Ganso Hakata Mentaiju

We ordered the mentaiju set with tsukemen and the double mentaiju box as well as the dessert. The double ones come with 2 mentaiko: one raw and one grilled. I didn’t quite like the grilled one but the raw one was good. You can choose the spicy level and I think anything over medium would be too spicy for me (I don’t eat too spicy so for those who like super spicy, they have higher spice levels to choose from). The dessert was great, especially after the fishy taste you get that lingers after eating 2 strips of mentaiko. The salad was quite good, and they have salad sauce for take home. In fact, they sell alsmot everything take away as well. They don’t except reservations for lunch so we had to queue for this place. It is said that usually the wait is quite long but we went around 11:30 and waited for 10 minutes. The service was good as they were quite attentive considering the kind of venue. However, I think they are understaff and that’s why the wait was longer than supposed to be.

I had the ‘Han Men Set’ which consists of Mentaiju (Mentaiko Donburi) and Mentai Nikomi Tsuke-men. This is the most popular menu at Ganso Hakata Mentaiju. When ordering, you can choose the spiciness of the Mentaiko seasoning. And a special broth for Tsuke-men is provided separately with an instruction manual on how to enjoy Mentai Nikomi Tsuke-men. You can eat the Mentaiju by putting it on top of rice or mixing it with rice. Since the Mentaiko is not salty, you can enjoy it even more if you lightly sprinkle the special soy sauce according to your taste. Tsuke-men is a dish where you soak the noodles in the soup. The soup was salty and savory because of the Mentaiko on it. The noodles that came with it were chewy and the combination of the noodles and soup was good. At first, I just ate it as is, but later I added the spicy special sauce and ate it, and when the soup cooled down, it was a little salty, so I added broth and ate it. In fact, the soup was a little salty, so I just ate it as is for the first few times, and then I poured the broth right away and ate it.

We went because we saw that the line wasn’t super long. Waited for maybe 30 mins before we got a table. Food was amazing! We had the standard set as well as the tsukemen - both the adults and kids loved it. Suitable for families with young kids - they had booster seats available as well as kids cutlery

My friend really wanted to go to this restaurant. The restaurant is very busy and people always seem to be queuing. We were lucky that we got in without queuing. The restaurant had a pleasant, high-class and "woody-cozy" atmosphere. It was our first time eating mentaiko. We ordered the set-meal with chicken soup. I could tell that the food was prepared with much care. We liked the seasoned cod roe on the rice and seaweed-bed. It was a fullfilling meal. I wouldn't say that I became a fan of mentaiko, but I didn't dislike it. Sure, it was expensive, but it was worth the try. My friend really liked it. The chicken soup was refreshing, flavourful and very very tasty!