ABOUT CURRY.LIFE

About this site

CURRY LIFE is a curry-focused media run with passion by me, Soichiro Yamada, a resident of Abira, Hokkaido. I share what I find mainly through this website and my YouTube channel. Right now most of my activity is on YouTube, and I am also planning to sell the spices used in my videos on this site in the future.

Every winter we publish the New Year holiday opening-hours guide (in Japanese) — please make use of it.

What's next

CURRY LIFE wants to cover everything about curry: recipes and how-to videos, of course, but also the history and culture of curry and the distinctive curries of each region.

I also hope to hold curry events in Abira and develop new products together with local producers.

How we classify shops (our own standards)

The classification on this site does not copy existing restaurant guides. It is an original system I built up through years of eating my way around Hokkaido and researching its curry. Here is how it works.

Genre

Six genres: soup curry / Indian curry / European-style (roux) curry / spice curry / dashi curry / others. How the shop describes itself comes first, and each shop gets exactly one main genre. Shops that can't be pinned down — say, a place equally devoted to both soup and roux curry — are deliberately left unclassified. The database covers restaurants whose main business is curry; izakaya or cafés that happen to serve curry on the side are not listed as a rule.

Soup styles (soup curry only)

Soup curry soups are mapped into 8 styles — thin & spice-forward, rich double soup, shrimp broth, Japanese dashi fusion, yakuzen (medicinal herbs) and more. This is not a ranking of which shop is best; it is a map for choosing what kind of bowl you feel like today. A style is assigned only when official information or an actual visit gives us confidence — never by guesswork.

Lineage

A family tree of where each owner trained and which shop they branched off from. Hokkaido soup curry evolved by branching out from a handful of origins, so tracing the lineage tells you a lot about how a shop will taste. Lineage is recorded only when there is a solid source (official profiles, reliable interviews).

Dashi axis & taste chart

The dashi axis records what the soup is fundamentally built on (chicken stock, pork bone, shrimp, Japanese dashi and so on). The taste chart is a four-axis profile — light–rich / broth-led–spice-led / refined–hearty / classic–distinctive — given only to shops we have actually eaten at. Spiciness is not an axis: at most shops you choose your own heat level, so it is not part of a shop's character.

Accuracy

Taste descriptions are tied to their sources ("the shop describes it as…", "it is known for…"), and anything we have confirmed with our own palate is written separately as a visit report. Hours and addresses are checked against official information and closures are re-checked regularly — but please confirm the latest status on each shop's official SNS. If you spot an error, we would be grateful if you let us know at the contact below.

For international visitors — start here

• Sapporo Soup Curry: The Complete Guide — what soup curry is, the soup styles, where the shops are.
• How to Order Soup Curry — spice levels, rice, toppings, in five steps.
• All Shops — browse every shop in English, grouped by area.

The soup styles currently in the database: Multiple soup options (38) / Asian ethnic roots (17) / Thin & spice-forward (12) / Japanese dashi fusion (11) / Rich double soup (11) / Medicinal herbs (yakuzen) (11) / Shrimp broth (8) / Tomato-based (6).

Corrections and questions are welcome at yamada.soichiro@gmail.com.