Ajanta Sohonke

Hokkaido soup curry occupies a category of its own within Japanese curry culture: thin, deeply aromatic broth served over large, separately cooked pieces of chicken, vegetables, or seafood, eaten with rice on the side rather than mixed in. Ajanta Sohonke, whose full Japanese name translates as Yakuzen Curry Honpo Ajanta Main House, pushed that format further by grounding the recipe in yakuzen principles, the practice of constructing meals around ingredients and spices chosen for their medicinal or restorative properties, a tradition drawn from Chinese herbal medicine and long integrated into Japanese food culture. The spice base reportedly draws on around 30 varieties, supplemented by 15 kinds of medicinal herbs, and the kitchen avoids chemical seasonings and artificial additives throughout.

The result is a broth that reads as more layered and less aggressively salt-forward than standard roux-based curry, with the spice heat coming through gradually rather than as an immediate hit. This places the restaurant at a different register from the richer, thicker curry styles common elsewhere in Japan. The address in Higashi Ward, away from the central Susukino and Odori dining corridors, reflects the restaurant's local rather than tourist-oriented identity.

The Tabelog listing and Japanese-language food coverage treat this as an established, long-running address for Sapporo residents who follow the soup curry scene seriously. No chemical additives, a documented spice count, and a specific philosophical framework, yakuzen, give the kitchen a more defined point of view than most entries in the genre.