Crab and Freshfish at Nanda
Eat freshfish and Hokkaido crab. Nanda is a seafood buffet restaurant located in Susukino. The price is 3,480 yen per person for adults and 1,980 yen for children for 90 minutes all you can eat, with unlimited soft drinks included. You can also add unlimited alcohol for an extra 1,000 yen.
It is a large dining hall with lots of space, enabling you to move around freely between tables, so it’s a great place for large groups. There are also smaller booths on the edges so if you want to have an intimate dinner away from the crowds you also have that option. Hokkaido seafood and freshfish from Japan is famous all over the world, especially its crab where you will see in abundance here.
I don’t really like eating crab so much, but because Hokkaido is famous for it, I had to try it. There are three kinds of crab usually eaten in Hokkaido;
Tarabagani (King crab), This is frozen when you get it from the counter, so this must be grilled before eating.
Matsubagani or Zuwaigani. (Queen or Snow crab) is bright orange and has been pre boiled so it is fine to eat it straight off the counter. Alternatively you can grill it too.
and Kegani (Horsehair crab). As the name says, it is hairy and pale orange. Like the Matsubagani it has been pre boiled so can be eaten straight away.
At Nanda, the seafood buffet is self service and cooked at your own table with a grill in the centre. Can be fun, if you know what you are doing, but be careful not to burn your food, like I did!
Crab is very messy and can be difficult to eat if you haven’t eaten before. Luckily, my Japanese friend is a pro and he taught me all the techniques to eat crab. Use the scissors provided and separate the legs at the joints. Then cut the outer shell of the legs length ways revealing the meat, before grilling. This helps you the meat cook better and gives you easier access, using the crab picks. Because Hokkaido crab tastes so good, the Japanese think it’s a big no no to dip or cover the crab in sauce (unlike in America), just eat it straight.
For the amount of work you put into getting into the crab, the actual meat that is edible is very small. I recommend eating your fill of the other kinds of seafood that is easily edible first, such as sushi, scallops, mussels, prawns (my favourite), etc and then spend the end of your eating time on the crab.
If you get sick of the freshfish and seafood, there is also a meat section offering many kinds of beef cuts, yakitori (meat on a stick), Tsukene (minced pork on a stick) and more.
There is also desert and fruit if you have enough room for it.
In fact, I thought that the seafood buffet was quite over priced as the sushi and other foods were not that great. I have had better seafood in other restaurants in the city, such as Hanamaru, a Sapporo sushi restaurant that serves excellent freshfish. However, the crab at Nanda is very good, which I guess is the main reason to come here. If you don’t like crab, I wouldn’t recommend coming here.
Getting to eat Freshfish at Nanda
Address: South 5, West 2, Cyber City building, Basement 2
Telephone: 011-532-7887
Opening times: 16:00〜22:30
Reservations are required for large groups. Restaurant seats 226 people. From Susukino subway station walk three blocks south and then two blocks east. It will take approximately five minutes on foot.
