Sapporo is still located at 96 Main St. E. in downtown Hamilton, the city about 100km SW of Toronto. We walked from the not-too-far West Harbour GO train station so it’s transit-accessible. Has it really been 12 years since we've last been here? Appears that way, so it's time for a revisit and new review! AYCD pop $2 though only Pepsi, but I still enjoyed as it was not diluted. iPad menus are used. Ginger is not dyed pink. Soy at table was very fresh, flavourful and savoury, and not salty. Disposable chopsticks are used unfortunately, so we brought our own as always. We went for weekend lunch.
Mishy loved the seaweed salad saying it was nicely chilled and tasted really fresh, and was not overly acidic as it often is. Green salad was very fresh, but plain with Thousand islands dressing. We both loved the miso soup even though it had enoki mushrooms in there, very savoury while not overpowering. My initial hot and sour soup was missed so I asked about it an a hour later and finally got it; it was very good, though not sour but had a rich beefy flavour and not too much heat. Worth the wait!
Mishy described the sirloin steak teriyaki as cooked to perfection, and I agree it was excellent. The chicken teriyaki was fantastic with a very good sauce, and smoky. Beef short rib was excellent, cooked very well and in a very good sauce. Chicken skewers were excellent, moist, flavourful, tender and also with an excellent sauce, not dried at all. Sadly, we were not overly impressed with the teppan sirloin steak with garlic, as it did not have a lot of flavour and Mishy said it tasted like liver. Not sure about that, but the flavour definitely wasn't what I expected and was very bland.
Chicken fried rice was absolutely delicious especially with a touch of soy sauce, as it had green onions and corn and very nice seasoning. Deep fried breaded shrimp were delicious especially with the included sauce. Vegetable and shrimp tempura were both excellent; the shrimp was very light and flaky and the sauce was delicious and added to both nicely. We both enjoyed the teppanyaki dumplings.
Surf clam nigiri was very good, very fresh and went very well with the soy and my brought-in wasabi. Happily they have Mishy's favourite, which is salmon rose, on the lunch menu, and it was fantastic and we both loved it. Tomago nigiri was certainly good and very fresh, as was salmon and crab (probably surimi) nigiri.
For dessert, Mishy said the sweet buns were okay although they did not have any filling and she is used to it. We both loved the banana tempura. Sesame balls were quite good. Mishy raved about the ice creams saying they were all excellent with strong and very good flavours. Strawberry was certainly like that. Mango had a wonderful and unique flavour like orange. Chocolate was intense and full of lovely bitter chocolate notes and richness. Vanilla is French vanilla which I prefer, and was very good, as was the rich and flavourful green tea. I wish they were all like this everywhere, and no trace of freezer burn on any. Whoever the ice cream supplier is is just about the best. It’s $28.99 for weekend lunch. This along with the AYCD pop price is pretty much standard for the time and place. With a couple of minor exceptions we certainly enjoyed our lunch.Rating: 8.5 / 10 + 0 value adjustment (standard pricing) = 8.5 / 10
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Our original review is below:
Sapporo is
located in Hamilton at 96 Main Street (e of John Street S). The
interior isn't bad though a bit dark, and the writeups I've seen on it,
seem to peg it as the best Japanese AYCE in Hamilton, or close to it,
but my experience wasn't exactly that.We had initially stopped off at Spring Sushi, in a suburban area of Hamilton, but the $16.99 price for lunch sent us looking for alternatives.
Sapporo was the one I found, but that $3
difference says something to me I don't hear often, having had good luck
with AYCE: You get what you pay for.My first impression while
waiting for the meal was not a good one, as the green tea was weak. This
is the least expensive component of the meal so there's little reason
to skimp on it. I'm used to the usually weaker Japanese style of tea but
in this case it was little more than hot water.Salad
was crisp, but the dressing was (like the last place I reviewed) too
close to Thousand Islands... this is another mystery to me as I can
knock off a passable Japanese-style dressing at home with little more
than wasabi paste, vegetable oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce. Miso soup
was missing savour and had a vegetable floating around in it that
standard miso soup doesn't... I only had one bowl which is totally
unlike me. My next bowl of soup was wonton, but I though I'd misordered
at first as it was too much like udon, practically indistinguishably.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, the good stuff: chicken teriyaki was tasty and the sauce was good. Although ordering the beef roll with green onions was accidental, I didn't mind it and it was flavourful; not completely to my taste but some quite enjoy it. Sapporo has numerous special rolls for different occasions/themes, and I tried the Red Dragon Roll, which is a large rice roll topped with salmon and well-placed shrimp... I liked it a lot, so I would recommend to try the other special rolls as they seemed equally appetizing. The salmon sushi was acceptably good.
However, my favorite part of the meal was when it was over... not to say I didn't like it, but the ice cream was fantastic. I had the mango, and it must have been just-received and was the tastiest I've ever had.
So, although there were a few letdowns, there were still other things at Sapporo that made up for them, so all in all it wasn't a bad experience. However I'm focusing on my own cooking now (as can be seen where I am able to see the flaws in commercial cuisine my having made the same) so I'll probably be taking a break from AYCE reviews for a little while.
Rating: 7 – 7.5 / 10
