Anzen Shokudo

When I went to Anzen Ramen in Itoshima before, I had decided in my mind, “Next time, let’s try this one”. The name of the restaurant is very unusual and easy to remember, but in fact, it is a very famous restaurant in Fukuoka Prefecture, and even though it is located far from the center of Fukuoka City, there is a huge line of people waiting in line every day.

I visited the restaurant one Sunday before opening time. It was raining so hard that it felt like a chore to go outside, but from the look of the restaurant before it opened, it didn’t seem to matter at all about the bad weather…

More than 20 parking spaces were full before opening time…Anzen Shokudo is such a restaurant

I arrived at Anzen Shokudo at around 10:30 on a Sunday morning. Since it was 30 minutes before the opening time, in my mind I should have arrived at the restaurant early enough to aim to enter the restaurant on the first round, even if it was a popular restaurant in the city center. But in fact, there were more than 20 people in line under the eaves of the restaurant… I was stunned to see this. Such a large crowd 30 minutes before opening is something you rarely see even at popular restaurants in Osaka and Kyoto.

Of course, customers continued to arrive on foot and by car. By the time about 10 minutes had passed since I started waiting in line, the more than 20 parking spaces in front of the restaurant were full. From that point until the opening time, for about 20 minutes, many cars came and went…so if you are planning to visit the restaurant by car, especially on weekends, it is a good rule to arrive at the restaurant 30 minutes before the opening time.

Well, on this particular day, I was lucky that the restaurant opened 15 minutes before the regular opening time. The seating consists of 11 L-shaped counters along the kitchen and 4 tables for 4 people. The tables are shared, so on this particular day I was just barely able to make it in the first round. The restaurant has a rustic “Showa-era popular diner” atmosphere. The staffs are older than me, and they warmly welcome you even if you are alone or with small children.

Almost the same quality as the Anzen Ramen I had before! A first-hand review of the ramen at Anzen Shokudo, a favorite of the locals.

Let me introduce the ramen I ordered at Anzen Shokudo on this particular day. After about 10 minutes of waiting after ordering, the ramen was brought in front of me and looked like this…

Visually, it looks almost identical to the Anzen Ramen I had before. Maybe it was just a coincidence this time, but I was happy to see that the chopped green onions were so generous that they took up half of the surface of the bowl.

Let’s start with the soup… It is a pork bone broth with almost no fat floating on the surface, and while it is full of pork bone flavor, there is no pork bone smell that is bothersome. However, I have the impression that it is slightly different from the soup of Anzen Ramen. While Anzen Ramen’s soup has a gentle, zesty flavor, Anzen Shokudo‘s soup is more stylish and has a tighter, tighter flavor. Well, this may just be a blurring of flavors.

The noodles are the straight, ultra-thin noodles familiar to Fukuoka’s tonkotsu ramen. I asked for the noodles to be boiled to a normal consistency, but there was a little hardness left in the core, so I enjoyed the sensation of popping when I chewed through them with my teeth.

And there were two pieces of loin chashu pork in the bowl. It looks very ordinary, but it is surprisingly thick and meaty. Yes, I was actually aiming for the chashu ramen this time as well, which I was not able to have at the Anzen Ramen. But when I looked at the menu at Anzen Shokudo, there was no chashu ramen on the menu… I guess I have no luck with chashu ramen at Anzen Shokudo.

Regardless, I found that the ramen at Anzen Shokudo is almost the same quality as the ramen I had at Anzen Ramen, although I did notice some subtle differences. That’s right, locals come here in droves. I really thought to myself, “If there was a ramen restaurant nearby, I would want to go there”. If I ever go to Fukuoka again, I hope to make time for a return visit…

【Bonus】This time, the extra item is the famous fried rice (priced at 900 yen including tax), which is as famous as ramen at Anzen Shokudo. You may be thinking, “What is fried rice that costs much more than ramen?” It is about twice the amount of fried rice served at a regular restaurant.

The flavor is light and moist, and it is not greasy, so even with such a large amount of fried rice, it does not give you heartburn and fits easily in your stomach. In fact, the light-flavored fried rice and the ramen soup go so well together that you can’t stop the loop of “fried rice, soup, fried rice, soup,” and so on. If you have this fried rice, you may not need noodle refills at Anzen Shokudo. Unfortunately, you cannot order a half-size portion, but you can put leftover fried rice in a container to take home.

Examples of other menu items at Anzen Shokudo (prices include tax)

• Large ramen 750 yen
• Champon 850 yen
• Large portion of Champon 950 yen
• Yakisoba (fried noodle) 850 yen
• Vegetable hotchpotch 550 yen
• Soup 100 yen
• Noodle refill 110 yen

Worth the expedition from Hakata to eat… Access to Anzen Shokudo is an 8-minute walk from the nearest station, Kyushu University Gakkentoshi Station on the JR Chikuhi Line.

So, although this Anzen Shokudo is located a little far from the city center, I think it is a restaurant well worth the trip. For example, it would be good when you are in the mood for something different from the famous restaurants in Hakata or Tenjin. I am sure that those who enjoy eating and walking around will have a great memory of eating tonkotsu ramen at a local diner in Fukuoka. However, even though it is a suburban restaurant, you can easily imagine how crowded it gets on weekends, so if you don’t like waiting in line, you might want to go to Kafuri, where Anzen Ramen is located.

Here are the details of the restaurant…