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2014-01-11
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Thank you Openrice and 博多一幸舍 for this food tasting opportunity. On this fun night, about 20 of us were invited to sample yummy food from Hakata. Environment & Hygiene:I would say that their bright red door would be quite hard to miss. It was quite spacious and comfy for a ramen place; wide tables, chairs with backs, a box under the table for you to put your bags if you're sitting at the side table on the right. I quite liked the layout of the place. I noticed that hygiene was okay when we got t
Environment & Hygiene:I would say that their bright red door would be quite hard to miss. It was quite spacious and comfy for a ramen place; wide tables, chairs with backs, a box under the table for you to put your bags if you're sitting at the side table on the right. I quite liked the layout of the place. I noticed that hygiene was okay when we got to watch how they put together a bowl of ramen. Also, since it is a new place, of course it was clean and tidy inside.
Taste & Value:To start, there was a piece of paper at each seat for us to choose our ramen. Then throughout, different snacks were brought to us to sample as well. There were a pile of condiments sitting on the table for you to use to adjust the ramen soup broth to your liking.
In order of serving:1. Ramen ($78)
I chose the "Black" Ramen ($78),which had a black sesame and garlic soup base. We were told that they simmer pork bones for over 20 hours in store unlike some other places. My ramen sat for a few minutes before it got to my mouth, so you can see from the glossy surface that they didn't lie about the ingredients used as it is collagen that had formed on top. On the table, there was a bottle of "oil" for you to add to the ramen to increase the saltiness if you needed it. I think it is a great idea, because you can adjust the taste even after the noodles are served.
The first thing I did was to have a spoon of the broth. The broth had a very strong black sesame taste at first, but kinda died out as I progressed to eat. However, the richness of the broth remained so it was still good. I wish the garlic flavour was stronger though. Slim noodles is a characteristic of Hakata noodles, and this trait was kept. I liked the texture of the noodles. As for the char siu, it was quite a change that the meat was lean, and not fatty at all, but because of this reason, it was quite tough. You can add an egg for ($12). However, I think that you could pass. It was creamy, but kinda tasteless.
There were some pickled veggies along with the condiments. The veggies were quite spicy, and had a really interesting taste that reminded me of spices used in Northern China Cuisine. Not bad!2. Potato Salad ($25)
The mentaiko on top gave it a Japanese twist, and made the salad more savory. The salad was creamy, but I thought that there was a bit too much black pepper.
3. Gyoza ($30)These were bite-sized gyoza. The wrap was very thin and crispy, and the filling was good and seasoned just right too! This was my favourite snack out of them all. Even the dipping vinegar sauce was made from scratch in store too.
4. Fried Rice ($35)While some commented that the rice was a bit too salty, I actually found it to be just right and really liked this rice. Japanese rice is relatively more sticky in texture, but this rice was dry like how fried rice should be, and perfectly seasoned, so it was very flavourful. It was good.
5. Chicken Karaage ($30) The chicken was fried quite nicely, and I could taste a hint of garlic and ginger. Overall the chicken could have been seasoned more, but maybe because there was some salt mixture on the side for the chicken, so they took it easy on the spices. Not a bad snack at all.
Service:Service was excellent. All staff were super helpful, polite and friendly. They made sure we were all taken care of, and translated whatever the Japanese chef said to us and vice versa. I liked that they took the time to ask each of one of us to comment on their food.
Final Verdict:
It was a wonderful experience, and I would go again to try their Red Ramen that has a seafood broth.
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