Hana Midori — Restaurant in Fukuoka

We visited this restaurant without a reservation and got seated at the counter in less than 5 minutes around noon. Although it wasn’t a private room, the quick seating made up for it.

Most of the starter dishes were chicken-based, and one of them was a raw chicken salad. Honestly, that one was a bit intimidating — I tried a small piece, and it felt like eating sashimi. Then came the highlight: the chicken hotpot. It already came with four pieces of chicken thigh, and after the broth started boiling, the staff added chicken heart, liver, and boneless chicken meat, along with vegetables like lettuce, enoki mushrooms, and spring onions. After simmering for about five minutes, everything was ready to eat.

The chicken was super tender and smooth — really delicious. But what I loved most was the rich, slightly thick chicken broth that had absorbed all the flavor from the meat and veggies. It was packed with umami and just so comforting. When they added rice into the leftover soup to make porridge… it honestly tasted even better than the chicken itself! 😘

We couldn’t stop thinking about it, so we actually went back again for dinner that same day. That’s how...

絕對不推的一餐！ 開始前要説明一下。我的工作就是去不同類型的店舖或餐廳給予評價報告,所以很多事無大小我都會自然留意到。(這可好可壞) 飯田女士的服務品質，在那國都不太能接受！她在用英語對答時連六歲小孩都懂的簡單please或 thank you都不會用！臉色也好比煱底黑，差點還沒吃就想要離開了。她還直接打斷了我們的對話.手指湯鍋突然問一句“rice or noodle”！(ps.用字沒加沒減,就三個字！) 問完之後消失了，我們等了約十五分鐘到另外一位員工(江田先生)說last order 要清桌子時才發現沒上“rice”! 我是那裏得罪她呢？ 其他的服務生是有比較好，至少會有笑容。但前菜一放下就走人，誰叫了什麼sets 那一道料理是誰的都不知道。 面對外國客人是否應更用心而不是這樣給人一種草草了事的感覺呢？ 更有趣的在後頭！ 因為吃得真的有悶到，所以結賬後才跟前櫃檯反應。結果給我一堆借口説英文不好很正常(please or thank you有多難？而且語氣也不好)! 從下單到桌上的白飯要20分鍾也正常?那為什麼江田先生來告知last order和清桌子時才發現飯還沒上時又可以馬上就有？更更有趣的是這位西田先生在前一天我去訂位時他的英文還是可以對答流利，但今天就自動變成不會英語了！時間真的可以改變很多呢！！ Not recommended at all! Not ever! Before I start I think I need to mention my job involved auditing all sort of shops and restaurants, so I naturally catches a lot of details when it comes to customer services. The service received from Ms 飯田 is truly disappointing. I don't believe this type of service is acceptable in any countries! She pull a long face on from the start and failed to use simple words even a 6 years old are able to; such as please or thank you in either English or Japanese. She also interrupted our conversation without proper manner too by approaching us with a hand gesture towards the pot saying “rice or noodle”.(literally just those 3 words). Then she just dissapare without a trace! We didn't know what was going on until about 15 minutes later another staff came, tell us it's last order and tried to clear/tidy our table, then he realized the rice hasn't arrived yet! Truly unbelievable and not expectable what so ever! I can't help but wonder what did we do to offended her in anyway for her to treat us the way she did! Other waiter did at least have a smile on his face (Mr.江田). Starter dishes was left on the table without letting us know which are for whom as we ordered different sets. To simply put it. An unpleasant experience and I would have left if I wasn't there with my parents. I believe when facing foreigner, shouldn't people be extra patient rather than hastily dealt with? Anyway.....After we made payment we explain it to the front desk and all we got are excuse after excuses saying it is normal for their staffs not to say thank you or please because their English are no good (really?). And funny enough his (Mr.西田) English was pretty good the night before when I went and make a reservation with him in person but now all of a sudden he speaks little English. He also kept dodging my question about the rice； Why did she disappeared afterwards? How long it will normally take from ordering rice and arrived to table. At first he try to tell me because it's change of staff at different floor, then he tells me it's normal for rice to arrived 20mins after ordering. But then why Mr. 江田manage to bring those mysterious rice to us right away when he realized it hasn't...

Maybe I don't understand the concept, but to me its a fancy way to serve mediocre food. The food is ok, it'll fill your stomach. But 5 or 6 pieces of chicken, liver, some minced chicken balls, in flat tasting broth with some pickles and veg on the side, (add your own salt to taste). Finished with plain ramen in stock? Even the lousiest packet of ramen from the supermarket would taste better.

Totally not worth it. Do it yourself at home with a whole chicken. For the price I could have had twice the amount of wagyu beef and sashimi and much better...