Looking for a good restaurant in Fukuoka City

One of the things a bit uniqueness of my running is that I do other things at the same time such as paying electricity bills and making a reservation for a restaurant. 

Last Wednesday I had an appointment for dinner. So Sunday before the Wednesday I ran around the center of Fukuoka City looking for a nice restaurant.

I had excluded three kinds of restaurants: Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

Japanese: I eat Japanese dishes everyday. You know why. 

Korean: I ate good Korean dishes back home in Korea a week before. I didn't have much expectation over Korean dishes in Fukuoka. 

Chinese: one of the friends who was supposed to join the dinner was Chinese. I tried to be more sympathetic than usual. The conclusion was it would be better not to go to a Chinese restaurant(but I really like Chinese restaurants in Fukuoka).

I chose three landmarks and tried to find a good restaurant near them.

A long queue: my original plan was to make a reservation for a restaurant with a long queue. A long queue means popularity and popularity means yummy. Rational but quite simple. 

#1

Central Park

Hakata Mentaiju

http://www.mentaiju.com/?wovn=en

I am used to the park. It is located right next to Kawashou.  I think Hakata Mentaiju is the most popular restaurant near Central Park. It always has a long queue of customers. 

I just tried taking video of the restaurant to figure out how many customers were waiting. The dishes were Japanese. 

But I have a question. Where did spicy cod  roe or Mentaiko come from?  Even in Korea, Mentaiko is so popular and I do not see any difference in shape, color, tastes and so on in both countries. I see more and more similarities as I see more more differences in the culinary culture between the two living in Fukuoka, which gives me more questions.

It has an English site! 

Additionally, I tried climbing up to the rooftop of Acros. I haven't been yet to Fukuoka Tower, so I can't compare the views. But even from the rooftop of Across, I could see almost all around the city including the mountain side in the back and sea in the front. Comparing the view down Central Park climbing up was another joy. Moreover, it was free. No elevator and good exercise. I took almost one year to try the rooftop.  

#2

Tenjin

It was not that bustling maybe because of the concern for Corona Virus. But I could see some restaurants having queues with customers. But they were mostly ramenya, udongya and so on, which are basically for simple and quick lunch. I just roamed around failing a restaurant meeting my standards.

#3

Ohori Park

After the service on Sunday, I typically run to Momochi Beach. On the way, I run by a restaurant with the longest queue in Fukuoka. It was always during the lunch hours, maybe between 1:30 pm and 2:30. It is Raruki(らるきい). It is an Italian restaurants. Its uniqueness is that it is decorated with the baseball things of Fukuoka Hawks. Its reputation online was a bit plain. But the day I was quite late and the restaurant was closed. It was 4:00 pm.

Decision

I went back to Tenjin. I happened to Jazz music being played in a small restaurant.  I stopped by the outside and enjoyed the music a little bit and found an Italian restaurant. It had Italian flag on the side. I got in and there was no customers yet. I booked a table. 

La Coccinella

http://lacoccinella-daimyo.jp/ 

Dishes: great. We ate three kinds of pizza, all of which were so delicious.

Hospitality: The manager or the chef has a sense of cultural differences. He asked me whether we neede a Japanese kind of appetizers which is typically served in Japanese restaurants. He was dedicated and sophisticated.

Atmosphere: The seats were comfortable and the music was plainly good.

Prices: I wouldn't go to a yakitoriya for a drink anymore. The prices of La Coccinella are much more reasonable. 

I had a great time with friends.

I recommend La Coccinella.

#4 Fukuoka vlog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTI8IUWeN7w

3/4

P.S.
One of my Japanese friends gave me some feedback for Rarukii(らるきい) And he said it became popular after a legendary baseball player Wang and a few famous entertainers visited it. He added he is not sure about the tastes.