Japan - Chanko Dining Sumo-tei

Chanko Nabe before being cooked

Right after I arrived in Hakuba and through my stuff in my room, I went straight out the door for dinner with some aussies I had only met a few moments earlier, we went to Sumo-tei for dinner. Sumo-tei is run by a former sumo wrestle, he mostly serves Chanko Nabe which is a Japanese stew commonly eaten in vast quantity by sumo wrestler's. He's quite the character and enjoys breaking out sumo poses for photos.  They have 2 locations in Hakuba one in Echo Land and the other in Wadano, called Restaurant & Bar and Musashi.



I think these restaurants are mostly focused on the international tourists, even so the food was excellent, it very similar to a Chinese hot pot except you add all the ingredients at the same time. I especially enjoyed the ground pork patty which, you cut off pieces with your chop sticks to form meat balls and then drop into the dashi (broth). Along side the Chanko Nabe we had chicken yakitori, salmon sashimi, deep fried octopus and of course beer in mini glasses. I love these mini glasses your beer stays cold, the only problem is you generally cannot remember how much you have drank...

Adding meat to dashi (broth)

Chanko Nabe 3980yen
Meatballs/ Chinese cabbage/ Enoki mushrooms/ Spring onion/ Nira (Chinese chives)/ Chingen/ Pork/ Chicken/ Fried tofu/ Shiitake mushrooms/ Bean sprouts/ Udon noodles
Size: Sumo wrestler size (generally for two or three persons.)

How to cook your Chanko Nabe

-Wait for the "dashi" (soup) to boil.
-Add pork, chicken, meatballs and vegetable and allow to come to a boil again.
-Let the soup boil for 2 to 3 minutes before turning to low heat.
-After eating the vegetables and meat, finish off by adding the udon noodles to the remaining delicious "Secret Sumo Soup".

Serving of Chanko Nabe

With our Chanko Nabe we had... (Sorry no photos everyone too hungry no time to take photos)
Deep fried octopus (Takokara) 480yen
Salmon Sushi 980yen
Chicken Yakatori 680yen

Chanko Dining Sumo-tei
0261-75-1707
Bus Stop 17 Echo Land


After dinner we had a few beers at the Bush pub where I met some guys and we continued on to Rage bar, where we immediately turned around and walked out the door (it looks like a dodgy bar in Wan Chai, HK except there are no people in it). From there we carried on to Master Braster a small Reggae bar for a few beers, then we went to 902 where I had a potato pizza with Bonito flakes on top, it was interesting but I was hungry! (902 is pretty famous in Hakuba, its a cozy bar with a big screen that plays ski and snowboard movies, has a wall of over 7000 vinyls, they often have djs but none when I was there) All these bars are in Echo Land in Hakuba.