I was a bit exhausted by the time I got to Osaka during my Kansai trip, so was not very adventurous in looking out for Osaka’s best dining options.
These are my meals - the finesse in cooking, and service in each and every one of those places were amazing.
Osaka Eats
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Seasonal kaiseki at the Genji, Hilton Osaka:
[Osaka, Japan] Seasonal kaiseki at Genji, Hilton Osaka -
Seasonal kaiseki at the Hanagatami, Ritz-Carlton Osaka:
[Osaka, Japan] Kaiseki dinner at Hanagatami, The Ritz-Carlton -
Teppanyaki lunch at the Teppan Grill, New Otani Osaka:
[Osaka, Japan] Dining with a view at Teppan Grill Keyaki, New Otani Osaka
Osaka, despite its No. 2 city status in Japan after Tokyo, has always been compared unfavourably, culinary-wise, to Kyoto. Whilst the latter is always feted for its refined kaiseki meals, Osakan chefs have always been stereotyped among the locals as being “monotonous” and too run-of-the-mill. But I think that’s pretty unfair, as the Osakan places I’d eaten at all showed a lot of attention to detail and meticulousness in preparation.
Some Osakan regional items I’d recommend:
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Takoyaki - octopus balls. These are the quintessential Osaka must-try - missing them is like going to Vienna without trying the wiener schnitzel. Takoyaki is actually a pretty recent invention - just back to the 1930s by a street vendor, Tomekichi Endo, who sold choboyaki, a flour-based snack. As octopus was in abundance, he added them to his snack, and it became a hit.
Takoyaki are small golfball-shaped snacks made from wheat flour containing boiled, diced octopus, chopped scallions and pickled red-tinted ginger. Griddle-cooked in little moulds, the balls are coated with takoyaki sauce (which tasted akin to Worcestershire sauce) and drizzled with mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of katsuobushi (finely-shaved dried bonito flakes).
There are a few popular spots at the Dotonbori area, lined with small eateries.
A couple of highly recommended takoyaki spots are: Donaiya at Nishishinsaibashi, and Kukuru at Hakua Building at Dotonbori.
Beware of bad takoyaki pop-up stalls near the Osaka Castle. Tourist traps - I tried one which served awful takoyaki balls: mushy and half-cooked.
- Okonomiyaki - this dish is sometimes labelled a “Japanese pizza”. Sometimes, preparing the okonomiyaki oneself at the table (with a hotplate at the centre) is part of the dining experience. The okonomiyaki batter consists of flour, grated mountain yam or naga-imo (which has a gooey, mucus-like consistency), egg and finely-shredded cabbage. Toppings added before serving are somewhat similar to those for the takoyaki, i.e. your brush your disc of hot okonomiyaki pancake with a sauce akin to Worcestershire sauce, a generous drizzle of mayonnaise, and sprinklings of aonori (fine seaweed flakes) and katsuobushi (shaved bonito flakes).
For good okonomiyaki, you can try Kiji at Umeda Sky Building, Oyodonaka 1-1-90, and Mizuno at Dotonbori 1-4-15.
