Hokkaido Marche Gourmet Hall, Orchard Central Singapore

We had high expectations of the Hokkaido Marche Gourmet Hall which opened in the basement of Orchard Central recently. The high quality of produce from Hokkaido is well-known.  Some people go on holiday in Hokkaido just for the food there.  We have come to expect high restaurant standards in Japan such that we rarely hear of bad restaurants in Japan.  And so when we learnt that the Hokkaido Marche Gourmet Hall had recently opened in Singapore with eight f & b operators from Hokkaido, it was a matter of time before we checked it out.

Hokkaido Marche Layout

The Hokkaido Marche Gourmet Hall is right next to the Don Don Donki store. It is smaller than we had anticipated and looks like a food court. It was very crowded. There are eight f & b operators of which seven of them has opened. The remaining one is a sushi restaurant. Here is a picture of the layout of Hokkaido Marche. Of the seven stalls available, we ordered some food from four of them.

Dot Cafe & Bar

Dot Cafe & Bar serves drinks and desserts.

Ajisai Noodles

Kaisen Natsume

Kaisen Natsume serves rice bowls with seafood toppings.

Soba Maruki

Soba Maruki sells noodles and rice. They also offer a range of tempura as toppings. We selected a Kake soba ($8), ebi tempura ($2.50) and assorted vegetable tempura ($1.50 each).  The taste of the selection from Soba Maruki was average. The tempura pieces were soft and lifeless.

Sapporo Ramen Shirakaba Sansou

Sapporo Ramen Shirakaba Sansou seemed like the most popular outlet at Hokkaido Marche.  It had the longest queue and we waited for the food the longest. We tried the miso char siu ramen ($16) and some gyoza ($6).  We did not think that the ramen or gyoza was any different from those from an average Japanese casual restaurant in Singapore. The prices seem high for what is essentially dining in a crowded food court.

Yakitori Tsuyoshi is the smallest of the stalls at Hokkaido Marche. The people were the friendliest. We tried a buta don with poached egg ($10.50). Essentially it was a bowl of rice topped with pork and poached egg.  This was one of the better dishes that we tried that day.

Donburi Makuya

We tried a Sauce Pork Katsu Do ($11) from Donburi Maruya. The dish looked nice enough but it was the least liked item that we had that day. The rice was cold. The pork had a strong ‘porky’ taste.  We left behind most of this dish.

Overall, lunch at Hokkaido Marche did not turn out to be what we had anticipated.

 

Hokkaido Marche Gourmet Hall
Orchard Central Basement 2
181 Orchard Road
Singapore 238896

Opening hours: 11am to 11pm

Nearby MRT Station: Somerset

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The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog