Having lived in Japan for a year, I have a pretty high standard for Ramen places in Toronto since the amount of $ it cost for Ramen in this city is grossly over priced even when compared to Japan and their much higher living standard.
I've been meaning to check out Hakata for almost 3 years and finally dropped in with my wife and ordered;
1. Shio Ramen
2. Gyoza
3. Mini Slow cooked / braised pork don
My #1 policy in all ramen places that i visit for the first time is to order the simplest bowl of Ramen, which in most cases would be Shio ramen. I believe this is the perfect way to really evaluate the quality/taste of the original broth. When you receive your bowl, don't attack the noodles right away but just grab a spoon and take in a spoonful of soup with your eyes closed. This will explain much of the bowl of that ramen before you even dabble with the noodle. If the broth is good, it can cover alot of other short coming such as lacking quality of noodles, and other toppings.
First of all, Gyoza was frozen, pre-packaged ones. I make gyoza from scratch from time to time so it was disappointing for me. And the place isn't all that clean. There is a corridor that leads to the back of the resto where the bathrooms are situated. When you go to the bathroom, the kitchen is on the right hand side and you can see part of the kitchen and it is kinda filthy. Also, the cook with super dirty aprin came out couple of times to serve food until additional evening server arrived and it wasn't pleasant especially after seeing the state of the kitchen was in on my way and back to/from the bathroom.
Then the mini-don came out. That was the best dish and it was slightly better than average. Then finally the shio ramen came out. *game over music*. Very disappointed with sub-par flavoured broth and soft/un-chewy noodles just did it for me and i will NOT return to Hakata. IMO, Santouka / Ryus are top notch but still yet to have tried Isshin and Ryoji. Kinton's way over-rated yet Sansotei was pretty decent. I would rate Hakata to be at the very bottom of this roaster.