I finally made it to Yellow, which I had not managed to visit since its move.
The shop ran for 29 years at Minami-3 Nishi-1 from 1996, closed that site in June 2025, and restarted on July 30th in a basement at Minami-1 Nishi-4.
A wooden sign greets you at the bottom of the stairs, and a notice at the entrance says payment is cash only.
I walked in at 12:10, and ordering works by scanning a QR code at your seat and placing the order on your phone.
I went for the braised pork and vegetable soup curry, heat level 1.5, with less rice.
I had planned on level 1, but was told it contains no heat at all, so I decided a little was better and settled on 1.5.
My friend ordered the limited-time curry with two kinds of homemade meat-and-potato croquettes and edamame tofu nuggets, topped with chicken meatballs.
A wave of customers seemed to arrive at once, and the bowl came out at 12:36.
The soup is completely white, with basil scattered on top.
The whiteness, they explain, comes from a bouillon extracted at 136 degrees and 3.2 atmospheres in a high-pressure kettle, pulling 100 percent of the umami from pork and chicken bones.
The gelatin and fat render out of the bones until the soup emulsifies, which is what turns it cloudy white and gives it that deep richness, and this kettle is said to be the only one of its kind among Sapporo's soup curry shops.
The first sip opens with fresh spice, a rich sweetness follows, and a Japanese dashi note lingers at the end.
Level 1.5 was seriously hot.
Not a 3 by feel, closer to a 4.
If you are not good with heat, treat each step on the scale here as a much bigger jump than usual.
Two large pieces of braised pork sat among broccoli, carrot, okra, quail eggs, aubergine, baby corn, pumpkin, potato and green pepper.
The potato is carefully peeled, the carrot is about half a whole one, and the pepper and aubergine come as halves — every cut is generous.
My friend passed me one of the chicken meatballs, seasoned right through to the centre, and it was excellent.
The salt is on the gentle side, so the soup may feel a touch understated while piping hot, but it comes forward as the bowl cools and lands just right by the end.
With this much vegetable and this much care in the cooking, it is also a good choice when you feel you have been short on vegetables.
It sits at the opposite pole from a tomato-forward soup curry: rich, creamy, with Japanese dashi riding on top — a genuinely distinctive bowl.
I would recommend it precisely to people who have already made the rounds of the famous shops. Probably, at least.
