Menya Kanetora Tsukemen Hakata Station Review: Fukuoka Must-Try

Menya Kanetora Tsukemen: Absolutely Worth the Wait!

That rich dashi broth and perfectly chewy noodles!

It's a must-try for your first meal in Fukuoka!

For our very first meal in Fukuoka,

we had ramen on our minds.

So, we sought out a tomato ramen shop near our accommodation.

Like many ramen spots in Fukuoka,

there was a bit of a queue.

But we had no idea how long the wait would be,

and absolutely no menu guidance.

After waiting for a while,

we realized we didn't really feel like eating there anymore.

So, we decided to head to Hakata Station Deitos Noodle Street instead.

Along Noodle Street,

long queues stretched out from every single shop,

but Shinshin Ramen and

Menya Kanetora Tsukemen particularly stood out to us.

Having never tried Tsukemen before,

my husband and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to give it a go!

Although the queue was much longer than at the previous place we visited,

what impressed us was how staff members consistently came out to manage the line

and offer menu guidance.

Knowing the approximate waiting time made us feel so much more at ease.

After approximately 50 minutes of waiting,

we were finally seated!

Because we had already picked our dishes and placed our orders while waiting,

our food arrived quite quickly!

We ordered the Spicy Tsukemen Premium,

with a regular noodle portion,

and opted for "Crazy" for the spice level – that's level 2!

Tsukemen is served with the sauce and noodles separately, just like this.

With plenty of meat and

various other ingredients generously packed into the sauce,

I felt like ordering the 'Premium' version might not have been strictly necessary.

The Tsukemen sauce has an incredibly rich dashi base,

and the umami flavor was absolutely fantastic!

However, if I dipped the noodles in too deeply, it was a little too salty for my personal taste.

To get the perfect balance of flavor, you really only need to dip the noodles lightly.

But since the noodles are served cold, I kept wanting to warm them up,

which meant I kept plunging them deep into the sauce.

As a result, I ended up drinking a lot of water!

While the first few bites were incredibly tasty,

as time went on, the sauce began to cool,

and the fact that the whole dish became lukewarm was a bit of a letdown.

However, I don't think this is a flaw of this particular restaurant,

but rather a characteristic inherent to Tsukemen as a dish itself.

So, for those of you, like my husband and me,

who prefer to have a consistently hot broth throughout your meal,

Tsukemen might not be the absolute perfect dish for you.

Still, the staff's well-organized and attentive service made sure that from a guest's perspective,

it was a truly pleasant place to dine.

If you've never tried Tsukemen in Fukuoka before,

then when you're near Hakata Station,

giving it a try at Menya Kanetora

could be an excellent choice!

Bonus tips to check out!