Do you know what an Izakaya(居酒屋) is? An Izakaya is a Japanese bar-like place where you can both eat Japanese tapas (Sashimi, yakitori, edamame…) and drink. Traditionally, those places are meant for office workers to chill out after work.
The typical Izakaya style consists of ordering several dishes to share with your group. If they predominantly serve beer, you can also enjoy various sake and some other Japanese long drinks. From my experience, the closest thing in Europe from an Izakaya would be a Spanish Tapas bar.
As it is something I miss from Japan, I went to an Izakaya-style restaurant in Amsterdam.
It is call “Hakata Senpachi“(博多せん八)
As the name suggests, this restaurant is an Izakaya-style restaurant specialising in Hakata cuisine from Fukuoka. Moreover, the also serve Ramens.
The restaurant is located near RAI station, a bit far from the city center, but still easily accessible. It is recommended that you make a reservation before you go as it is usually fully booked.
I love it because it gave me the Japanese vibes without being too “Japany” as some European Japanese restaurants exaggerate on the decoration.
What do they serve ?
If they serve Ramens, the main dishes are skewers and Hakata dishes. Beside my Ramen, I also ordered some yakitoris. They are grilled over charcoal in front of you which makes them juicy and delicious. Based on my experience there, I think their yakitoris might be better than their Ramens.
Impression
To be honest, even though I loved it, I think the experience is a bit overpriced. Their yakitoris are worth trying for sure, but a dish of grilled eggplant costs 13.9 euros. As for the eggplant itself, it was too smoky and I could only taste the smoke which was very disappointing. The price of a single item is not cheap, so I think it may be more enjoyable and cost-effective if you go there with multiple people and share. Going their with only one or two friends will limit the number of different yakitoris you can try as it will quickly get very expensive per person.
Ramen review
First of all, the soup was creamy, delicious and easy to drink. But I would not say it tasted like a traditional Hakata tonkotsu Ramen as it was lighter. If you like the real and authentic Japanese Hakata Ramen, you’ll probably be disappointed. I did not like their chachu as it had a lot of fat which made it a little difficult to eat for me. However, it was so soft that it could be cut with chopsticks and thus some people might like it.
The noodles were thin, but I would have preferred some thiner and harder noodles, which are typical of Hakata style. Overall, it was very nice, but not what I had imagined. It seems they also serve Tsukemen in winter and I am definitely keen to try.
