Donburi is a simple Japanese dish consisting in a bowl of rice and something on top. That “something” can be beef, pork, even a cutlet and, of course, seafood. Donburi restaurants specializing in seafood are usually found inside fish markets around Japan. This post is about what you can find in the Donburi Alley (Yokocho) in the Hakodate Morning Market.
The Hakodate Morning Market is located next to the Hakodate railway station and is a very popular touristic spot. All around there are seafood restaurants, but one entire alley inside the market is dedicated to donburi.
The doburi sets available are displayed on the shop windows through plastic models. It is a cornucopia of seafood.
The visit
When I visited the market I realized that the offering across the restaurants was quite similar. I settled for the diner on the right of the entrance because they had a massive tuna bowl.
Above how the bowl appeared on the menu and below what I got.
The rice bowl came with 10 slides of tuna sashimi and four additional slices of the sought-after o-toro, the fatty part of the tuna. And finally, on top some minced tuna (negitoro) with what I believe was a quail egg yolk.
The donburi came with miso soup and some pickles.
It was delicious.
I also had four boiled Hokkaido oysters. These were excellent, are very meaty, not usually found outside Japan. For 250 yen each, they were a bargain.
The check
The doburi set was 3,000 yen plus taxes. You can spend more maybe if you add sea urchin (uni). Including the oysters and the 8% tax I spent 4,320 yen (39 USD), not cheap, but this was one of the most expensive donburi sets available in the alley, because of the o-toro. Yet, in Hong Kong or elsewhere I could have easily spent twice as much for that quantity of tuna sashimi including the prized o-toro. On the other hand, the oysters were a bargain and I would certainly recommend anyone to stoke up on oysters when in Hakodate.
Where in Hakodate:
Michishige – Donburi Alley
No. 9-15 Wakamatsu
Address in Japanese: 北海道函館市若松町９番15号
See this brochure in English from the official Donburi Yokocho website.
See also the map below.
