Hakata Shinsengumi is a great ramen shop serving Fukuoka style ramen. My wife, who’s from Fukuoka said she felt like she was in a ramen house back home. Here when you order the ramen, they give you lots of choices so that you can have it exactly the way you want. You can choose noodle firmness (soft, medium, firm), broth thickness and the amount of oil. I usually just go for medium on all 3. My wife prefers firm noodles and light oil.
The ramen is delicious, and I ordered the “D-Set” which included a bowl of Hakata ramen (I added pork slices), half an order of gyoza, a side order (i chose kara age (fried chicken)) and a beer.
Again, the ramen was great, and so was the tori kara age which is kinda hard to do wrong unless you over cook it. The ramen noodles are rather thin, to balance the strong broth. The gyoza however, left something to be desired. They were very small, falling apart and otherwise not too delicious. Since it came with the set it didn’t really bother me much, but I wouldn’t recommend ordering them.
The atmosphere seems pretty authentic with the entire staff greeting people as they arrive and leave in unison. There aren’t too many individual tables, most of the seating is either at the bar, or at a large wooden table in the center. We were there kind of early at about 6pm on a Friday night, and by the time we left at about 7p, there were at least 15 people outside waiting to get in, so it seems this place is pretty popular.
2015 W Redondo Beach Blvd
Gardena, CA 90247
(310) 329-1335
www.shinsengumiusa.com