Coffee Shop Poronno

Sikarebe tea arrives in a wooden cup, and that sets the terms for the rest of the meal. Coffee Shop Poronno has been cooking Ainu food in the Ainu Kotan district at Lake Akan for more than forty years, in a room lined with carved wood and folk art.

Ainu cooking, not a coffee counter

The name says coffee shop, but the kitchen is the reason to come. Poronno cooks traditional Ainu dishes alongside its own plates, and the food, the room and the folk-art setting work as one thing rather than three. It also goes by Folk Art Cafe Poronno, and it began as an Ainu souvenir store and coffee shop before the cooking took over.

A twenty-seat room at Akanko Onsen

The dining room is small, roughly twenty seats, a short walk from the handicraft village at Akanko Onsen. Carved wood covers the walls, and the density of the decoration is what people remember: guests describe stepping into somewhere entirely separate from the resort town outside. Service is at the table, and the pace is unhurried.

Order the sikarebe tea, then the dumplings

Start with sikarebe tea in its wooden cup, then build the order around the dishes the kitchen is known for. Pumpkin dumplings are the clearest traditional item to prioritise. Sweet potato pancakes work as a dessert-leaning follow-up, and berry compote ice cream is the other sweet worth ordering. For a fuller meal, add a venison dish; venison is the meat that made Poronno’s reputation, served as a curry or over rice. The most complete order is tea, pumpkin dumplings, a venison plate, then pancakes or the ice cream to finish.