“Shouraku” is one of the motsunabe (stewed offal) shops that represent Fukuoka. Most people think of stewed offal as a communal meal for 2 to 3 people, but the Solaria Stage location offers individual portions. We recommend the “Shouraku Gozen” that comes in either soy, miso, or salt based soup. It’s a full course meal with one portion of stewed offal, a side dish, chicken skin and liver with ponzu, horse sashimi, spicy salted cod roe, and salad.

Let’s have a close up on each individual dish. First off, the “spicy cod roe”, a Hakata specialty. It’s made in-house, and the large individual pieces of roe burst in your mouth. The “chicken skin and liver with ponzu (ponzu is a soy sauce with citrus juice)” features supple, chewy chicken skin. The “Kumamoto horse sashimi” is incredibly fresh! And the “side of the day” was tofu on this particular day, with subtle sweetness from the soy beans. The “local salad” was made of greens with surprisingly strong flavor.

The main event of the meal, the stewed offal, has an appetite triggering aroma. There’s plenty of slippery small intestine bits, and other offal meats like tripe, from Japanese-raised cows. And to finish off the meal, Shouraku has always used thick champon noodles, which are ordered from a small noodle maker in Fukuoka city. Aside from the set menu, the side orders for the stew and a la carte menu features a good variety.