Oh, we walked past many times the Polar Bear cafe むじゃき Mujyaki located in Tenmonkan walking street (see banner picture) on our way back to our hotel. It created the 白熊 Shirokuma Shaved Ice during one summer and it went viral. So now you get long queues at the 4-storey cafe which also sells merchandises. No we didn’t went in. 🙂
Well, I guess we have to work harder to find nicer cafes in Kagoshima the next round… any recommendations?
There was so much to do in Miyazaki, but we still managed to visit 4 cafes for food and drinks 😛
In general, the cafes were quite busy for a relatively quiet and chillax city, but we did not have to queue for seats.
With only one full day in Osaka, we managed to check out Pablo, minus the long queues seen in the recently-opened Singapore outlet, as well as a lovely cafe. As we had to take a bus to Itami Airport for the domestic flight to Miyazaki, we also found time to grab a bite at the Osaka City Air Terminal and Itami Airport 🙂
With the warning of upcoming typhoon, we ended up at the Canal City Hakata again. We were walking around for lunch inspiration and we were attracted by the huge anago!
We opted for 対馬産大穴子天丼 Tsushima Large Anago Tendon (¥1700) and 季节の天ぷら定食 Seasonal Tempura Set Meal (¥1400).
The huge anago was awesomely delicious! We also liked that they were not overly generous with the sauce 🙂 For the tempura set meal, each tempura was freshly deep fried in front of us, and served piece by piece as we ate, ensuring that each piece was fresh and hot. The batter was also quite light without being overly oily.
We were really glad that we came here for lunch 🙂
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We can’t come to Hakata without visiting 屋台 Yatai! We still recalled the very enjoyable yatai experience from many years ago, but we were unable to find the same stall during this visit. Nonetheless, we had read about a couple of very popular stalls, and decided to check out 屋台小金ちゃん Yatai Kokinchan. We arrived around 6pm, and there was already a queue!
We managed to try quite a few items, including:
The food felt rather homely, and we really enjoy the experience of just hanging around the yatai 🙂
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Hubby said that we absolutely gotta go queue for this famous udon!
Since we were staying quite near the place, we figured we would be rather early… NOT 😛
We arrived just before 11.30am, to find a long queue outside, and we did not manage to get in the first seating. However, being a fuss-free place, customers did not linger and after 20 minutes, we were in!
After watching the impressive laser light fountain show at Canal City Hakata, we decided to look for food within the huge shopping mall itself.
There were a few options, and 平四郎 キャナルシティ店 廻転寿司 Heishirou conveyor belt sushi restaurant looked rather popular. Price ranged from ¥100 to ¥500 per plate (excluding tax), and we spent ¥3024 in total for 8 plates of sushi.
We gotta say that the fish were fresh, but a pity about the sushi rice…
Contact (廻転寿司平四郎 キャナルシティ店):
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We were strolling along the shopping street when a half price 焼餃子 Pan-fried Gyoza and Beer advertisement caught our attention 😛
We had the 焼餃子 Pan-fried Gyoza (half price at ¥125 for 7 pieces), as well as the 水餃子 Steamed Gyoza (¥300 for 6). Boy, we were glad that we made this pit stop! The gyozas were very juicy and the skin was rather thin. We really enjoyed this snack food 😀
Contact (Outlet-川端店):
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After a long train ride from Kumamoto to Hakata, and dropping our luggage at our hotel, we went in search for lunch.
We still recalled the very nice もつ鍋 Motsu Nabe which we had tried at a yatai stall in Fukuoka years ago. So when we saw this restaurant specialising in Motsu Nabe, we went in without hesitation.
We ordered the Motsu Nabe Set Meal for 2 pax (¥2560), where we could opt for either rice or Champon noodles. The set also included sides such as Hakata Spicy Cod Roe (raw), Okyuto (seaweed jelly), and pickles (citron radish).
We enjoyed the side dishes, but the Motsu Nabe was quite a disappointment with very little offals… There was probably much more tofu than anything else 😦 The soup and noodles were not bad though.
Note: Menu was available in English, Korean, and Chinese, so it was fairly easy to order.
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After a day of train-riding, and after dropping our luggage at our hotel, we went in search for dinner. Google suggested a popular Kumamoto ramen restaurant near 熊本駅 Kumamoto Station, so off we went looking for 黑亭 Kokutei in the light drizzle.
Though it was dinner time, there wasn’t much of a queue, and we got into the restaurant after about 10 minutes of waiting. While waiting, there was an English menu available for us to browse.
We shared a Ramen Set (¥1290) consisting of 玉子入りラーメン (Tamago Iri Ramen) Ramen with Egg, 豚そぼろ丼 (Buta Soboro Don) Rice Bowl with Pork and Vegetables, and 特製ギョーザ Special Gyoza. We thought the food was pretty decent 🙂
Note that there are 2 outlets, and you can check its website for the locations.
熊本ラーメン黒亭本店 Kokutei Main Store:
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Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 