Restaurants

Ichiran has been serving noodles for 39 years. Customers eat at individual cubicles, and fill out forms requesting precisely how they want their noodles prepared. Flavour strength, fat content, noodle tenderness, am…

Fish Man's post-industrial vibe has lacquered plywood and big windows, which show off the unconventional presentations of seafood fresh from the Nagahama market across town: kaidan-zushi (sushi served on a wooden sp…

Staff equip you with fishing rods, bait and nets to fish your own tai (sea bream), hirame (flounder) and more, from tanks surrounding tables on boat-shaped platforms. When you catch something, they'll bang drums bef…

Down the street from the Hakata Machiya Furusato-kan, this lovely eatery makes homemade soba (buckwheat noodles) from the Shinshū area of central Japan (around Nagano), prepared in a variety of ways including kake-s…

Nobunaga is raucous and rowdy, and that's just the chefs. There's no English menu, but it's easy to choose from the skewers behind the counter. Another house speciality is potato-mochiage (¥420), a fried dumpling of…

The IMS Building (天神イムズ) has prime skyline views from its 12th- and 13th-floor restaurants, including No No Budo. The busy self-serve gourmet buffet has good-for-you Japanese and Western fish and meat dishes, noodle…

This ramen chain has workmanlike and always bustling branches in Tenjin, serving the best-selling Akamaru Modern (with black sesame oil and a fragrant umami-dama, or flavour ball), Shiromaru Classic (with thin noodl…

Cosy ramen restaurant-pub that's just a few minutes from Hakata's Higashi-guchi. No frills, just thick, Fukuoka-style broth, noodles and draughts, with most of the seating at the bar. Also has a branch in Rāmen Stad…

An entire floor of ramen outlets, with eight ramen vendors imported from the length and breadth of Japan.

Locally popular for its home-grown Kagoshima beef, served from behind the counter on sizzling teppan (iron hotplates). A great bargain at lunchtime. There's no English menu, but order the yakiniku teishoku (set meal…