Fukuoka is known as "Japan's #1 Gourmet City," surpassing even Tokyo.
This article will introduce a careful selection of delicious restaurants for you, the readers, to visit in Fukuoka, a city packed to the eaves with tens of thousands of shops and stalls and restaurants.
Be sure to give this article a read before traveling to Fukuoka!

This is the most popular izakaya in Fukuoka.
Here you will find a wide variety of exquisite dishes made with local ingredients, and tourists find themselves captivated by the vibrant and bustling restaurant and the delicious food.
While it's hard to secure a reservation for Robata Hyakushiki, there are always 8 seats reserved for walk-in customers each day, so even if you're unable to get a reservation you still may be able to just stop by.

This super-popular izakaya is run by an owner who has experience working at a popular Kyoto restaurant.
They operate under the motto of "kappo-quality dishes in an accessible izakaya," so here you'll find dishes crafted with high-quality ingredients and high-level techniques.
Their specialty is "warayaki," or straw-roasting, and the result of cooking in-season fish over the straw is a dish bursting with umami.
You've also got to try their miso duck thigh roasted on a magnolia leaf, as well as their saba sushi!

This is Fukuoka's number one most popular ramen restaurant, and you're sure to find long queues even at night.
Their signature dish is their "buta soba."
Their pride-and-joy shoyu-based soup is packed with the umami flavors of pork and is deliciously sippable, and it has the great reputation of not being too heavy or bloating even if you enjoy a bowl late at night.
The last stop on your trip through Fukuoka's gourmet offerings has to be here at "Tsukiya"!

This incredibly popular yakitori restaurant is known for its delicious "cold-cured for over 10 days Takasaka chicken."
They offer an exciting course meal that starts with sashimi, followed by nigiri sushi and yakitori.
After you've stopped by just once, you're sure to fall for their juicy and flavorful Takasaka chicken.

Tanakada is a luxury izakaya that is an iconic part of Fukuoka.
As a luxury izakaya, it is home to a good number of dishes that are lauded as "the most delicious in Japan."
The dishes are all cooked with the highest quality of ingredients, so everything, from salad to sashimi and grilled foods, is absolutely impeccable.
If you're visiting Fukuoka and want to make sure to have the absolute best the area has to offer, this is a must-visit restaurant.

This hot Tokyo-style yakitori restaurant opened in November of 2017.
They offer two popular omakase courses: 5 skewers for 1,500 yen, and 7 skewers for 2,000 yen.
We recommend starting off your tour of Fukuoka's gourmet scene here - enjoy some of Tori Ichi's pride-and-joy chicken skewers, then head off to another restaurant.

This bite-sized gyoza specialty store was founded in 1954 as a food stall.
In the span of one day, they sell over 5000 gyoza, made in-house down to the wrapping.
The gyoza are mouthwateringly delicious, and one person can easily down 20 of the bite-sized dumplings.
While waiting for the gyoza to cook, the local "Hakata-ko" enjoy the fried chicken wings offered at the counter as an appetizer.

This super-popular izakaya is known for its beef tongue.
Here you can enjoy umami-packed beef tongue, aged for 10 days, as sashimi, kushiyaki (skewers), simmered, or in shabu-shabu.
If you're looking to try some top-class beef tongue, something that's hard to find even in Tokyo, "TANCA" is the place to visit.

This famous izakaya is known for serving up delicious food, no matter what you order.
Their signature dish, ordered by most customers, is their "bluefin tuna sampler."
Not only can you not find "authentic sushi restaurant" level tuna at an izakaya in Tokyo, but here you can really experience the high skill level held by the restaurants in Fukuoka.

This is the #1 restaurant for wrapping up your night in Fukuoka.
Many of the foodies who visit Fukuoka stop by this ramen restaurant late at night.
Their specialties are their "shiru-nashi no are" and "shiru-ari no are," or "that with no soup" and "that with soup."
Tsudoi skillfully replicates the familiar and nostalgic taste of cup noodles, beloved by the Japanese people, without any chemical seasonings.

Shokudo Saison d'Or was founded with a desire to make a restaurant that could showcase special techniques without being too formal or stuffy.
A popular choice is their 10,000-yen omakase course, which features 11 dishes and 3 desserts.
If you're a fan of sake, be sure to order the "pairing course."
Their unique dishes are absolutely splendid, such as steamed abalone that plays beautifully off the bitter flavors of liver, paired with local sweet potato shochu.

This tucked-away Japanese restaurant opened in May of 2017.
They offer 2 lunch courses, priced at 2,500 yen and 3,500 yen, and reservations are taken up to the day before.
Their specialty is their "sea bream ochazuke," which is made with carefully prepared seasonal ingredients.
The combination of rich, flavorful sesame sauce, fresh sea bream, and quality rice with a hint of sweetness is absolute bliss.

This popular steak restaurant serves the rare "Kinoshita beef," the cattle for which only a scarce 50 heads a year are sold.
The Kinoshita beef steaks are slowly and carefully cooked by the owner-chef, locking in the delicious umami flavors of the beef.
As the cattle are fattened in a healthy manner, even the fattier cuts, like sirloin and rib roasts, have deep flavor profiles and don't weigh heavily on your palette.

This restaurant is extremely popular among ramen fans for its ultra-rich tonkotsu ramen.
To make the broth, pork head, bones, and feet are slowly simmered over a long period of time, and the intensely aromatic soup is then paired with firm and thin noodles.
Apparently the standard way to enjoy a bowl of this ramen is alongside a spoonful of spicy mustard greens and ginger, available on the tables.

"Meshiya Koyama Parking" is the second location of the extremely popular robata-yaki restaurant "Robata Hyakushiki."
Less than a month after its opening it was already receiving lots of attention as a restaurant where industry professionals and foodies alike flocked.
It has an amazing reputation as a restaurant that does not focus on a single genre, instead only serving "delicious" foods, such as "stir-fried Chinese water spinach," "fillet cutlet sandwich," and "truffle cheese chawanmushi."

This popular restaurant features a quiet space with a hearth in the center and a tea room, and it's a great place to enjoy Japanese tea, Japanese sweets, and sake.
They offer around 20 varieties of Japanese tea, primarily sourced from areas in Kyushu, including Fukuoka.
Their tea arrangements, including use of carbon extraction, are also popular.
Many customers also use "yorozu" as a bar, thanks to its quality selection of sake, shochu, and wine.
As this is a popular restaurant, be sure to call ahead of your visit to see if there are any openings.

This horse-meat specialty restaurant is located in Hakata's Nishinakasu.
You can enjoy a variety of creative dishes that utilize horse meat, on top of classics like horse sashimi and grilled horse.
The must-try dish here, though, is their fresh "horse liver sashimi."
Horse liver has a supple texture and a flavor more enchanting than that of chicken, pork, or beef liver, and we believe that this dish alone is worth a trip to Fukuoka to try!

You'll need a reservation to get into this super-popular izakaya.
Most customers who stop by are in search of Kiharu's exceptionally fresh saba (mackerel), sourced directly from the Goto Islands.
They offer an extremely delicious set of 3 types of saba sashimi, including their super-fresh "swimming saba sashimi," their "sesame saba" that's paired with a rich sesame sauce, and "grilled saba sashimi," in which the skin-side of the saba is crisped to perfection.

This super-popular Kuroge beef specialty restaurant prides itself on its age beef tongue and tender grilled tail.
Must-try dishes include their "upper tongue," "beef tail (large)," "skirt steak," "tail ramen," and "yakimeshi."
You can also enjoy their top-class selection of 350 varieties of shochu at the counter!

This popular kappo-ryori restaurant offers luxurious meals even at lunchtime.
We highly recommend trying their "lunch unagi meal."
The restaurant's owner carefully selects each of the thick, meaty eels, sourced from Kyushu, and the combination of fragrant broiled eel in sauce with aromatic Koshihikari rice from Uonuma is sure to bring a smile to your face.

This is the most popular udon restaurant in all of Hakata.
Here you can enjoy "Fukuoka udon," which differs from the firmer Sanuki udon found all around Japan in its tender, chewy texture.
We recommend trying their "gobo-ten," which is topped with crispy fried gobo (burdock).
The fried tempura batter absorbs some of the delicate flavors from the broth, creating an incredibly delicious bite.

This yakitori restaurant is becoming quite popular thanks to its specialty, "kawayaki," grilled skewers made with the skin from a chicken's neck.
The exterior of the skewer is fragrant and crispy, while the inside is deliciously juicy. These tasty skewers have even been featured on TV, and apparently there's a good number of regular customers who stop by and put down as many as 30 skewers in one sitting!

"yorgo" is the first name you'll hear if you inquire about bistro-style restaurants in Fukuoka.
This popular shop sells both foods made by the owner, who has worked in France, and natural wines.
Their signature dish is "rare cutlet of beef filet."
Many customers have become enamored with the combination of umami-packed special sauce on a tender cutlet.

If you're looking for yakiniku in Hakata, look no further than "Yakiniku Sudo Haruyoshi."
The wagyu yakiniku full-course meal, prepared by the owner who has worked at leading Tokyo restaurant "Kunimoto," is said to be the most delicious in all of Kyushu.
The yakiniku here is prepared by a professional "yaki-shi" assigned to each table, so even newcomers to the dish can enjoy top-quality yakiniku without any stress.

"Aji no Masafuku Tenjin Core Honten" is an old-fashioned diner in Fukuoka.
It's so popular that on weekends you're certain to have to spend some time waiting in line to get in.
This diner has a great reputation for serving incredibly delicious fish at a very reasonable price, and on the menu you'll find a lineup of fresh fish that were bought that very day.
They also offer a set menu that includes rice, miso soup, and pickles, so this is a great choice of restaurant for lunch.

One of the most popular donburi bowls in Fukuoka among foodies is the "special seafood donburi" here at "nobu."
Every night droves of customers flock here after midnight in search of the seafood donburi as a late-night snack.
The secret to the delicious bowl is the thin layer of "tororo" (grated Japanese yam) between the rice and the fish.
When you mix the smooth tororo in with the rice, you'll find yourself downing the whole bowl even if you'd already had dinner beforehand.

This popular standing bar opened on January 6th of 2017, following the theme of "good old Japan."
One of their signature dishes is the Japanese favorite "omusubi" (also called onigiri; rice balls).
They offer a wide variety of musubi, from the simple salt musubi to fillings like ume (Japanese pickled plum), okaka (chopped katsuobushi), salted saba, saba and mayo, salted pollack roe, ikura, and salmon. We also recommend trying their fragrantly grilled "yaki-onigiri."
Apparently the rice they use in their musubi is grown by the owner's relatives, and the owner is so confident in the product that they have said, "It's no exaggeration to say that I opened 'Sankyuu Sakaba Kegomusu' so that others could eat this rice."

This tempura restaurant has become popular with the masses thanks to its delicious, cheap, and quick food.
Their popular "sampler meal" is only 770 yen and comes with kisu (sillago), chicken, shrimp, sweet potato, pepper, eggplant, and squid.
It's so popular that at lunchtime long lines of excited tourists looking for piping hot and delicious tempura build up outside of the restaurant.

This diner has a reputation of offering fish-based dishes on par with those at famous kappo-ryori restaurants.
We recommend their yakizakana, featuring seasonal fish like aji (horse mackerel), saba, isaki (chicken grunt), and amadai (tilefish), procured from the nearby waters.
The taste of their yakizakana, carefully grilled over charcoal by their talented chefs, is said to be the best in all of Fukuoka.

This super-popular izakaya offers the iconic Fukuoka product "ika no sugata-zukuri."
Right in the middle of the restaurant is an enormous cube-shaped tank, filled with over 100 swimming squid, ordered directly from where they're fished up in Yobuko.
As a result, the squid here is incredibly fresh, and the meat is beautiful and semi-transparent with an addictive chewy texture and rich flavor.

This tucked-away izakaya serves up incredibly delicious food.
The owner cooks up a variety of standard Japanese izakaya fare you'd find across the country, but the dishes here have a reputation of being "the peak of izakaya food."
We recommend not ordering any specific sake here, instead letting the owner pair your selected dishes with his recommended sake.

This udon izakaya is incredibly popular with local foodies.
We recommend enjoying the offered high-quality dishes like "sesame saba," "chicken tempura," and "buri (amberjack) with daikon" alongside sake, then finishing up your meal with firm udon noodles, made in-house by the owner every day.

Fukuchan has been lauded as "the most delicious ramen restaurant in Fukuoka."
The soup here has an incredible depth of flavor, made by blending multiple broths that are all carefully prepared with different cook times and thicknesses.
The result of all that effort is a delicious bowl of ramen with the perfect balance between sweetness and saltiness.

This popular izakaya is frequently visited by owners of Tokyo restaurants.
As the izakaya's name suggests, their specialty is "tsukune" (a type of chicken meatball), and they offer over 10 varieties, including "field mustard and lemon," "lotus root and sakura shrimp," and "dried persimmon and butter."
Be sure to try them with the sake crafted by the owner!

This standing bar is open starting at 8am.
Customers can also enjoy local sake as well as snacks at the alternate location inside of Hakata Station.
Many customers stop by from early in the morning to enjoy local sake, shochu, wine, and beer.