Orizzonte, Sapporo: thin-crust wood-fired pizza, and what ¥18,400 bought two of us
Orizzonte is an Italian restaurant in central Sapporo with a wood-fired oven behind the counter. We ate there on the evening of 22 April 2026, the third day of a stay at the Sapporo Prince Hotel, and walked out with a bill of ¥18,400 for two — about $123 at ¥150 to the dollar, the rate we use here.
We had not planned to go. We were talked into it through a window.
How we picked it
That morning one of us had finally worked up the nerve to ask the buffet chef for a bowl of nothing but ikura, and got one — that part of the day is in our Sapporo Prince Hotel breakfast piece. We went out in the early afternoon with one job: find somewhere to drink that night.
My wife wanted pizza. An Italian place called Orizzonte kept coming up on Google Maps, and the name rang a bell: someone at another Sapporo restaurant had once recommended it to us as the Italian that cooks with Hokkaido produce. So we walked over to look.
By the door there is a painting of a margherita going into a wood oven. “That looks good,” we said to each other, and right then a member of staff came out. He may have heard us. He grinned and called a cheerful “Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” — the all-purpose phrase, here meaning we’d be glad to have you. We came round and passed again: same grin, same phrase. Then, as we drew level with the window, he caught our eye through the glass and his mouth made the same shape, no sound reaching us.
“Well. We have to go now.”
The counter at 17:30
They open at 17:00 and we got there just before half past, to a room already well filled — which answered the question of whether it is popular.
“I knew you would come.” The man from the street, delighted, and the manager as it turned out.
He offered us a table if we could be finished by 19:00; we took the counter instead, without discussing it. We always do — side by side is easier for talking than face to face — and here it came with no time limit. Orizzonte, the manager said, was the first place in Sapporo to serve wood-fired pizza.
Sapporo Classic, and a blackboard of Hokkaido produce
First glass each: Sapporo Classic, the Hokkaido draft lager, ¥890. Starting an Italian dinner on the local beer suited us.
While we drank we read the blackboard: handwritten recommendations built on Hokkaido produce. The antipasti alone stalled us — the ones we were looking at ran ¥1,380 to ¥1,700 a plate, and there were too many of them.
The manager saw the problem. “We can do the antipasti as a platter, you know.”
We would always rather eat four things than one, so that settled it. Our four, off the board:
- carpaccio of fish from Sakai Sengyoten in Hakodate, prepared shinkei-jime (nerve-spiked at the harbour, which keeps raw fish firm)
- octopus seared in the wood oven
- mussels and funori seaweed steamed in white wine
- fritto of dosu-ika squid from the Rausu fishery co-op
Before it came we switched to white wine to match the seafood: the cheapest Chardonnay by the glass, a Terre Siciliane from Sicily, ¥1,160. Not small money for a glass, but fair in front of an Italian oven.
We asked for water with the wine and it came as a pitcher — welcome, since we both drink water alongside alcohol.
The four-plate antipasto, ¥3,500
The carpaccio tasted as fresh as the board claimed, and came with a herb — thyme, we thought — that suited it. The octopus was the high point: springy in a way that gives you something to do, more flavour the longer you chew. The mussels had thrown a good broth, and the funori added a light note of the shore. “I’d take it without the sea smell,” my wife said, “but this is fine as it is.” The squid fritto was crisp outside and soft inside, with lemon to squeeze over.
The bill, later, put the platter at ¥3,500 — about $23. Singles were ¥1,600 to ¥1,700, so we had assumed four items would land near that, and it came in at nearly double. Two portions’ worth? A charge for the arranging? We never asked, and we would order it again.
The pizza was not the pizza we wanted
Next, the cheapest bottle of red: Sogno Mio Rosso, Tuscany, Montepulciano and Sangiovese, ¥5,200. Nice, and not different enough from what we usually drink to say more about it; the pleasure was the rarity, since we do not often drink Italian wine.
Then the pizza. A whole one looked like slightly too much after all that food, and the manager arrived before we had finished hesitating: “We can do half and half.” So: the margherita, their most popular, and the pork trotter and scallion pizza he recommended, on a cheese base. ¥1,880 plus ¥220 for the split.
When we say a pizza we like, we mean Neapolitan: a fat, chewy rim and a soft base. This came out thin and crisp right across.
“This isn’t the pizza we were picturing.”
“It’s good on its own terms. We just prefer Neapolitan dough.”
That was our reaction, and we are not going to dress it up. The toppings are another matter: both good, and the recommended pork trotter especially — cooked down soft and rich, right in both texture and taste. The margherita was cleanly balanced, fresh tomato and basil.
At that point we were saying: next time, pasta. Probably not the pizza.
The championship story, and why we are not repeating it
The crust kept nagging at us, so the next day we sent a photo to an AI chatbot and asked what style it was.
The answer: rolled thin, no raised rim, crisp all over — generally filed under Roman, or northern Italian; and Orizzonte, it said, calls this a “Milano pizza”. It added that the restaurant’s pizzaiolo had won a world pizza championship two years in a row.
That reframed the plate. Flatness became evenness, and evenness became skill. “So the thinness was the technique.” “If we’d known before eating it, it might have tasted better.” We revised the plan on the spot: come back hungry, and have the pizza and the pasta.
Then we went looking for a source and could not find one: no competition name, no year, no chef’s name in any primary source we could reach. The back-to-back world title by a Japanese pizzaiolo that we could verify (2007 and 2008) belongs to a different person at a different restaurant, which looks like where the line came from.
So we will not tell you that you would be eating a world champion’s pizza. The manager says his was the first wood-fired pizza in Sapporo; a Hokkaido guide site puts the opening in 1998; the thin base is the house style, not an accident. Our plan survives all that anyway — pizza and pasta, on an empty stomach.
Wagyu tagliata to finish
There was red wine left in the bottle, so we ended with the tagliata of Hokkaido kuroge wagyu (Japanese Black beef) — the leg cut, balsamic sauce, ¥3,500. The thin pizza had left us room.
Both of us like meat cooked through, and my wife has trouble with rare. This came pink in the middle but properly cooked, and she ate it happily. The vegetables around it were part of the plate rather than a garnish. By the end we were full, and ordered nothing more.
What it cost
- Sapporo Classic draft × 2 — ¥1,780
- Antipasto platter, four items — ¥3,500
- Chardonnay by the glass × 2 — ¥2,320
- Sogno Mio Rosso, bottle — ¥5,200
- Pork trotter and scallion pizza — ¥1,880
- Half-and-half charge — ¥220
- Kuroge wagyu tagliata — ¥3,500
- Total — ¥18,400 (about $123)
Billed on 22 April 2026.
Would we go back
Yes, knowing what to order this time. That total is an anniversary-sized bill for an ordinary Wednesday of a trip, though the wine accounts for a good part of it and we chose the wine. What we got: a manager who is a pleasure to be around, an antipasto platter we would order again without looking at the board, and a piece of beef that ended the night properly.
Be clear about the pizza, since it is what the place is known for. It is thin and crisp by intention. If that is your pizza, this is a good one; if you want the puffed Neapolitan rim, this oven does not make it, and no story about the person at the peel changes what is on the plate.
Practical bits
- Where: Minami 2 Nishi 5, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, first floor. Phone 011-222-0021. Listed as open in July 2026, when we last checked. We walked over from the Sapporo Prince Hotel, where we stay, and never timed it.
- Getting in: opens at 17:00; just before 17:30 in April 2026 it was already busy. Tables carried a 19:00 limit that evening, the counter did not. Closing time, and whether they take reservations: we didn’t check.
- Menus: the board is handwritten in Japanese, producer and town named for most dishes. English menu, card or cash: we didn’t check.
- Smoking: a No Smoking sign is posted on the door (our photo, April 2026).
- Other board prices that night: the other pizza ¥2,280, pastas ¥1,580–¥1,680, a risotto ¥2,300. What we ordered is itemised above.
- Online: the restaurant’s own domain has lapsed; it posts on Instagram as @orizzonte.sapporo (checked July 2026).
We have eaten pizza we liked more than this one. We have not, in a long time, been talked into a restaurant through a window.
Facts checked 2026-08-18. Prices, hours and menus are what we saw on our visit; they change. Nothing here was sponsored or comped.