most. The broth is not satisfying enough and, to be fair, it is priced appropriately at $11.90. However, it does not taste remotely like the ramen found in Hokkaido.
The second dish we ordered was pork katsu curry rice. The breading on the katsu is thin. The curry is Japanese curry, which mostly can't go wrong. I’ll rate it a 5.5/10.
They need to improve the quality of the food to match Hokkaido’s standards, as many Singaporeans are well-traveled and know what Hokkaido cuisine tastes like. A suggestion to make it authentic is to include soup curry, which is a native Hokkaido dish.
Inez
Tried Hokkaido-ya at Punggol Coast Mall recently, and honestly, it was a massive disappointment. I ordered the pork katsu curry rice, and it turned out to be one of the worst renditions I’ve ever had. Even generic food court versions do a better job.
The curry was watery and bland, like it had been stretched out way too much. The pork cutlet was a complete letdown. It had that unmistakable frozen smell and tasted off, like it had been sitting around too long. The breading was limp and soggy instead of crispy, and the meat itself was dry and tough.
To make things worse, the miso soup tasted like hot water with a whisper of miso and was completely forgettable. Even the truffle curly fries, which I had some hope for, were a flop. There was barely any truffle flavor, and the fries were soggy and sad.
Service didn’t help either; the staff seemed indifferent, even borderline rude.
Definitely wouldn’t recommend this place. For the same price or less, you could get a much better meal elsewhere. 🫤
T. L. Chan
Sadly, they oversold their offering. At most, the recipe ranks only at food court level. I felt sad that the panko breading was not as light and fluffy as expected, but rather like dense bread crumbs. The curry sauce was Japanese, but it lacked the dark roux that Japanese curry is typically made with. They might as well just use instant curry cubes.
I was appalled by their tiny serving of cabbage compared to the mountains of shreds I was expecting. To be fair, they did not undersell me on the vegetable serving; it's just a very inauthentic Japanese serving of shredded cabbage. 😁 The only saving grace was the soothing music, the quiet environment, and the lack of a service charge. To salvage their reputation, it may require a major price revision or massive recipe improvement. I wish them the best, as I am unlikely to be a returning customer.
Bu Pei Si
The food was slow to arrive, and the quality didn't meet restaurant standards. We ordered the Tori Karaage and Pork Katsu set and found a hair on the Karaage when picking it up at the counter. The staff didn't apologize, just told us to wait, and it took over 20 minutes for a replacement, bringing the total wait to over 30 minutes. The Katsu was room temperature, and the Miso soup and Karaage were too salty as well. Improvements are definitely needed in terms of both food quality and service.
Positive Reviews
Pek Soon Lau
Nice Japanese style food, but the meat was a tad dry. Nice ambience, but the staff was not too friendly. We also noticed that staff handling food did not wear hairnets or head covers, and one was seen touching her hair before serving food. Suggest that the company review its food handling policy.
Gibran
The pork, chicken, and chawanmushi were a tad salty. The udon quantity could have been better. The curry was not bad. The place was clean, tidy, and rather quiet and cosy, perhaps because I dined here around 8 PM on a weekday. Service was rather fast and good.
Bryan Leong
Reasonably priced, with a decent to good balance of flavours. Good value for the price.
Avoid the frozen gyoza. Fried Chicken was well marinated and cooked. A little too heavy on the curry udon but still a good slurp. Yakiniku rice was again well seasoned.
Soft jazz also played for BGM, very Japan-esque. Service was enthusiastic and helpful enough. You order from a screen, so not too much staff interaction anyway.
People bitching about Hokkaido are the same people who complain about having laksa at a shop named Katong.
