Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho (元祖さっぽろラーメン横丁) is located in Susukino (すすきの), known as “the Shinjuku of Sapporo,” an area popular with international travelers. Sapporo Ramen Yokocho is a long, narrow alley lined with famous ramen shops, and many tourists consider it a must-visit food spot in Sapporo.

Getting to Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho is easy: take the Sapporo Municipal Subway Namboku Line to Susukino Station, where it meets the Sapporo streetcar, and it’s just a two- to three-minute walk. Besides international visitors, the alley is also very popular with locals and Japanese tourists.

Because it’s so famous and draws visitors from Japan and abroad, some shops have English or Chinese menus. Even if a shop only has a Japanese menu, the staff are used to international guests and can understand what you want, so don’t worry if you don’t speak Japanese.

Opening hours vary by shop, but most open between 10 and 11 AM and stay open until the early hours of the morning, and some even stay open until the next morning. So it’s lively during the day, of course, and even at midnight you’ll see people stopping by for a bowl of ramen after a night of drinking.

There are 17 ramen shops in Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho, each with its own character, so even neighboring shops serving the same type of ramen taste different. Here, we introduce the miso ramen specialist Baisenya (倍煎舎), Menya Toripan (麺処とりぱん), which serves 100% chicken paitan broth, and Shimijimi (しみじみ), which uses clam broth.

Baisenya is a miso ramen specialist. Before making the broth, they blend two kinds of Hokkaido miso and ferment the mixture at room temperature in the shop for a second round of aging, which gives the ramen broth an especially mellow, rich flavor.

The signature dish is Kosen Miso Ramen (香煎味噌らーめん) (1,200 yen). The white broth, made from half chicken and half pork, has the sweetness of stir-fried onions, the richness of meat juices, and the aroma of lightly charred garlic, all of which go perfectly with the special miso paste.

The shop deliberately uses less lard and adds ginger and Japanese pepper (sansho), giving the rich miso broth a refreshing kick. If you want miso ramen in Sapporo, be sure to order this bowl! Another popular choice, especially with international visitors, is the Kosen Spicy Miso Ramen (香煎辛味噌らーめん) (1,080 yen).

The spicy miso in this ramen is made by adding chili oil and doubanjiang to the special miso paste. One sip of the broth and the heat hits you right away, but it’s quickly followed by a wave of umami, proving that Baisenya’s special miso is excellent even when it’s spicy. According to the shop, one in two international customers orders this spicy miso ramen, so if you can handle the heat, give it a try at Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho.

Menya Toripan’s highlight is its 100% chicken paitan broth, made only from chicken. The main shop is about a 10-minute walk from Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho, and because it was so popular, a branch opened in Ramen Alley in April 2018.

Using 100% chicken paitan as the base, the broth is seasoned to your liking as salt, soy sauce, or miso ramen. Even after seasoning, you can still taste the original chicken paitan flavor, and its clean finish keeps it from feeling heavy.

A pressure cooker heated to 130 degrees inside extracts every bit of flavor from the chicken, turning the broth milky white. The most popular flavor is Toripan Miso (とりぱんみそ) (950 yen).

The chicken broth with a hint of miso tastes rich but never heavy or greasy.

The chashu is made from lean meat near the pork shoulder and cooked at a low temperature for 22 hours, locking all the flavor into the tender meat.

Kohaku, a chicken paitan ramen with white soy sauce that has recently become popular with locals

Along with chashu and bamboo shoots, it's topped with fried shallots and ginger. The ginger brings out the mellow flavor of the white-soy-sauce chicken broth, making this a ramen full of rich Japanese flavors.

At the ramen alley branch, most customers are international visitors who think Sapporo ramen should be miso, so miso ramen is naturally the most ordered. At the main shop, however, most customers are locals, who seem to prefer the Toripan Shio (とりぱんしお) salt ramen (1,000 yen), with its more pronounced chicken flavor.

Shimijimi specializes in a broth made from shijimi clams and kombu. For every flavor of ramen, you can choose either the light assari style or the richer kossari style with added chicken broth, depending on your preference.

Shijimi clams contain nutrients that support liver function and help prevent hangovers, so many Japanese people come here for ramen after drinking at night. The most popular dish is the Assari Shijimi Shio Ramen (あっさりしじみ塩ラーメン) (950 yen), whose light broth lets you taste the sweet umami of the clams.

If you like bold flavors, try the Kossari Shijimi Miso Ramen (こっさりしじみ味噌ラーメン) (950 yen). Meat lovers can order the Kossari Shijimi Chashu (こっさりしじみチャーシュー) (1,200 yen), which comes with extra chashu.

Even the rich kossari broth is relatively low in fat, so it tastes clean rather than heavy. The delicate sweetness of the clams and kombu blends beautifully with the chicken broth, creating layers of flavor in every sip.

Shimijimi also has a little-known secret way to eat its ramen! Add a small spoonful of the basil oil (バジルオイル) on the table to your bowl, and it instantly turns into something like an Italian dish, so good you'll want to drink every last drop of soup!

If you're curious, be sure to try this unique way of eating ramen at Ganso Sapporo Ramen Yokocho!