If you pass by the backstreet where Sushi Hokkaido Nepal is located in Boudha, you can’t help but admire how beautiful the restaurant looks from the outside. Decorated with numerous plants, a cherry blossom tree, a purple velvet sofa, coffee tables and seating space made from tree stumps, and messily (but prettily) hung sheer white curtains, the foyer in front of the main restaurant sets a pleasant tone even before you enter the eatery.

The decor and the interior of the restaurant space are just as charming as its entryway. With six huge wallpapers that showcase Japanese culture in someway or the other, chic (but comfortable) white tables and chairs, wooden flooring, a quaint sushi (and liquor) bar, and vases containing succulents and Japanese or Chinese flowers placed around the seating space, Sushi Hokkaido is a place anyone who is interested in or appreciative of Japanese culture must visit.

Launched a little over four months ago, this eatery serves mainly Japanese cuisine along with a few East Asian dishes and the standard set of beverages (including coffee, tea, fresh juice and mojito). Prakash Tamang, founder and head chef of Sushi Hokkaido Nepal, mentions that he put in a lot of hard work for about three months to prepare everything behind the scenes before opening the restaurant.

Tamang, who previously worked as a sushi cook for 10 years at Japanese restaurant in Israel, developed a taste for Japanese cuisine during that time. “Because I grew very fond of Japanese food, I wanted to bring it to Nepal. So I had been dreaming of opening my own Japanese restaurant for a few years,” says Tamang.

While the preparations for the launch of Sushi Hokkaido Nepal were going on, Tamang happened to travel to a few Asian countries – includingg Malaysia and Indonesia – and visited the Japanese eateries there to know how they were run. He mentions that he got the inspiration for the decor and interior from those restaurants. Even the name for his restaurant struck him during the trip. He remembers dining at a Japanese restaurant with a similar name in Indonesia and a write up on Hokkaido (an island in Northern Japan) impressed him a lot so he settled on naming his own eatery, Sushi Hokkaido Nepal.

Later on he also researched the Japanese culinary market in Nepal and found out that, in general, Japanese restaurants and food items are very expensive in our country. Because he wants Sushi Hokkaido Nepal to appeal to a wide range of customers, he has made sure that everything is affordably priced. “We also only work with fish and chicken meat because a lot of Nepalis don’t consume other kinds of meat (beef, pork, goat’s meat, etc.) because of their religious, cultural, and spiritual beliefs,” says Tamang.

Something that was very apparent to me when I visited Sushi Hokkaido Nepal was that a lot of thought and research has gone into every little detail at this restaurant. Although you can overlook the trinkets that aid the visuals of the eatery as decorations added just for aesthetic appeal, all of these small things together give a distinctive Japanese vibe to the restaurant. I liked most of the dishes and drinks I tried here and I agree with Tamang’s statement about the restaurant being more affordable than other Japanese restaurants in Kathmandu.

Mixed Combo Platter
Price: Rs 980 | 4.5 stars

If you want to taste a little bit of everything Sushi Hokkaido Nepal has to offer, I recommend you order their Mixed Combo Platter – which consists of four chicken tempura rolls, six maki salmon, a nigiri salmon, a nigiri tamago, two koreko, two giyoja and a bowl of miso soup. You can share the platter with two to three other people. If you’re up for experimenting a little with your food, try adding a bit of soy sauce to your miso soup.This will add a little flavor to the soup without taking away from its original taste.

Veg Udon Noodles
Price: Rs 480 | 3.5 stars

The udon served at Sushi Hokkaido Nepal is surprisingly light and flavorful. If you eat noodles often, you may be familiar with the sensation of being uncomfortably full and sluggish after finishing a bowl of it. That isn’t the case with this udon though and I think it’s because the broth is light. The dish also tastes uniquely fresh – it’s both sweet and savory without either overwhelming the other flavor.

Chicken Tempura Roll
 and Spicy Tuna Roll
Price: Rs 360 and Rs 390 respectively  / 4.5 stars

The Chicken Tempura Roll and the Spicy Tuna Roll both taste and look pretty similar. They are mildly sour, sweet and spicy, and I enjoyed biting into the different textures that make up these rolls. Although the Japanese pickles served with these rolls do a good enough job of adding more flavors to the rolls, I would’ve enjoyed this dish more if they had served kimchi in its place instead. If you want even more flavor, dip the rolls into soy sauce.

Drinks: Virgin Mojito, Iced Coffee, Apple Cooler, and Blended Summer Blue
Price: Rs 240, Rs 190, Rs 190, and Rs 220 respectively | 4 stars

All the drinks I tried at Sushi Hokkaido Nepal were your standard chilled drinks that are popular during summer. The virgin mojito and apple cooler were both refreshing and more on the sour side. Blended summer blue is a lemonade that is sweeter and has more complicated flavoring than your average lemonade. My personal favorite was the bitter-sweet (more bitter than sweet) iced coffee – it was chilled, frothy, creamy and everything you would expect from a good cup of coffee. 

 
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