Niseko is flooded with cafes. Most are there to sell you a lifestyle, not good coffee. They look good on social media but taste like nothing. This is the second entry in my Niseko Restaurant Series, focusing on places that actually respect the food.
Graubunden is different. It sits in Izumikyo, away from the main chaos of Grand Hirafu. It is a small hut. It feels earned.
Getting here takes effort. From Singapore, you fly seven hours to Tokyo, then another 90 minutes to New Chitose. Then it’s either three trains totaling three and a half hours, or a two-and-a-half-hour drive if you hire a car. Once in the area, you take a 30-minute bus ride and walk for another 30 minutes through the cold. It is not convenient. Good things rarely are.
The place is cozy, but not in a manufactured way. It feels lived in.
We started with the Matcha Latte. In Singapore, matcha is often just green sugar water. Here, it was earthy. The tea had bitterness, depth, and structure. But the Hokkaido milk changed the equation. It smoothed out the edges, making the drink thick and substantial. It coated the tongue. Clean flavors. Clear intention.
Then, the cakes.
The Carrot Cake arrived without fanfare. It was dense but moist. The spice was present but didn’t shout. The sour cream frosting provided the necessary acid to cut through the sweetness. It was balanced. Perfect. No notes.
The surprise was the Apricot Cheese Pie. I had never tried this combination before. The apricot was jellied, offering a tart sweetness that played against the cheese. The cheese layer was rich but not heavy. On top sat fresh whipped cream—hand-whipped in-house, not sprayed from a can. You can taste the difference in the airiness. The texture moved from the snap of the fruit to the creaminess of the cheese and the cloud of cream.
We should bring this back to Singapore. Our cafes need to learn this level of restraint and execution. But the reality is that many local owners are fighting an uphill battle that goes beyond just the food on the plate. If you look at Why so many F&Bs are Closing down in Singapore: The Real Reasons Nobody Talks About, it’s clear that high rents and a fixation on “Instagrammable” gimmicks often suffocate the very craftsmanship we see here in Graubunden.
But context matters. Eating this in a small wooden hut while snow piled up outside changed the taste. The cold outside made the warmth inside necessary. The silence of the snow made the flavors louder.
Singapore will never be able to replicate this. You can import the ingredients. You can fly in the chef. But you cannot import the atmosphere. You cannot import the feeling of walking 30 minutes in the snow to find warmth.
For food in Niseko, Graubunden is an outlier. It ignores the trends and focuses on the plate. It is worth the walk.
If you are in Niseko, go. If you are not, plan the trip.
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