Fukuoka: Ramen-Making and Matcha Experience
At didi's 70-year-old Japanese home, join us for a relaxed ramen and tea experience. Create your own Hakata-style ramen, then enjoy matcha and sweets in a cozy tea room.
Goma saba is raw Hakata mackerel with sesame paste, soy and ginger. Served as an appetiser at most Hakata izakaya; an autumn-to-winter classic in fine-dining counters across Akasaka and Yakuin.
Goma saba came from Hakata's Genkai Sea fishing tradition, where bonito-grade mackerel is rare-tossed with sesame paste, soy, mirin and ginger. The dish was first written about in late-19th-century records but only spread nationally with the Hakata izakaya boom of the 1980s. It is a winter and shoulder-season dish; the mackerel must be the freshest possible. Toriden, Kawataro and the Yatai stalls all run a version. The dish exports nervously: mackerel oxidises fast and goma saba does not travel well outside Kyushu.
3 editor picks for Goma saba in Fukuoka, ranked by editorial score. All Fukuoka signature dishes · Goma saba across every city.
Hakata Mizutaki Toriden Honten ★ 4.7
hakata · Hakata-ku, Fukuoka 812-0027, Japan
Toriden simmers a home-bred chicken six to seven hours with water and salt; the collagen breaks down into a creamy yellow mizutaki that defines Hakata.
Mizutaki Ryotei Hakata Hanamidori Tenjin ★ 4.6
imaizumi · Chuo-ku, Fukuoka 810-0021, Japan
Mizutaki built from the Hanamidori chicken brand, raised on seaweed and herb feed in northern Kyushu and simmered six hours into a milky-white broth.
Kawataro Nakasu Honten ★ 4.5
nakasu · Hakata-ku, Fukuoka 810-0801, Japan
Kawataro Nakasu runs Yobuko squid ikizukuri live from a tank, plus the Hakata goma-saba mackerel. River views, three floors of tatami rooms.
Learn to cook it, or eat it with a guide
Goma saba makes more sense with someone from Fukuoka explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.
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