Outside Ottawa

Soup curry was one of the biggest food discoveries I made after arriving in Sapporo. Before this trip, it wasn’t something I was familiar with at all, and it’s not a dish you casually come across outside of Hokkaido. It was only after looking up restaurants and local food specialties that I realized how important soup curry is to the city’s food identity.

Damairu Sushizen is a well-established sushi restaurant in Sapporo that focuses on quality ingredients and traditional execution rather than theatrics. It feels refined but not intimidating, making it approachable even if you’re not deeply familiar with Japanese sushi culture. The atmosphere is calm and comfortable, the kind of place where the food clearly takes priority over flashy presentation.

This post covers three such bakeries: Donguri Bake, PAUL, and Saint-Germain. Each represents a slightly different style—Donguri with its Hokkaido milk–focused breads, PAUL with its French roots, and Saint-Germain as a dependable Japanese bakery chain. As with the rest of my Japan Food Series, this is a break from my usual Ottawa restaurant reviews and instead focuses on the everyday foods that made travelling through Sapporo so enjoyable.

Boul’Ange was easily one of my favourite bakeries that I came across in Sapporo. After trying a wide range of bakeries during this trip—from casual chains to neighbourhood bakeries—Boul’Ange stood out immediately for its consistency, execution, and overall quality. This is the kind of bakery where you can tell, from the first bite, that they take their dough seriously.

Bostonbake is a casual, neighbourhood-style bakery chain you’ll see around Sapporo and other parts of Hokkaido. It’s not a boutique patisserie or a trendy café-style bakery. Instead, it feels practical, approachable, and very Japanese in how it balances variety with affordability. The shelves are packed with everything from sweet pastries and buns to savoury sandwiches and curry breads, clearly aimed at locals grabbing breakfast, lunch, or an afternoon snack.

Continuing my Japan Food Series, I wanted to highlight a few more specialty shops and stores I visited in Sapporo that stood out for their snacks, sweets, and drinks. Unlike the major convenience store chains like FamilyMart or Lawson, these places felt more local and unique—offering products you might not find anywhere else in Japan.

While Japan’s convenience stores like Lawson, FamilyMart, and Seicomart are already impressive, Sapporo also has plenty of smaller specialty stores and department store food sections worth exploring. These aren’t quite the same as konbini, but they share the same attention to detail, freshness, and variety that Japan’s food culture is known for.

Seicomart is a name you’ll hear often when you’re in Hokkaido. Unlike Lawson, FamilyMart, or 7-Eleven—which can be found across Japan—Seicomart is mainly located in the Hokkaido region, and it’s actually one of Japan’s oldest convenience store chains. It’s so common in Hokkaido that locals often describe it as part of daily life. Even though it operates mostly within the region, stepping into one feels instantly familiar.

One of the most enjoyable parts of travelling in Japan is exploring stores like Lawson. These convenience stores (konbini) are everywhere and carry an incredible variety of snacks, drinks, and ready-to-eat meals. They’re nothing like what we have in Ottawa—Lawson elevates even the simplest foods, making them fun to explore. While my site usually focuses on Ottawa food establishments, I wanted to share this special post, which will be one of several Japan Food Series posts, highlighting the unique items I tried from Lawson during my trip to Sapporo.

FamilyMart is one of the most iconic convenience store chains in Japan, alongside Lawson and 7-Eleven. These stores, often called konbini, are everywhere—you’ll find them on busy city corners, tucked away near train stations, and even in quiet neighbourhoods. What makes them special isn’t just the sheer variety of food and drink available, but also the quality. It’s remarkable to walk into what looks like a regular convenience store and come out with items that taste freshly prepared, unique, and worth remembering.