Izakaya dinner @ Kitaguni, New Furano Prince Hotel (Hokkaido, Japan)

On our recent ski/snowboard trip in Japan, hubby and I tried skiing for the first time, doing a lesson together with our 6-year-old. Skiing is very different to snowboarding, and I found skiing is not so hard on the body and joints like snowboarding is. At the end of our first day on the slopes, we had an early dinner at another restaurant in the hotel, this time a casual izakaya at the basement. Kitaguni was a popular one, fully booked on our arrival day, so I made an advanced booking for the following evening. We were given a private tatami room, which was a real nice treat because our two kids can be noisy and rowdy (I'm sure the fact we had two kids on our booking was most probably the reason why we were given a private room!). Service was friendly, and once again staff showed good consideration after being told of our boy's allergies, even coming into the room several times to triple-check with us. The menu offered a large variety of dishes, and affordably priced. For the sake of ease and simplicity, hubby and I opted for the two dinner set courses (named Kitaguni (5200yen) and Furano (2980yen), and ordered a dish for the boy. The food was delicious and well-prepared with choice ingredients.

Kitaguni features an open kitchen:

Getting comfortable in our tatami room (kids were crawling all over, hence no one in the shot):

Hubby and I both had yuzu (a type of citrus) drinks - yuzu shu (liquer) for him, and yuzu sour (a cocktail):

Both the dinner sets were supposed to come with an appetiser, but it appears that we were never served our appetisers - something I only noticed while working on the photos. We were pretty satisfied with what we had, and didn't even know we were missing any courses!

The sashimi course on the Kitaguni set included a shrimp:

The Furano set sashimi course - sweet scallops, yellowtail and some kind of mochi-like discs that was quite nice:

Broiled Chicken and Potato with Cheese (890yen) for the boy. This was quite a rich dish with all that cheese, and delicious:

Both the Kitaguni and Furano courses included Broiled Atka Mackerel (half hokke), with a slightly sweet soy sauce glazing:

The hot dish in the Kitaguni course was Salt-steamed Pork from Kamifurano. Very tender and almost melt-in-the-mouth texture:

The Furano set's hot dish was a mini version of the Broiled Chicken and Potato with Cheese:

The more pricy Kitaguni set included Steamed Taraba Crab...

...as well as a few fried foods - Octopus Fries and Skewered Fries:

The Kitaguni course finished up with Pressed Salmon Sushi and miso soup:

The Furano set concluded with a Salmon Roe Rice bowl and miso soup:

This izakaya located on the basement of the New Furano Prince Hotel is a good affordable option for hotel dining.

Kitaguni
B1 Level
New Furano Prince Hotel
Nakagoryo
Furano, Hokkaido
Japan 076-8511
Hotel Tel.: +81 (0)167-23-8915