After spending the whole day at Hakata Gion Yamakasa, standing under the sun since the afternoon, we were hot, hungry, and pretty much running out of energy. At that point, the only thing on my mind was, “We seriously need something good for dinner tonight, haha.”
And since we had made it all the way to Fukuoka, one dish I had already decided I absolutely had to try was Motsunabe, Hakata’s famous beef offal hot pot. The restaurant we had pinned for dinner was Hakata Motsunabe Maedaya.
At first, I simply thought, “Well, if I’m already here, I should at least try one of Fukuoka’s signature dishes.” I definitely didn’t expect that a meal I had planned just to tick off my list would end up becoming one of my favorite meals of the entire trip.
Because in the end… it was so good that we ordered two extra servings, haha.
If You’re in Fukuoka, You Have to Try Motsunabe
When we arrived at Hakata Motsunabe Maedaya, we quickly realized that… we definitely weren’t the only ones with the same idea, haha.
There were already quite a few people waiting outside, and the restaurant itself wasn’t very big. We ended up being third in line, so we just stood there and waited patiently.
The first group went in… then the second…
Okay, we’re next!
While we were waiting, though, I peeked inside and noticed the staff clearing a rather small table. I immediately started wondering,
“Wait… are the three of us really going to fit at that table?”
And, as expected… nope, haha.
A staff member came outside and asked if we would mind letting the next group go in before us, since they had fewer people and the available table was better suited for them.
We didn’t mind at all. We understood the situation, so we told them it was totally fine.
What I really appreciated was that while we had to wait a little longer, the staff brought us cold towels and even gave us fans to help us cool down. After spending the entire afternoon under the sun, little gestures like that honestly felt like lifesavers, haha.
And thankfully, we didn’t have to wait much longer…
Finally, it was our turn!
After All That Waiting, We Finally Got to Eat
Of course, when you come to a Motsunabe restaurant, you have to order Motsunabe.
The restaurant requires you to order according to the number of people in your group, so we ordered a hot pot for three, along with grilled mentaiko, a bowl of rice for each of us, and of course… cold beer.
Not long after ordering, the staff brought out a small appetizer that looked a bit like eel sushi, one piece for each of us.
And then the star of the meal finally arrived.
A huge pot of Motsunabe was placed right in front of us.
Wooooow… this looked sooo good.
Just seeing the bubbling broth filled with beef offal and vegetables made me even hungrier. I didn’t waste any time and immediately scooped up some broth for my first taste.
And the moment it hit my mouth…
Ohhhh… so THIS is the reward for all that waiting, haha.
It was seriously delicious. The kind of delicious that immediately makes you feel like standing in line was completely worth it.
The broth was rich, savory, and incredibly comforting. Once you added the soft, fatty beef offal, everything just worked together perfectly. And when I followed it up with a spoonful of hot Japanese rice…
Heaven. Seriously.
How Good Was It? We Ordered Two More Servings, Haha
If you’re wondering just how good it was…
We had originally ordered enough for three people, but after eating for a while, the three of us looked at each other and somehow came to the same conclusion without needing much discussion.
“Let’s get more, haha.”
And that’s exactly what we did.
We ended up ordering two additional servings of Motsunabe without even thinking twice.
Honestly, that might be the clearest review I could possibly give. If we hadn’t loved it, we probably would have finished the first serving and called it a day. But with this place, the more we ate, the more we wanted.
As we kept eating, the broth gradually became even richer as more flavor from the beef offal and vegetables infused into it.
Spoonfuls of that increasingly flavorful broth with hot Japanese rice, followed by a sip of cold beer…
It was so good that I completely forgot that just a few hours earlier, we had been standing under the blazing sun with our faces practically burning, haha.
Without even realizing it, this meal became one of the most memorable parts of the trip.
At first, we were standing outside in the heat, watching another group get seated ahead of us and wondering when it would finally be our turn.
But the moment we sat down and tasted that first spoonful, it felt like all the waiting had been completely worth it.
Hakata Motsunabe Maedaya became one of those restaurants that made me think,
“I’m really glad we waited.”
And the fact that we ended the meal by ordering two extra servings probably says everything you need to know about how much we liked it, haha.
So, Was It Worth the Wait?
For me, the answer is simple.
Absolutely.
The rich, savory broth, the soft and tender beef offal, and the vegetables slowly soaking up all that flavor worked beautifully together. Add hot rice and a cold beer after an exhausting day, and the whole meal just felt perfectly satisfying.
At first, I only wanted to try Motsunabe because it’s one of Fukuoka’s signature dishes.
But after this meal, it became one of those foods that I know I’ll want to eat again if I ever come back to Fukuoka.
So if you’re looking for a Motsunabe restaurant in Fukuoka and you don’t mind waiting in line, Hakata Motsunabe Maedaya is definitely one place I’d recommend trying.
And if you’re wondering what we had been doing all day before showing up this hungry for hot pot…
I wrote all about it in “My First Hakata Gion Yamakasa: The Festival That Made Me Fall in Love with Summer in Fukuoka”.
Go check out the story of that day too :)
