博多一幸舎 hakata ikousha: another day at the mall
Hakata Ikousha is somewhat mercurial, having made appearances at Canal City’s Raumen Stadium 2, Kyoto’s Ramen Alley, and Odaiba’s Aquacity Ramen Mall. Reared in the pure tonkotsu traditions of Fukuoka, Ikousha is perhaps emblematic of the new generation of Japanese ramen shop, one with a solid grounding in the past when it comes to taste, yet also the savvy to propel it across the country’s noodling landscape and make a national (and perhaps one day, international) name for itself.
Fifteen years ago, this would never have been possible. Ostensibly regional ramen shops, even new ones, typically stayed where they were; before the mid-nineties tonkotsu ramen boom, before the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum and the advent of themed food courts, a place like Ikousha might have had a difficult time expanding beyond the narrow side streets and neighborhoods of its original honten.
Then, everybody discovered tonkotsu ramen, and those quick to capitalize made their presence known. If presentation indeed affects taste (we are in the land of wax food displays, after all), then the difference lies in the details - bleach white ginger, firm, slightly flattened Hakata-style unrisen noodles, and, if you order the chashu ramen, generous slabs of exceedingly soft pork buttressing the bowl in what has become a fast trend among the hipper ramen shops, meat that fans out and makes the portions larger than they really are. It’s pure marketing savvy, it really is.
All would be for naught if the ramen weren’t actually any good. But with regards to taste, Ikousha is classic modern Hakata tonkotsu, boasting a pure pork bone soup as focused, punchy and laden with umami as anything found in a Nakasu yatai. Soup like this is simultaneously thick and thin, oily and rich, yet light enough to go down in its entirety and kill you slowly, unlike Kurume Taiho and the old-school-style cement mixer tonkotsu ramen shops which literally force you to jog off the calories on the way out the door.
Toss in the aforementioned, oh-so-stylish and logically white ginger and a dollop or two of their no doubt patent formula karashi chili sauce (every Ippudo descendant seems to have something of the sort these days) and you’d be hard pressed to find a better bowl of like-minded stuff in places like, well, Kyoto and Odaiba. But then again, this is Canal City, and one need only look across the way or down the street for a few hundred other comparable tonkotsu ramen options. It’s the rest of Japan that really benefits from a shop like Hakata Ikousha, with its young, hip staff and entrepreneurialism enough to ride the pork bone wave across the nation. Here in Fukuoka, it’s just another day at the mall.
| porky, punchy, oily, yet thin, ikousha's ramen soup is emblematic of hakata's nakasu-yatai style tonkotsu ramen shop. a real winner. | 9 |
| thin, firm, and al dente in the hakata style, these are solid noodles for the genre. a slightly flattened form adds a touch of individuality to the proceedings. | 8 |
| excellent, flavorfully thin slices of chashu laid out in a unique presentation. fine chopped negi, wood-ear mushroom, and copious quantities of sesame seeds. white ginger is such a logical garnish that i don't know why anyone even bothers to dye the stuff red anymore. maybe the dye companies have a stranglehold on product. i smell a conspiracy. | 9.5 |
| all this ramen means that i have to skimp on side dishes from time to time. they might have been great, but with ramen this good, there's no room to miss much else. | NA |
| ikousha has a friendly vibe with young, good-looking waitstaff. despite it's prominence in ramen-themed 'food courts', the ambiance is fine if fast. | 5.5 |
| hakata ikousha, like ippudo, is at the forefront of the new tonkotsu ramen wave. if only a few shops like this managed to make their way overseas, the world would be a better place for sure. | 7 |
| 26.5 |
