A note on the words: mizutaki is the Hakata chicken hot pot — chicken simmered in nothing but water until the broth turns milky, eaten with ponzu, with vegetables added as you go. Zosui is the rice porridge cooked in the leftover broth at the end of a pot, and it is the whole point of the exercise. Yuzu-kosho is a paste of chili, salt and yuzu peel. Nanban-zuke is fried fish marinated in sweetened vinegar. Shungiku is chrysanthemum greens. Shochu is a Japanese distilled spirit. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Mizutaki Ganso Suigetsu Honten on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today too. This is Hangover Meshi. For my last night in Fukuoka I went to Mizutaki Ganso Suigetsu Honten. Fukuoka means mizutaki, after all. I feel like I have worked through every local specialty on this trip, which is the best possible outcome. As for which mizutaki place to pick, I chose Suigetsu, because they are the original — the restaurant where the dish was born. Suigetsu has apparently been in business since Meiji 38, which is 1905. Quite a history. Getting to eat mizutaki with that behind it is something to look forward to.
A good-looking building. Inside, a big tatami room set up like a banquet hall.
Course B, mizutaki set, 6,200 yen
Course A, mizutaki with chicken gratin and dessert, 7,200 yen
Course C, mizutaki with gratin, dessert and seafood, 9,200 yen
Eat the mizutaki first, think about everything else later. So I went for course B, the most compact one.
Mizutaki comes in quantity as it is. However many dishes you line up, there is a limit to what you can actually finish.
The banquet-sized pot and the vegetables are already set out at the table.
Very much looking forward to this.
While they get the pot ready, small dishes to pick at are handed round.
The chicken skin in vinegar comes in a decent amount. That is one portion, so I worked through it slowly.
Here are the vegetables properly. Enough for about four people, I would say.
The course starts, with a bottle of beer alongside.
Nanban-zuke. The fish here is good, so it is nice that even a small dish like this is done properly.
The pot goes over the flame and the chicken starts to cook.
The course opens with the chicken broth on its own.
At first it is a clear soup, but one that carries the aroma and the savor of the chicken all the way through.
The remarkable part is that it is nothing but water and chicken.
They pour you more of the broth later on, and from that point the color of it changes as the pot goes on cooking.
The fun of a pot is that the longer it cooks, the better it gets.
First round of chicken, with cabbage. They bring yuzu-kosho for it as well, and this yuzu-kosho is fragrant and very good.
The chicken is tender enough to fall apart, plain and honest in flavor. A pinch of salt on it works too. The cabbage has drunk up the chicken broth and moved up a grade. This is food that is kind to your stomach. Delicious.
Mushrooms go in, and the second plateful.
Last in go the chicken meatballs, shungiku and leek. That completes the broth.
It has darkened a little. The taste has turned properly rich as well, and it is better for it.
These vegetables are the good part.
Shochu in hand, blowing on mouthfuls of scalding mizutaki. Hard to beat.
At the end they make zosui for you in that pot full of good broth.
Egg stirred thoroughly through until the color is right. One mouthful and you understand that everything up to now, all that chicken and all those vegetables, was cooked in order to arrive here. A superb way to finish. And all of it from nothing but chicken and water. Mizutaki is quite a dish.
I am glad I went with the course that had the fewest dishes. More than full. The staff handle everything to do with the pot, which is reassuring and easy. They talked to us a lot about Hakata as well, and it made for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. They even took a commemorative photo at the end. Good memories. Hakata is fun.
Mizutaki Ganso Suigetsu Honten (Mizutaki / Nishitetsu Hirao Station, Yakuin-odori Station, Yakuin Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★★☆ 4.0
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
