Having spent many an afternoon at the Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan branch of Santouka, I expected the same high quality and tasty ramen. I was somewhat disappointed. Santouka is well known for it's "Tokusen Toroniku Ramen", which is Santouka's signature dish, which uses pork cheek (jowl) meat, which is very tender, and has a rich flavor. It literally melts in your mouth. Perhaps I caught them on a bad day at this branch in Sapporo, but the pork in the "Toroniku" ramen I was served here was in no way up to Santouka standards - it was a little dry and not as tender as it should have been, and I thought it was slightly overcooked and dry as opposed to tender and having a good balance of meat to fat. The ramen base (shio) and the rest of the ingredients were up to standards. This is a very small counter-only setup with about ten stools, and at the time of my visit (1:00 P.M. on a Thursday) there was only one other customer besides me. Again, perhaps this was an off day for some reason (snowing heavily), but the Santouka I know in Asahikawa is jam packed at lunch time. I didn't expect this restaurant to have a ticket vending machine where you buy your meal from the machine, and hand your tickets to the staff in order to get your meal. The menu here is also very limited, in that all they seem to have is Ramen and drinks, unlike the Asahikawa store. I will be visiting the Asahikawa branch again in a couple of days and will submit a review of their flagship restaurant as well. For now, you can try this or the other Sapporo branch stores if you want to take a chance, but I would take the 50 minute limited express train to Asahikawa instead.