Ganso Ramen Nagahamake Nakasu Kawabata

There are several 24-hour ramen shops in Hakata, which are very useful when you arrive in Hakata late at night or have to leave the city early in the morning. As I had to return to Kansai on the first flight in the morning, I decided to search online for a tonkotsu ramen restaurant open early in the morning to have one last bowl of ramen before going to the airport.

The first place I found on my phone was the famous Ichiran Honsha So-Honten near Nakasu Kawabata Station. The second restaurant I found was called Ganso Ramen Nagahamake, also near Nakasu Kawabata Station. It is only one subway line from the station to Fukuoka Airport, and if you are in a situation like mine this time, there are probably few places more convenient than these ramen shops…

There are many ramen shops with similar names, which makes things complicated… Ganso Ramen Nagahamake (also known as “Ie2”) is like this…

But this ramen shop called Ganso Ramen Nagahamake is quite complicated if you trace its history. Briefly, first of all, Ganso Ramen Nagahamake was established in Otemon, Chuo-ku in 2009 as an independent business from Ganso Nagahamaya, which is known as the birthplace of Nagahama Ramen. However, it seems that this independent business was not an amicable one. In fact, the Ganso Nagahamaya side seems to have publicly stated that they have nothing to do with the Nagahamaya family…

But the story does not end here. The following year in 2010, “Genso Ramen Nagahamake” with the exact same name was established in Minato, Chuo-ku, as an independent branch of the Genso Ramen Nagahamake. This independence was not amicable, and later there was a court case between the two over the name of the restaurant. Later, the later Ganso Ramen Nagahamake moved to a new location in 2016, and the restaurant I visited this time is the later Nagahamake (a.k.a. Ie2). However, the earlier store (a.k.a. Ie. 1) is still in business under the exact same name.

So, with two stores with the exact same name, and the original Nagahamaya, which is the origin of these stores, it is really complicated… Moreover, it seems that these three stores have almost the same ramen structure and taste. Why did we get into such a messy situation? Well, from a customer’s point of view, it’s nice to be able to have the same flavor of ramen even if you go to another restaurant by mistake…

How was your morning ramen at Ganso Ramen Nagahamake (a.k.a. Ie2), which is in the vein of the original Nagahama Ramen restaurant?

First, buy a meal ticket from the ticket vending machine inside the restaurant. According to the ticket machine, the restaurant’s menu is…

The food menu consists of only ramen (700 yen including tax), Kaedama (noodle refills) and Kaeniku (meat refills) (both priced at 150 yen including tax), and alcoholic beverages. No need to wonder what to order, just insert a 1000 yen bill and push the “ramen” button. Take the ticket and sit at one of the 20 or so counter seats.

After handing the ticket to the waiter, it took a couple of minutes for the ramen to appear in front of me…

There is a considerable amount of fat floating in the soup. Seeing this, I thought to myself, “This is going to be tough as a morning ramen…”.The noodles were cooked normally this time, too. They offer a free service of adding more green onions, so if you like green onions, don’t forget to tell the waiter when you order.

First, a sip of the soup… well, it is oily. I regretted a little in my mind that I should have come here during the daytime… but surprisingly, the pork bone flavor was light. Perhaps it is lighter than the soup of Anzen ramen. And there was none of the pork bone smell that bothers me in pork bone ramen. Instead, there is a faint garlic flavor, as if garlic is added by default.

In contrast, the noodles came out quite hard, even though they were boiled normally. However, as time goes by, the noodles absorb more and more of the soup and gradually change to a sticky texture. The amount of noodles is a little small, but I think it is better for morning ramen. The noodles are thin, so they go down smoothly even after waking up from sleep.

The main topping, chashu pork, was made up of five or six very thin slices of meat that looked like the ends of meat after shaping a block of meat. It was not very hearty, but I appreciated this way of eating it in the morning. If you soak the meat in the soup, it will go down your throat even easier. The “Kaeniku” system may also be a result of the thinly sliced meat.

This time, taking into account the subway time, I left Ganso Ramen Nagahamake (Ie 2) without having a Kaedama or Kaeniku. Except for the fact that the soup was oily, it was just right for morning ramen. But later, when I was writing this blog post, I learned that apparently, at the original Nagahamaya and Ie 1, it is possible to customize the soup “without fat” or “with more fat”. If so, it should be possible at Ie 2 as well. Next time I have a chance to visit Ie 2, I would like to try their morning ramen with “no fat”.

Ie 1 is really open 24 hours a day… To get to Ganso Ramen Nagahamake (Nakasu Kawabata), walk 4 minutes from the nearest station, Nakasu Kawabata Station on the Fukuoka City Subway Airport Line.分

Now, I introduced Ganso Ramen Nagahamake (Ie 2) as a “pork bone ramen restaurant open early in the morning,” but strictly speaking, Ie 2 is only open early in the morning on weekends. Please note that it is closed early in the morning on weekdays. Instead, Ie 1 is open 24 hours a day (with a 2-hour cleaning time once a week), so if you want to eat “Nagahamake” ramen early in the morning on weekdays, please use this one. The nearest station is Akasaka station, and it’s a bit of a walk from the station, so it’s less convenient than Ie 2, considering you have to catch a plane first thing in the morning…

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…