Hakata Ramen – A New Japanese in Downtown Montreal!

Hakata Ramen is a lovely Japanese restaurant mostly serving large bowls of Ramen – Japanese soup with noodles, and a variety of vegetables, meat or seafood.  The price is very affordable for a very filling and pleasant Japanese experience.

Hakata Ramen
1216 Stanley, #200
Montreal H3B
514-759-6688

Good

I wanted to try this place out, and ended up going in a group with nine of my colleagues for my first visit.  Hmm, probably dragging along such a large group to a restaurant you’ve never visited is probably not the best way to go about things, but the reviews seemed good and the suggested alternative could only be worse.

Located on the second floor in a building just down the street from Parée, the location is nicer than I was expecting.  It is also quite large, and I must say that for a fairly new restaurant it was pretty full (the picture below was after everyone left!)

The speciality of the place is definitely ramen which makes up most of the menu.  For non-noodle lovers, there is also regular dishes like Teriyaki Chicken, Chicken Skewers etc.  We went with the lunch menu which is a pretty amazing deal.  Two pieces of bonito crusted tofu (the tofu was amazingly soft), soup or salad and a main for between $10.50 and $11.95 depending on the main chosen.  With tip it came to about $15 but when you think your average ‘salad and two salads’ deal in a food court is $9 it’s pretty good.

I liked it but wouldn’t say I fell in love with it.  I had the crispy chicken ramen, and the chicken was amazing but I wasn’t over the moon about the broth.  I felt it could have had a little more oomph to it.  It was still good though.  My colleagues liked it (phew) with some of the pickiest eaters giving a thumbs up.

The service was just OK.  My colleagues were all served about 10 minutes before me which isn’t great.  Hopefully this is a new restaurant thing, and they will iron it out.  I’d like to go back and try some of the non-ramen dishes which also looked good.

Overall, I’d say that I would definitely go back as the price was right, the decor was nice, and the food was good.  However, I would probably not run back 🙂

Decor: Better than I expected for a second floor restaurant in this area of Montreal.  Pretty nice.
Service: Worse than average.  Perhaps it was also because we were nine but I don’t think this should be an excuse.
Prices: Amazing really.  A good lunch time deal especially.
Food: Good.  I only tried the crispy chicken ramen, but my colleagues all had a bit of everything and everyone was happy.
Good For: Tourists looking for a filling meal, lunch with girlfriends and colleagues.  For a business lunch, it may be a bit awkward slurping all those noodles 🙂