Good tempura.

Visited to collect a stamp for the 2026 Gourmet Rally Challenge. A little before noon. The parking lot was full, so I waited a bit. I wonder if you can park around the back too. Went in and bought a meal ticket from the machine. I hadn't decided what to get, so I randomly bought the tare katsuju set. It costs 1480 yen? Everywhere is charging boldly these days. I waited with high expectations. I feel like dishes that cost a fair amount used to mostly deliver satisfying flavor and portions, but today's high-price phenomenon is completely different. Prices are simply rising because goods, fuel, and labor costs have gone up, so the actual contents don't measure up at all. It arrived after about 10 minutes. With the ticket-machine system, I couldn't tell whether the set could be upsized, so I suppose this was the regular portion, but it looked obviously small. As for the all-important taste… The soba. Sarashina soba. No chew, and there were already lots of broken noodle scraps at the bottom when it was served. The dipping sauce was thin and weak in flavor, leaving something to be desired… The sauce katsuju was even worse. Surely it was overfried. It was clearly burnt. Taking a bite, the coating was more noticeable than the meat. Looking at the cross-section, the meat was thin. So thin I wondered if they were using thinly sliced pork belly. Wasn't the ratio something like 1 part meat to 3 parts coating? And the meat wasn't the only thin thing—the rice layer was thin too… Quite something to sneak in a surprise like that. I guess getting something worth 1480 yen really was impossible. The tempura in my wife's summer vegetable tempura soba was good. Despite having lots of staff, you inexplicably have to return your own dishes. The tables have no wet towels or hand wipes, and no condiments. Not even tissues. Way too greedy. The tables in the tatami area are low and awkward to eat at, and the seating space is far too cramped. What the heck, nothing good here. I won't return to a restaurant that can't do business from the customer's perspective.

+2

2026.05.15 ・Located along National Route 275, on the way from Sapporo to the medical university. ・Fukuzumi was once a soba restaurant with quite a few branches across Hokkaido, but honestly, my reaction was, so it's still here. Looking at the website, it seems this used to be a franchise but terminated its contract and now operates independently. It apparently has no connection to the few Fukuzumi restaurants in Hokkaido, but there seem to be some rather complicated circumstances, with the words “in Tobetsu” added before “Fukuzumi” in the restaurant name. ・I visited right at lunchtime on a weekday. Business was booming; I managed to get a seat, but it was almost full. ・It felt a little hot today, so I ordered “oomori soba” for 1,000 yen. ・The Sarashina soba characteristic of Fukuzumi went down smoothly, and the sauce was delicious, slightly sweet with a strong dashi flavor. Even a large portion never got boring. ・The system here involves buying tickets from a machine and clearing up after eating, which made me feel they were probably short-staffed.

+2

A soba restaurant near Kabato Seimensho, the place with extremely long queues in Tobetsu. Visited before noon. You buy from a ticket machine, but it doesn't accept the new banknotes ^^; Had them exchange mine for old notes and pressed the button for the tendon and soba set, supposedly the No.2 most popular item. It arrived about 10 minutes later. My impression: the soba is thin, Sarashina-style noodles. The broth is light. The tendon has a fairly decent portion, but far too little sauce, so I somehow got through it by dipping it in the soba sauce. Overall, it was ordinary. But, you know… Since they're charging a fair amount, self-service water is fine, but having to return your own dishes? I wondered about that. It was also disappointing that there was no chili powder, toothpicks, tissues, or anything like that on the table.

+2

Traveled out of town for work with a colleague. A late lunch after 14:30. Morning ramen for breakfast and soba for lunch, haha. The katsudon tempted me too, but I chose the kashiwa soba for 1,000 yen, which looked like it had plenty of chicken. There were lots of chopped green onions added on top too, so I was satisfied. Maybe they'd boiled too much soba, because they gave us complimentary mori soba. It was delicious. Thanks for the meal♪