Uoppshu is located on the first basement floor of the NC Kita Sen Kita 3 Jonishi Building, which is a 3-minute walk from JR Sapporo Station and a 1-minute walk from Sapporo Subway Station Exit 24. Outside the building's entrance is this fish sign (above), so you can use it as a landmark when looking for the restaurant.

There are a lot of sushi restaurants in Sapporo, but not many all-you-can-eat spots. Bringing in seasonal fish from the harbors, Uoppshu is one of the few places where you can still get fish at affordable prices. Here, sushi is a given, but you can also get fish arranged in a variety of different ways, such as in the form of sashimi, "nitsuke" (boiled in soy sauce), stir fries, and fried.

In addition to the regular table seating, there is also a private room that can accommodate 4-5 people. You can enjoy your meal without worrying about your surroundings in a private space.

We asked the Uoppshu manager, Daichi Izumi, to tell us about the special characteristics of the restaurant:

"Our restaurant is mainly all-you-can-eat and drink, and we have a wide range of dishes such as traditional Japanese food, seafood, meat dishes, and hotpot dishes. We have several different all-you-can-eat and drink plans, and what you get varies depending on the day of the week, the time you enter the restaurant, and the current pricings. First, you'll be given 5 plates of sushi decided by the chefs, (this is called "omakase"), after which you can order in plates of 5 provided you leave no leftovers.

The seating time for all-you-can-eat is 120 minutes, but the last order for food is 45 minutes before the end, and the last order for drinks is 30 minutes before the end. The all-you-can-drink menu has a variety of drinks, such as soft drinks, sake, wine, and cocktails. We have a lot of different types of sushi, so anyone can enjoy them."

When I visited, I took on the all-you-can-eat and drink course for 3,700 yen that allows you to eat the most sushi. There is no English at the restaurant or on the menu, so take a look at our pictures and information below when ordering. Also, please note that some items may not be available due to various factors like stock intake.

If you can write the Japanese fish names in hiragana (or kanji for the pros), then fill out the slip on the table with the sushi you want to order and call the staff with the bell to hand them the slip. If you can't write in Japanese, then call the staff with the bell, and tell the staff the following: "Kakemasen. Kotoba de iimasu." (I cannot write. I will say my order)
Or, if you want to be more polite:
"Kakemasen kara, kotoba de itte mo ii desu ka?" (I can't write, so is it OK if I tell you my order?)
Then use the pictures below in this article to choose your fish. We've written the Japanese pronunciations first, with the English translations in brackets.

Izumi gave us his five recommendations.

"As a beginner selection, how about the sushi staple, maguro (tuna), and the inoffensive hamachi (young yellowtail), followed by two dishes we season ourselves, kaisen yukke (seafood with raw egg), ikura (salmon roe)."

Each and every one is delicious and high quality. Maguro (tuna) and ikura (salmon roe) in particular are highly valued delicacies. The toppings are fresh, and the rice is well vinegared, to the point that you'll be stuffing your mouth with one after the other. I emptied my plate in no time.

Once you've finished your initial five dishes, you can order five more. Each piece is a good size, so you can try out a lot of different varieties. Every dish comes without wasabi, so add wasabi to your liking from the table.

For my second plate, I ordered akagai (blood clam), saamon (salmon), mentai (pollack roe), negitoro (tuna and spring onion), kanimiso (crab brown meat).
The "mentai" is made with walleye pollack fish eggs with a spicy seasoning. The "kanimiso" is a delicacy made from the brown meat of a crab on the inside of the shell. If you like these two dishes, you must be a seasoned foodie with Japanese cuisine.

Generally, sushi connoisseurs will say it is best to start with mild flavors like that of white fish, then move on to stronger flavors. But with all-you-can-eat sushi, "eat what you want until you're full" is the only thought you have to worry about! If you're not used to sushi, just start from one end of the menu and work your way in, and find out what you like.

For my third plate, I decided to change it up and go for something a little more unusual. Recently, "niku sushi" (meat sushi) has been gaining popularity, and one of the dishes you might come across is sushi with dry-cured ham in place of fish. As for the egg sushi, this is fairly normal at sushi restaurants, but no-one knows exactly why. Some say it is because cooking the egg tests the chef's abilities, but no-one knows for sure. Mackerel can lose its freshness quite quickly, so by pickling it with vinegar to make "shime saba", you allow it to stay tasty for longer. "Inari" is a type of sushi where you wrap vinegared rice in a sweet sheet of twice-fried tofu. (The fried tofu sheet is called abura-age). It has a sweet and savory taste.

Each one offers quite a refreshing change of pace, so if you want to switch things up, these are some good options.

Their selection of mayo dishes creatively combines flavors that are pretty unique to Japan. Vinegar is used in the mayonnaise and in the sushi rice, so they go surprisingly well. If you're new to sushi, you might want to try one of these at the start.

For my next plate, I chose some more luxurious options. Uni (sea urchins), are very popular, but they are getting harder to catch with the rising temperature of the sea. The rich fragrance is intoxicating!

All the dishes were of high quality, like the firmness of the tsubu gai (whelk), the chew of the ika (squid), the sweetness of the hotate (scallops), and the fresh vibrance of the uni (sea urchin). It's an amazing feeling to have these offered to you on an all-you-can-eat menu.

There is also a wide variety of meat sushi, which I think is another great way to change things up. One of the unique characteristics of Uoppshu is that they have interesting varieties of sushi you might not usually come across, like beef and duck. In case you're wondering, the word "misuji" comes from the three (mi) tendons (suji) surrounding the meat. Per cow, you can only get 2kg of this kind of meat, so being able to eat it as sushi is quite the luxury!

The time came for me to make my last order, so this is what I chose to end the meal with. For your last plate, you can either choose to taste one of your favorites again, or challenge yourself to ones you don't know. The choice is up to you!

As a Hokkaido local myself, I must strongly recommend "hokki kai", the Sakhalin surf clam. It has a toothsome quality to it, and as you bite into it the sweetness washes over your mouth. It is also known to be rich in minerals like calcium and magnesium, so may even help you recover from the fatigue of traveling. Give it a go as one of your all-you-can-eat dishes.


Every one of the dishes on Uoppshu's all-you-can-eat menu was so delicious, that even though my stomach was full, my mouth was asking me to eat more! Seeing as sushi elsewhere can be quite expensive, f you want to eat a lot of delicious Hokkaido sushi, an all-you-can-eat place is definitely the way to go! If you're in Sapporo, make sure you don't miss it.

Health & Safety Measures
Indoor disinfection measures taken - Sanitizer installed - Ventilation measures in place - Staff wear masks, gargle, wash hands regularly, and monitor body temperature - Guests are required to wear masks

Multilingual Support
None

Original Japanese text by: Masakazu
Translated by: Cassandra Lord
*The information in this article is correct as of May 2022. Please check the official website for the latest information.