Susukino bar crawl in Sapporo: 33 craft taps, a kilo of oysters for ¥1,100, and gyoza we would skip
Two places in one evening is usually our limit. On our fourth day in Sapporo in April 2026 we did three, because three curiosities had piled up in the same few blocks of Susukino and Tanukikoji: a beer bar with 33 taps, an oyster shack whose prices we did not believe, and a gyoza place with a photo-covered sign we had never gone into.
“Can we do three?” “Let’s go as far as we get.”
We got all three, for ¥16,131 between us (about $108, at ¥150 to the dollar, the rate we use here). We were staying at the Sapporo Prince that week — the breakfast there is its own story — and this is what the drinking half of the day was worth.
First stop: THE CRAFT, 33 taps on a tiled wall
The full name of the place is 33 TAPBEER & KITCHEN THE CRAFT, which tells you what it is built around. It opened in March 2016 at Minami 4 Nishi 4-7, ground floor of the Matsuoka Building, and its own site says about 80% of the lineup comes from Hokkaido breweries (checked July 2026).
Before we went, my wife asked an AI what the place was known for and what to order — a habit of ours. It came back with the three-beer tasting set and a charcoal-grilled hamburg made from Ikeda beef, which settled our plan: drink Hokkaido.
We took counter seats and read the beer list. So many IPAs that the plan simplified itself: work through them. The THREE TASTING SET is 150ml of each of three beers for ¥1,300, and we ordered it three times.
Round one was numbers 6, 8 and 9 — the 31st anniversary beer from Okhotsk Beer in Kitami, a hazy IPA; Marihana from COEDO in Saitama, a session IPA; and Onuma IPA from Onuma Broihaus. We ranked them separately and landed in the same order: Marihana first, the Okhotsk hazy second, the Onuma third and the most bitter of the three.
The otoshi — the small dish you did not order and pay for anyway — was jamon serrano, ¥840 for the two of us, and good.
Round two: number 7, Nisekowaz from Yotei Sanroku Beer in Niseko, a hazy IPA that both of us liked; number 10, North Island IPA from Sapporo, straight down the middle; number 24, Susukino Session IPA, light and easy. Number 11 was sold out. Round three went off the island — Osaru IPA from Minoh in Osaka, Suruga Bay Imperial IPA from Baird in Shizuoka, OVERLAND IPA from HUB in the USA.
To eat: spring vegetable fritto, ¥1,380, of gyoja-ninniku (a wild mountain leek), bamboo shoot and asparagus. Crisp, and exactly what fried vegetables should do next to a beer. A Hokkaido ingredient in the fryer basket was part of why we were there.
Then todai-tsubu, a large sea snail, baked with mushrooms under something green, ¥1,410. One bite and both of us were somewhere else: “this is the escargot bake.” “The one from that steak house.” Garlic butter, parsley, and the chew of whelk instead of snail.
The hamburg that arrived nearly raw
The signature dish is a charcoal-grilled hamburg, 120g of Ikeda beef, ¥1,960. We asked for it well done; my wife in particular does not get on with rare meat. It arrived nearly rare.
A hot stone comes with it and the iron plate is hot, so we set about breaking the patty up and cooking it through. Break, cook, break, cook. What we finished with was fried mince.
“The hamburg has been demoted to fried mince,” one of us said, and we left it at that — it was good in a meaty way. But the dish is called a nama hamburg on the menu, nama meaning raw, which in hindsight was the clue we walked straight past. Next time we order the charcoal-grilled meat instead.
Nine glasses in, what we actually learned
Three tasting sets, nine beers, ¥3,900 of drinking; with the food, ¥9,490 (about $63). We would send any beer drinker here — 33 taps is the headline number (a few were off or sold out on our night) and the Hokkaido breweries are the reason to use them. But the lesson was about us rather than the bar: nine 150ml glasses is a lot of tasting and not much drinking. “We’d rather have one beer we like, in a big glass.” Next time, one or two pints of whatever we pick first.
Second stop: a kilo of oysters for ¥1,100
Kakigoya Lungo Carnival sits in the Tanukikoji arcade, and we had been walking past its banners for a while: raw oysters ¥100 each, gangan-mushi — steamed oysters — 1kg for ¥1,100. Cheap enough that we had talked ourselves out of it more than once. Cheap and good? They must be tiny.
We went in without a reservation and only just got seats; the room was close to full and loud in the way a busy shack should be. Beer was done for the night, so we had a fresh lemon highball each, ¥960 for two. Neither of us could drink highballs at all when we started, and now we both can — the lemon helps. Otoshi was edamame, ¥700 for two.
Then the kilo, in a cast-iron pot, the oysters bigger than anything we had pictured while doubting the price.
Ponzu and Lemosco (a lemon chilli sauce), and in they went. They tasted like proper oysters, which made our suspicion look small. Neither of us seeks out raw oysters; grilled or fried we will always take. A kilo works out at four or five each, and it did not last. Per the shop’s own listing, the oysters come in daily from Osawa Suisan in Akkeshi — the menu on our night also named Sanriku in Miyagi as a source — and the gangan-mushi is steamed in a dutch oven, eight to twelve to the kilo (checked July 2026).
Then the line of the night arrived from the table behind us: “I underestimated oysters. I could do this forever.” We both laughed, because that was our evening in one sentence. That table ordered a second kilo. If this had not been our second stop of three, so would we.
One small mess: with the drinks running low we ordered a kombu sour with pickled plum and a mikan sour at once. The kombu came fast, the mikan never did, and we asked. The order had not gone through, so we cancelled it. The scallop kushikatsu was already being made, so we waited for that — deep-fried on its skewer, ¥350, and gone.
Bill: ¥3,971 (about $26). One thing to know if you are budgeting: the items on our slip add up to ¥3,610, so the menu prices there are before tax. “We come here every time we’re in Sapporo,” we said, and meant it.
Third stop: the gyoza place, and the Wi-Fi that gave it away
SAPPORO Gyoza Seizosho, Tanukikoji branch, Minami 2 Nishi 5-11-3. The sign outside is covered in photographs of gyoza and had been quietly working on us, but we had reasons not to go in: with gyoza you can basically only drink beer, and it fills you up fast. On a third stop neither objection carries much weight.
We were shown upstairs, sat down, and noticed the free Wi-Fi — the network name looked like Osaka Ohsho, the gyoza chain. “Is this place part of Osaka Ohsho?” We asked the AI again, which said yes: same group, and shared infrastructure had left the old name sitting in the SSID. It holds up. The chain is run by a company inside the Eat & Holdings group, and the first branch opened in 2016 as a new format from Osaka Ohsho (company press release, checked July 2026). A network name is a strange way to learn who owns a restaurant.
Close to full ourselves, we ordered only what we still wanted: four large gyoza, ¥990, and one piece each of tare zangi and shio zangi at ¥300 apiece — zangi is what fried chicken is called in Hokkaido. To drink, a 12-year highball ¥600 and the “lemon sour that goes with gyoza” ¥480.
It all arrived together, and the gyoza were not hot; our guess was that ordering them alongside the zangi had left them waiting. The taste was fine. For a dumpling that size we had hoped for more meat, and the filling ran to vegetables.
The zangi were big and filling — the tare one seemed to be thigh, the shio one breast, served with mayonnaise and mustard and with yuzu-kosho respectively. Both perfectly good. Neither worth telling you about.
Our verdict, exchanged quietly across the table: “like eating something perfectly decent at a family restaurant.” Probably not going back — and there is no way to find that out without going. Bill: ¥2,670 (about $18).
What the evening cost
| Stop | Bill | |---|---| | THE CRAFT | ¥9,490 (about $63) | | Kakigoya Lungo Carnival | ¥3,971 (about $26) | | SAPPORO Gyoza Seizosho | ¥2,670 (about $18) | | Total for two | ¥16,131 (about $108) |
Nine beers, a kilo of oysters and a plate of gyoza across three places, for two people. We were satisfied with the number at the bottom, and two of the three we would repeat.
Practical bits
- Addresses (checked July 2026): THE CRAFT, Minami 4 Nishi 4-7, Matsuoka Building 1F; Kakigoya Lungo Carnival, Tanukikoji 4-chome; SAPPORO Gyoza Seizosho, Minami 2 Nishi 5-11-3.
- Every price here is what we paid on Thursday 23 April 2026, and prices change.
- At the oyster shack the menu prices were before tax — our items came to ¥3,610 and the bill was ¥3,971. At the gyoza place, prices were marked tax-included and the bill matched the menu. At THE CRAFT the bill was about 10% over the menu numbers we noted, so assume tax on top there too.
- THE CRAFT’s THREE TASTING SET is 150ml x 3 for ¥1,300. One tap we asked for was sold out, so treat the board as a live list rather than a menu.
- If you do not want rare beef, skip the nama hamburg. We asked for well done and it still came nearly raw.
- We got into the oyster shack with no reservation on a Thursday evening, but only just — two counter seats happened to be free. The shop’s listing says 22 seats (checked July 2026).
- English menus, card payment and smoking rules at all three: we didn’t check.
The best line of the evening was not ours, and it cost us nothing. Somebody behind us reached the same conclusion we had, said it louder, and ordered another kilo.
Facts checked 2026-08-18. Prices, hours and menus are what we saw on our visit; they change. Nothing here was sponsored or comped.