Menya ISHII: Popular udon restaurant in Fukuoka
Fukuoka is known for so many popular Japanese foods with mentaiko (spicy and salty cod or pollock roe) and udon (thick wheat noodles) being on the list.
To hit 2 birds with 1 stone, we checked out this popular udon restaurant Menya Ishii to try mentaiko udon for lunch during our trip to Japan.
Menya Ishii
Japan, γ812-0011 Fukuoka, Hakata Ward, Hakata Ekimae, 3 Chomeβ9β5 γγ΅γ³γγ³γ·γ§γ³η¬¬δΈεε€ 1ι
The vibe
We arrived at Menya Ishii around 12:15pm for lunch and there was a very short line outside. While waiting in line, we looked at the menu and we reached the vending ordering machine by 12:22pm to place our order.
Once inside, it is a small restaurant with only bar counter seating with a view of the open kitchen. Despite its small size, it has a modern and clean aesthetic and the food came out very quickly.
Food review
Prices have been converted from yen to CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Mentaiko kamatama butter udon ($11)
The most popular and signature item on the menu is this mentaiko butter udon – only for $11! π³ Gag me.
It came in a tall bowl with a skinny bottom and it was presented in a very colourful rainbow form, with a creamy egg yolk, a dallop of mentaiko, green onion, furikake (seasoning), seaweed and a stick of butter.
I mixed up all these ingredients and naturally the butter melted as the bowl was still warm. It was a little hard to mix at first. This essentially became the base of the sauce and flavour, mixed with the saltiness of the mentaiko.
My first bite of this udon was full of creamy butter and nice popping textures of the mentaiko. The noodles had a great chewiness and tasted very fresh. After finishing the bowl, however, I felt the udon and flavour wasn’t that special π€·π»ββοΈ – among all the amazing and tasty foods we’ve had on this trip, this bowl of udon could be forgotten.
Shrimp tempura BK udon ($14)
My husband ordered this shrimp tempura bukkake udon. Bukkake is a cold udon noodle dish with a chilled dashi sauce.
Again, the presentation is quite nice, especially the effort they took into twirling the udon noodles into a neat spiral. The price is also super reasonable given the amount of noodles this dish has.
My husband said the dish is good quality – tempura was fried well, noodles fresh and chewy, but again the flavour wasn’t special.
We had added a juicy chicken tempura for $2 and we really liked this. It was indeed juicy and had good flavour!
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: βοΈβοΈβοΈ
We had a good lunch at Menya Ishii. The prices were amazing – pretty cheap lunch, under $15 per person – and the quality of the food was high.
For an udon restaurant, we felt the noodles were certainly meeting expectations. They were all fresh, chewy and great texture. Flavour-wise, we felt everything was good but nothing was extraordinary. We wouldn’t come back given all the choices there are to eat in Japan and Fukuoka.
Sincerely, Loewe