It was our second night in Sapporo... did I mention that it was my birthday? Probably not. After our visit to Nijo Market, Asahi Beer Factory, and Shiroi Koibito Park, that evening we had crab dinner that Sapporo is famous for. The boys were not really big fans of crabs, but they obliged.... :) Thanks, boys!
A little while before our trip, I saw this video on facebook about crab dinner course at Katukani no Hanasaki. It looked very interesting, but I decided not to go there after I checked out their prices. Instead, I chose Shogun Kani-ya that was recommended by a friend and was close to our hotel.
The restaurant was large and decorated in traditional Japanese style complete with tatamis. It was very busy, but we only had to wait for 15-20 minutes for our table without reservation. That wasn't too bad..
The boys ordered queen and king sushi plates for themselves while I ordered a 5-course king and queen crab dinner for myself. They had a special promotion at that time... Miss Kiki chose a child dinner set for herself.
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| My appetizers |
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| Queen crab leg |
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| Kids dinner set. The sushi rolls have crabs inside. |
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| Siumai tempura |
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| King Crab shabu-shabu |
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| The server arranged the crabs and veggies in the pot |
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| Porridge made using leftover shabu-shabu soup |
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| Ready to eat porridge |
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| Yuzu sorbet |
The crab dinner was good, we left the restaurant full and warm. I must say...., eating chilli crab in Singapore was more satisfying than the gentle flavoured crab dishes in Japan.
It was snowing when we got out of the restaurant, and we started singing this Barney song... Life with a kid, I tell ya!
From dinner time, DH had been talking about going for desserts afterwards. He found this Milk Village Cafe that was rated quite high on the web and was close by. We searched for it but there were no obvious signs that he could read. The falling snow didn't help. In front of the location spot on the map, he stopped some people to ask if they knew where it was. They told us that it was in that building and we had to take the elevator up. They also mentioned that it was a very good place. That was encouraging! Thus, we arrived at Sapporo's hidden gem, Milk Village.
The cafe was a quaint but cute little place decorated like a fairy land. Tables and seats were packed quite tightly but it was not uncomfortable. They only had 2 options in the menu. Set A or Set B. One was ice cream with toppings and choice of two liqueurs, and the other was ice cream with choice of three liqueur. With the menu came an extensive list of liqueurs, local and international types.
The ice cream they served was Hokkaido Milk ice cream, and we think that there was a bit of yuzu flavour in it. We each chose two types of liqueur and our ice cream came with quinoa, yogurt, crepe, and azuki beans infused in liquor. Miss Kiki was obviously underage, so she didn't even get to choose from the menu. Their policy was that underaged kids can only have ice cream. Period.
We got our 6 types of liqueur and they gave us an extra one that was a tea liqueur. We actually liked that one best! The spoon they served the ice cream with was made to balance on top of the mugs. We were supposed to scoop ice cream, rest the spoon on the mug, put toppings and a scoop of liqueur on the spoon before we eat the ice cream. That way with each scoop it would be a different flavour. They served the liqueur with tiny ladles that was about 2 ml I'm estimating. We each got a cookie from them as well.
Well, that was DH's way of doing something special for my birthday and it had been a great experience! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Sapporo. We retired for the evening, and that concludes my birthday in Sapporo! Thanks for reading!
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| Look! Another sushi zanmai. |
