Nocturnal ramen shop in Sapporo so yummy that people line up for it in middle of the night

Isonokatsuo is a ramen shop in Susukino, the drinking district of Sapporo, Hokkaido, that opens its shutters around the time the city night life starts revving up into full swing and continues to serve up hot bowls of noodles until 7 o’clock the next morning.

All-night ramen shops are not unheard of in Japan, but Isonokatsuo is known for making ramen so delicious that people line up for it in the middle of the cold Sapporo night.

Part of its appeal is due to its location. Susukino is like any bustling drinking district in Japan but has a softer image than, say, Shinjuku’s Kabukicho. Many people who can compare, claim Susukino as a favorite place to go out. Isonokatsuo is one of the many hidden-to-tourists yet famous-with-the-locals gourmet shops which can be found in Susukino. After all, it’s the ramen shop with the longest line in the middle of the night.

Now I like to think I know ramen, and the best shoyu (soy sauce)-flavored ramen is one that uses soy sauce simple in taste so you can enjoy drinking the soup as well as the other ingredients. Isonokatsuo’s ”Sapporo Black Ramen” is exactly like that, despite its dark appearance (and what is it with Japan and black these days?). This is a bowl of ramen you can enjoy from the first slurp of noodles, down to the very last drop of soup.

Oil is at the heart of a good ramen soup. If something is oily it is usually thought of as greasy and, well, bad. But this ramen, with all its oil, has a secret ingredient that keeps it from being too greasy: the refreshing taste of black soy sauce, which gives this soup it’s good temperament. It brings out the best in the soup base and the oils so that only goodness reaches your taste buds. It is the secret to the success of this soup.

When you raise the noodles from the soup on your chopsticks they are dark with the color of the soup. The noodles for this ramen are especially thick so that even though the flavor of the soup is absorbed by the noodles to some extent, they still retain their noodle flavor to the core. This makes them an even better match for the soup.

When you get to the end of your noodles and there is still some soup left in your bowl, you can order just a bit of rice to make a tasty finish to your soup. All it takes is just a little bit to make the soup perfect. You can also get some free grated garlic to go with that soup and rice, giving it an even more refreshing flavor.

The Sapporo Black Ramen is 750 yen. You can get extra toppings of meat and onions for 200 yen and 100 yen. The "just a bit of rice" is 50 yen.

Address: Dai-ni Kyukankou Building 1F, Minami-ku, Sapporo Hours: 22:00～07:00 (or until the soup runs out) Closed: Sundays

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