Hinabe Ya

by Billy
(Sapporo)

This restaurant was a nice little find on the top floor of the Norebesa building. The kind of food they serve is Nabe(hot pot). A large pan of soup is placed on your table on top of a gas cooker that is in the centre of the table. Then you put in raw vegetables and raw meat by yourself and let them broil for a few minutes in the soup and then you dip everything in some sauces and voila....eat.

There's not really much on the menu, just meat and some side dishes, so vegetarians best avoid this place unless you love to eat boiled veggies.....

I was told by my Japanese friend that Hinabe is a little different than the traditional Japanese nabe. This is a chinese style nabe where the soup is spicy. Supposedly the soups in Japanese nabe are not of the spicy kind. Anyway, the restaurant was decorated with Chinese designs and is nice and open. The waiters were also Chinese, who spoke excellent Japanese. We had an all-you-can-eat with a spicy soup and a house regular soup, and all-you-can-drink plan for 120 minutes for a cool 2,500 yen a piece. Very reasonable because you can stuff yourself with as much meat till your hearts content. The spice of the soup was quite spicy, but I like that.

Hinabe Ya is located on the top floor of the Norebesa building at south 3, West 5.