Sapporo Ramen Yanagi

I visited the restaurant I was most interested in when browsing through Ramen Waker 2025 magazine. The restaurant is Sapporo Ramen Yanagi, a miso ramen specialty restaurant located in Kawabata Shichijo, Kyoto. It is a new store that just opened in January 2024, but it has already become quite popular in Kyoto, where there are few miso ramen shops. To find out if the rumors are true, we headed to the restaurant one evening…ったのですが…

Sapporo Ramen Yanagi is a restaurant where you can enjoy the taste of the famous Sapporo Miso Ramen restaurant, Sumire…

I arrived at Sapporo Ramen Yanagi a little past 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday night, but there was no line at the restaurant at this point, and I easily entered without waiting. There were a total of 16 seats (8 L-shaped counter seats and 2 tables for 4 people) inside, and there were a few empty seats. The atmosphere of this ramen shop is very ordinary, without any particular decoration, and it seems to be perfectly suitable for not only a loner like me, but also a family with small children.

The owner of this ramen restaurant had trained at Sumire, a famous Sapporo miso ramen restaurant. This means that we can expect pure Sumire-style miso ramen covered with hot lard at Sapporo Ramen Yanagi. This is probably the only place in Kyoto where pure Sumi-style Sapporo Miso Ramen is available at this time. Especially on winter nights when the temperature drops dramatically, the miso ramen here will save our souls many times over…

Kyoto’s only JunsSumi Style! What is Sapporo Ramen Yanagi’s Miso Ramen really like?

With these expectations in mind, I ordered the standard Miso Ramen this time at Sapporo Ramen Yanagi. After about 5 minutes of waiting, the Miso Ramen arrived in front of me…

The soup is covered with a thin film of lard, as expected. The lard has a nice effect of removing the steam from the bowl, but if you are careless and gulp down the soup, you will burn your mouth extensively, so be careful.

So, first, I scooped some of the soup onto a bamboo ladle and poured it into my mouth… As you can imagine, the soup was so hot that the burn almost paralyzed my sense of taste, but when I broke through the film of lard, the richness of the miso spread out on my tongue. There is no minced pork in it, so it does not have the savory flavor of Sumire‘s miso. The salt content is also a bit low, giving the soup as a whole a slightly milder impression than Sumire. It may be that the flavor was adapted for Kyoto people.

On the other hand, the noodles are medium-thick and curly, slightly thinner and more highly watered than those made at Sapporo noodle mills. The impact of the noodles is not as strong as Sapporo miso ramen, but they absorb the soup well, and their slightly crispy texture is well matched to the soup.

The main topping, chashu pork, is thinly sliced, but I appreciate that they included four slices. The roasted pork has a low fat content, so it can be eaten easily thanks to the thinly sliced effect. And don’t forget the grated ginger on top of the chashu. Dissolving the ginger in the soup makes the rich miso broth taste fresher and fresher. This flavor alteration is definitely worth a try for people in Kyoto.

This is the kind of Sapporo Ramen Yanagi‘s Miso Ramen. Although it has been slightly rearranged for Kyoto people, I had the impression that the essence of pure Miso Ramen has been taken over. I can’t wait for the coming winter season. The miso ramen here will surely warm you up from the inside out. I wish this miso ramen would spread to more people in Kyoto…

Examples of Sapporo Ramen Yanagi’s menu (prices include tax)

• Chashu-men: 1,250 yen
• Special miso ramen 1,200 yen
• Miso ramen 950 yen
• Tsukidashi meat 700 yen
• Chashu-don: 500 yen
• Medium rice 200 yen
• Fried bean sprouts 500 yen

Can it become a Kyoto winter specialty along with curry udon? To get to Sapporo Ramen Yanagi, it is a 4-minute walk from the nearest station, Shichijo Station on the Keihan Electric Railway Line

The miso ramen at Sapporo Ramen Yanagi was definitely the real deal. I am sure that the quality of the miso ramen will satisfy even those who come from Sapporo. I personally hope that this miso ramen will become a Kyoto winter specialty along with curry udon….

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…

P.S. If you are looking for a delicious ramen in Kyoto, please stop by this article below…