Gokando (Resort Cafe and Sweets, because nowadays nobody wants to just be a cafe) is a popular dessert cafe at Hakata Station, more specifically in the Marui commercial complex. If you take the train from Hakata station, chances are that you may pass by.
The visit
This is the kind of visit I feel guilty about. The excuse was documenting decadent Japanese parfaits.
This was what specifically lured me inside, a chocolate parfait with 8 layers of forbidden pleasures…
This was in reality. As advertised. It was huge. And it was good.
In Japan actually I saw people, including minute women, eating this kind of stuff.
The check
If I had known the price, probably I would have skipped it. It was 2,000 yen (18.50 USD).
Where in Fukuoka: Hakata Marui 1F, Hakata Station. In Japanese: 福岡県福岡市博多区博多駅中央街9-1 博多マルイ 1F. Website: gokando.jp.
Nagahama Fish Market is a major wholesale market in central Fukuoka. It is a 10 minute walk from Akasaka station. The real market is only opened to the general public on the second Saturday of every month (from 9am to noon) and there are reports of long lines.
However, the market office complex (pictured above) hosts a number of seafood restaurants (the cluster is called ichiba kaikan,市場会館, market hall, in Japanese). These are spartan eateries, very affordable, where workers of the market and the nearby offices eagerly go for lunch. Some open very early to cater to the fish market’s workers schedule. It was a discovery in Fukuoka. I loved it. The seafood was very fresh and lunch menus were changing daily. I had lunch several times to try as many of the restaurants as I could.
The directory is pictured above. All the action is on the ground floor. Upstairs there is a small seafood museum (but all in Japanese).
Ichibazushi Uotatsu (魚辰)
First restaurant I will mention is located near the entrance and it a conveyor-belt sushi joint called Ichibazushi Uotatsu. The seafood was really fresh. But it was not easy to understand the price of the seafood on the conveyor-belt; this coupled with all of their “rules” made the visit unpleasant and I just had a few dishes. You can also order a la carte.
Okiyo (おきよ)
Okiyo is located in the back of the building and it is easy to recognize from the blue curtain (noren). They had an English menu. Most lunch menu were prized 700-800 yen and come with rice, miso soup, tofu, and pickles. I had deep-fried amadai. Impossible to find a better value in Fukuoka for a seafood lunch set.
Ichigyo Ichie (一魚一栄)
I went to Ichigyo Ichie for their fresh sashimi (1,400 yen), but they also had tempura and classic Fukuoka dishes like sesame mackerel. The sashimi set had over a dozen slices of sashimi: tuna, seabream, octopus, squid, salmon, greater amberjack. It came with miso soup, rice, pickles, and a salad as it is customary for these lunch sets.
Fukuuo Shokudo (福魚食堂)
Fukuuo Shokudo will get my award for the the nicest owner. He was very friendly and wanted to know where I was from. I ordered a tuna bowl with various cuts of tuna. The set had a large bowl of clam miso soup, tofu, and pickles. For 1000 yen (less than 10 USD) it was a great value. I also added a grilled mackerel for just 400 yen. Many dishes were on display on the counter inside the restaurant and could be picked juts by pointing my finger.
Of the most interesting eateries, I think I only missed Hakata Uogashi (博多魚がし). There is also a Chinese restaurant if you crave for it and a shop (see picture below).
This cluster of seafood restaurants was a great discovery and I would gladly have lunch in such a place every day of the week!
Where in Fukuoka: 3-11-3, Nagahama, Chuo-ku. In Japanese: 中央区長浜3-11-3. Tip: go a bit early, like 11.30am, to beat the lunch crowd.
I love mentaiko and Fukuoka is the capital of this delicacy in Japan. There are probably 300 producers.
What is mentaiko? It is marinated pollock eggs. The sauce used in the process includes chili, sake, konbu and yuzu citrus. The fermentation process last several hours. The result is spicy, flavorful roe, tiny in size and red in color. Mentaiko is sold in its natural membrane, easy to remove, and ready to be used for all kind of dishes. An animal like me sometimes eat it raw just as it is.
Usually mentaiko is referred as karashi mentaiko: karashi means spicy, but mentaiko can come with different levels of spiciness. Japanese cuisine also uses the untreated pollock roes that are called tarako.
Given my interest, it was natural to try Ganso Hakata Mentaiju that is a restaurant entirely specializing in mentaiko dishes in Fukuoka.
The visit
I headed to the restaurant very early, at 11am, sure to be the first customer. To my dismay, there was already a long line! I did not realize that this was a tourist spot.
I went back after 3pm and there was no line.
At the entrance I was asked to choose the level of spiciness of the mentaiko for my meal. They have 4 levels. To do so I picked up a wooden token indicating my preference that was later collected by the waitress at the time of placing my order.
I had their Deluxe Ganso Hakata Mentaiju where the homemade mentaiko is wrapped in kelp and placed on top of a bed of hot steamed rice garnished with seaweed, then topped off with umami-infused “Special Topping Sauce”. I added as a side dish a soft-boiled egg.
In this version, one piece of mentaiko was raw and another was cooked. The raw one was better in my opinion. I admired the preparation, but the gain in terms of flavor from a raw piece of mentaiko was minimal.
I am a bit sorry that I did not have room for another dish. They had a cod roe soup and other mentaiko dishes that seemed interesting.
The check
I spent 3,196 yen (30 USD). The dishes were definitely not cheap. I would not suggest anyone to queue for an hour or so for this restaurant. But if you are a mentaiko enthusiast like me, you might want to try it going at odd hours. At Chikae Fukuoka I had some very interesting mentaiko dishes that I liked even more.
Where in Fukuoka: 6-15 Nishi Nakasu Chuo-ku. In Japanese: 福岡県福岡市中央区西中洲6-15. Website: www.mentaiju.com/mentaiju.
In Fukuoka yakitori (literally grilled chicken, but it indicates skewers in general) gets a lot of love. There is a joint literally at every corner. I was not planning to eat in the yakitori restaurant of this review. I was aiming at getting a table at Inada, that is just next door, but I was a fool… It turns out that Yakitori Inada is the most famous joint in town… on a Sunday evening with no reservation it was a no-go. I went in the yakitori restaurant next door and I had a pleasant experience.
The visit
I was seated at the counter. The restaurant was getting very busy and soon also the seat next to me was taken. This joint is part of a chain and luckily they had an English menu so ordering was not a problem. The English name is Hakata Torikawa Daijin Sumiyoshi.
One feature of yakitori in Fukuoka is the cabbage served as a side dish/appetizer to be enjoyed with sweet vinegar. I was immediately served some.
Then my orders started to arrive quickly enough. The first one was the chicken skin skewer.
One of the most popular skewer was chicken breast or leg white meat. I had six in total.
The classic chicken meatballs were a bit bland, but they did not have any cartilage, so I ended up having three.
A nice dish was the chicken leg.
There were also several pork skewers. I had the simplest one, pork belly/ribs.
I had a mushroom skewer that came with its lemony dipping sauce. Not particularly attractive.
Another nice dish was the deep-fried tofu.
I did not try hearts, gizzards, goblets, intestine, etc. but they were as usual available on the menu.
The check
For a total of 16 skewers/dishes I spent 2,251 yen (21 USD). Most skewers were priced 95 yen. It was a very affordable joint. It was a simple yakitori. But I truly enjoyed it (it is not always fine dining night!). I even had a chance to strike conversation with the customer sitting next to me.
Where in Fukuoka: 3-5-8 Sumiyoshi, Hakata-ku. In Japanese: 博多区住吉3-5-8. Website (there are other branches): hakata-torikawa.com.
Researching Fukuoka, I learnt about this restaurant through a youtuber channel called Strictly Dumpling. As I have experienced in the past, these youtubers tend to be over-enthusiastic about the venues they visit. You will find here a more down-to-earth review with and at the end I will share a “ordering” strategy to enjoy this restaurant without breaking the bank.
The visit
I went there one afternoon to make a reservation. They have a reception where reservations are accepted throughout the day even if the restaurant is open only for dinner on weekdays. The reservation was not really necessary though, there were a lot of seats available at the counter on that evening.
The restaurant main dining room on the ground floor is truly beautiful with tanks filled with live seafood in the middle and two long ginkgo counters on the sides. Further tables are available behind the counters.
I was given a seat at the counter.
The horseradish (wasabi) was grated at the table. This was very classy, it is usually done in high-end omakase sushi restaurant. This kind of fresh wasabi is not so spicy as the one “in tubes”.
Two types of soy sauce were provided.
My first order was amadai fillet, a seasonal fish (more common in Kansai though). It was not so great and it was a micro-portion.
Then I wanted to try a Fukuoka quintessential dish, the local mackerel in sesame sauce. It was quite good, but again it was a micro-portion and I am pretty sure you can find better and cheaper options elsewhere. But I did not have a long time in Fukuoka to I took the plunge (it was not listed on the menu by the way, but they of course knew the dish).
Then I had two very interesting mentaiko dishes (they have a full page on the menu dedicated to mentaiko). The first was a kind of dumpling filled with mentaiko and with squid pulp all around. It was really good.
The second dish was nothing short of spectacular! It was a sardine neatly filled with mentaiko. The flavors were speaking the language of the sea. I understand it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
By the way, the company owning the restaurant is also a producer of seafood delicacies sold throughout Japan. The dumplings and some other mentaiko dishes are part of their offering. They have a retail shop close by the restaurant.
The restaurant is famous for their live seafood dishes (ikizukuri style). These dishes consist of sashimi and the rest of the fish is deep-fried (tempura or karaage style) or salt-grilled. The fish is prepared live.
Most of the fishes were very expensive. I decided to try the most accessible, the squid (ika) that is particularly renown for its tenderness in this region of Japan. The sashimi was brought to my table with a part of the squid still moving. Then I was left the sashimi and the rest was taken away to be deep-fried.
The result was some nice and tender fried squid. It was a portion for one person.
The check
All in all I spent 9,260 yen (86.5 USD). What to say? The level of service, quality of the seafood, and the decor commanded a premium price of course. The mentaiko dishes were very reasonably priced (less than 10 USD, maybe because part of the company’s retail offering), the live squid was ok (around 25 USD, for two would be 40). The amadai and mackerel dishes in terms of value for money were disappointing.
While keeping in mind the price tag, I would recommend the restaurant to try 1) one or two mentaiko dishes as I did, 2) maybe a marinated fish (I did not try them but there were some interesting options), 3) the live squid. This should keep your check under control (50-60 USD). If you start ordering sashimi or exotic fish, the check will soon skyrocket.
Finally, above you can see a picture of some of the company’s product on display in the retail store a few meters down the road.
Where in Fukuoka: 2-2-17, Daimyo, Chuo-ku. In Japanese: 福岡市中央区大名2-2-17. Website: chikae.co.jp/foreign/en/
La Maison de la Nature Goh is a restaurant in Fukuoka included in the list of Asia’s 50 Best restaurants and awarded one star in the 2019 Michelin Guide to Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Saga. Goh is the name of the chef. As I will show, defining it a French restaurant, as some guides do, is reductive. Goh created his own cuisine blending French techniques with Japanese style and making use of the best ingredients sourced around Kyushu.
The visit
I contacted the restaurant by email during my summer 2019 trip to Japan. They always answered quickly and politely. Initially it was a no-go, since the restaurant, unsurprisingly, was fully booked. However while I was in Fukuoka I checked if there was any last-minute cancellation and they were able to accommodate me in the end. I am so glad I kept insisting because the pay-off was one the best meals of the year.
The restaurant is located in a neighborhood full of eateries and clubs. It has been operating for the past 17 years, even before the area became popular. The magic door is at the end of an alley. There are just 6 counter seats and 2 tables (each seating 6 people). If you sit at the counter, like I did, some of the cooking takes place in front of you. Goh was in the kitchen, but he was working on the other side of the counter. My cover was taken care by one of the chefs, Andy, and by Ana. They were wonderful in explaining the dishes and speaking in English with me. Service was uncompromisingly good.
There was no menu. It was an omakase course that the chef changes and tweaks frequently.
The opening dish was eel with kobayashi, balsamic vinegar, beef stock sauce, and wine on a piece of cucumber soaked in dashi. On the side there was a green gazpacho made with tomato and cucumber, some chili inside. The composition was inspired by a Japanese dish called uzako, with vinegar eel and cucumber. As this first dish shows, Goh’s cuisine defies labeling. Dishes like these are like small works of art, a sculpture or a painting.
The second dish was even more mind-blowing. It was a platter (it could have been a painting!) with four snacks: Top right: a monaka topped with a iburigakko pickle from Akita, filled with foi gras, and sprinkled with cooked soy beans Bottom right: quiche with bacon from Kumamoto. Top left: shungiku (crown daisy) on a secret white paste. Bottom left: hirame sashimi wrapped in crispy green tea leaves looking like seaweed.
At this point I received some warm ciabatta bread.
The third dish was a colorful cold soup with grilled eggplant, jelly-like beef stock broth, topped by uni, shiso flower, water-shield.
Next was a risotto with spinach and abalone liver, pieces of abalone and Japanese mushrooms (visually they look very similar!), brown butter and mushroom sauce. Eaten mixed together. I was told that this was one of Goh’s signature dishes.
Next was a piece of lobster with chicken sauce, sprinkled with five spices powder and Chinese spinach. An unusual and interesting flavor for this dish.
The big-ticket item of the course menu was wagyu from Kagoshima (very prized!) cooked at low temperature, with vinegar sauce from Yame, onion cooked for 2 hours from Saga, celery puree. Indeed excellent.
The next two dishes were desserts. The first was a homemade yogurt with milk from Hanno enclosing shiso paste and a dill flower on top, plus a Wagayama plum.
Then the dish was completed adding ice bits sprinkled with Yamazaki whiskey.
Finally, from the picture above you can see the green shiso paste hidden by the yogurt.
At this point I was offered a glass of cold green tea from Yame. What was remarkable was that I could smell the aroma of the tea, even if it was a cold brew. Yame green tea is particularly sought-after in Japan. During the dinner I just had still water.
The last dessert was caramel ice cream sprinkled with grated soy sauce on a base of miso, with Sumomo peach. All of this on top of a layer of catalana cream, kept separate from the glazed top. It was like a double bottom. Very clever.
At this point I was shown two miniature statues of Goh and his friend Gaggan. It is well-known that the two like to collaborate together and may even start a restaurant together in the not-so-distant future. Now you know where Gaggan gets his onions…
The check
Now, this incredible meal was 7,257 yen (I did not have wine, I believe water was included) or 68 USD. That’s an amazing price for this kind of culinary experience. They also had a higher-priced menu with basically the same dishes, but an additional palate-cleanser and a more expensive cut of beef for around 9,500 yen. I regret I did not choose this menu as they had a chocolate dessert I would have certainly liked, perhaps next time!
In conclusion, this was not just a meal, it was quiet display of culinary art. Every dish was the result of the combination and balancing of so many details and quality ingredients. All the dishes were also delicious and I was fully satisfied by the end of the meal. I also liked the intimate environment and the counter seat.
The Michelin Guide gives Goh one star. Travesty. This is the kind of restaurant that, using the Michelin’s lingo, is well worth a detour if not a special journey.
Where in Fukuoka: 2-26 Nishinakasu, Chuo Ward, Website: www.gohfukuoka.com.
