Hokkaido
Yoichi SAGRA
余市サグラ
A rustic restaurant-inn in the heart of Hokkaido’s wine country. Directed by the seasons, Yoichi SAGRA offers an imaginative Italian cuisine using fresh local ingredients like butterbur sprouts in the spring and abalone and herring in the winter. The excellent wine pairing enhances the delicate flavors. Guests are invited to stay overnight at the modern cottage to indulge in fine gastronomy and warm hospitality.
Yoichi SAGRA is located in a small seaside town about an hour by car from Sapporo. Famous as the site of the historic Nikka distillery, it’s also well known for the beautiful fruit orchards, attracting winemakers to the area since the 1970’s. Thanks to the rich soil and ideal climate, the area has grown to be one of Japan’s top wine producing regions today.
Enchanted by the charm of the area, Chef Hiroto Murai moved to Yoichi to build his dream restaurant in 2017. Set in stunning scenery, the lodge is built of unpainted wooden panels with the main dining room and kitchen on the ground floor. With not many accommodations nearby, he made his restaurant into a boutique auberge, allowing guests to stay overnight. The inn offers two guest rooms upstairs, set with tasteful modern furniture and amenities.
Taking the Italian word for festival of food and harvest, the experience at Yoichi SAGRA encompasses the chef's appreciation for nature. In the spring, he picks wild herbs and plants that grow in the fields. In the winter, he adds a scoop of fresh snow on the plate. Some dishes are served on rocks he picked from a nearby river.
“My motto is to do what I can do because I’m here now,'' the chef says.
The shelves by the kitchen stock a collection of crockery by Hokkaido artists such as Manabu Kaji and Shinpei Mawatari. Oke Craft’s wooden spoons and napkin rings by Goodman Jewelry Works are also crafted locally.
CUISINE
A feast of local ingredients
Dictated by the seasons, Yoichi SAGRA’s imaginative menu is a feast of local ingredients. Resembling the approach in traditional Japanese cuisine, Murai focuses on bringing out the natural qualities of the ingredients themselves. The excellent wine pairing enhances the flavors even more.
“Every season has its unique flavors, like bitterness in the spring, vinegar in the summer, spices in the fall and oil in the winter,” he explains. "The menu is dependent entirely on the ingredients. I come up with the recipes by putting together the ingredients like pieces of a puzzle.”
Served on a bowl of rocks, the first appetizer illustrates a scene of early spring. Crispy parsnip chips are shaped into wavy layers and garnished with ricotta cheese and herbs, resembling a new plant sprouting by a river.
Lily root ravioli is rich in flavor and served with bitter marmalade. A glass of Pinot Grigio pairs well with the creamy dish. Burdock roots are served with monkfish liver in a rich red wine sauce. The root vegetable is roasted and sliced into thin strips for a satisfying texture.
Sauteed monkfish is served with May Queen potatoes and seaweed and buttermilk sauce. The potatoes are sweet and creamy in texture after they have been stored to age for 2 years.
INGREDIENTS
The seasonal ingredients used in Yoichi SAGRA’s cuisine come from local producers. In the spring, you can enjoy butterbur and dandelion sprouts from the nearby fields. There are not many rice fields in the area but the chef has found a farm that grows a variety of Nanatsuboshi that he likes. He also uses ancient techniques of food preservation that have been passed down in the area to make produce last longer and for the flavors to deepen.
CHEF
Hiroto Murai
When he returned to Japan, he worked for a while at a wine bistro before opening SAGRA in Sapporo in 2006. He began to experiment with and derive his original Italian menu using local Hokkaido produce. In 2017, he handed over the Sapporo restaurant to one of his chefs, Toshifumi Tanaka, who now runs Semina there. Murai reopened his restaurant in Yoichi to offer a unique culinary experience.
VISION
“I hope that Yoichi will attract more attention from people around the world,” Murai says. “At Yoichi SAGRA, I hope I can continue sharing the charm of this land.” “I’m truly grateful for our guests who travel all this way,” he says. In order to serve them the best food, he is committed to working closely with the local producers on a daily basis.
WINE
As you enter the restaurant, you will notice a window to the wine cellar, stocked with bottles of local wines. While most of these wines are produced in small batches, he is able to secure the best vintages thanks to his close relationships with the winemakers. The chef carefully matches the wines that go well with the day’s meal. The collection includes selected vintages from nearby wineries including Domaine Takahiko, Domaine Atsushi Suzuki, Lan Seqqua, Domaine Mont and Yamada-Do. Lowbrow Craft is a new winery that opened right next to the restaurant in 2022.
Course
- The price includes our booking fee of ￥8,000
- The price includes our booking fee of ￥8,000
- The price includes our booking fee of ￥8,000
- The price includes our booking fee of ￥8,000
- The price includes our booking fee of ￥8,000
- The price includes our booking fee of ￥8,000
Hokkaido
Yoichi SAGRA
余市サグラ
- GENRE
- Italian, Yoichi
- ADDRESS
-
1F, 987-2 Noboricho, Yoichi, Yoichi District, Hokkaido 046-0002, Japan
- OPEN
- Lunch: 12PM, Dinner: 6PM
- CLOSED
- Sunday dinner and Monday
- URL
- NA
- PHONE
- NA
