We wanted more ramen last week, this time we tried Hakata Choten in Paris 1er. It serves Tonkotsu Ramen, which is based on pork broth originated from Kurume City in Fukuoka. The cloudy thick rich white soup was invented by accident when the owner forgot to put out the fire below a pot of pork broth.
We arrived around 20h, not a lot of people eating on a quiet Sunday. The place was quite small and with a few tables outdoors. We sat inside and ordered a bowl or ramen for each and we order some gyoza as they had won some awards in Japan. We heard the staff communicating among themselves in Japanese.
Gyoza with green onions, a lot of onions, I had to admit they were good, very thin skin and crispy on the side.
Gyoza with the chef’s own spicy miso - this version is more or less the same as the first one, except there was some red miso meat sauce on the gyoza, good balance of taste.
Chashu (simmered pork belly) Kuro (black) Tonkotsu Ramen - I requested an additional ajitama (egg), as advertised, the broth was very rich, deep and smoky: the black sauce is grilled garlic infused in oil, the size of Chashu was impressive (I regretted order the extra pork, as with the gyoza, it was difficult to finish everything). The broth had a strong character and very tasty, at the same time, I found it slightly too oily and a bit heavy to finish off the broth. The ramen is cooked perfectly kata - al dente.
Special signature ramen - meaning you have it all: charnu, egg, black garlic oil, spicy red miso paste. Actually since the broth was a bit heavy, the red miso was a better balance out of the 2 bowls.
We enjoyed our meal, we have order a total of 10 gyozas, it was too much food with the bowl of ramen even I was very hungry. The bill was 55,50€ The black chasu ramen was 17 euro (16 + 1€ of egg), the Special Ramen was 18 euro (14 + 4€ of extra chasu) 2 dish of 5 gyoza 7 euro each. A bit pricey but the food was good.
Hakata Choten has another branch in Opera. We read from review that the Les Halles branch has a better note than Opera.
Hakata Choten Les Halles
16 Rue de la Grande Truanderie
75001 Paris
Opening time: 12:00-22:00
http://www.hakata-choten.com