The chef, came from the regarded eatery Washoku Ishizu in Kita in Osaka ( 和食 いし津 ). When I first found out about Ryota, it was just newly moved to Shinsaibashi at the time from their former location. Even though Ishizu’s rating was quite high (3.75 on Tabelog), Ryota’s rating was low at 3.09. It was odd, because the reviews were all glowing. I actually averaged the individual reviews’ ratings and found that they didn’t add up to 3.09, but much higher than that, closer to Ishizu’s rating. Months later, the numbers went up to 3.62, which was a lot closer to Ishizu’s. So I had no idea what went on with Tabelog’s number.
Showing up took a bit of effort. The building looked a bit beat up and desolated industrial in appearance on the inside, even though its in the popular Shinsaibashi district. The elevator was a bit beat up. The door for the restaurant was just as beat up. We knocked on the door, having made a reservation through a local helper. Because of communication problems, originally the chef automatically waved us away, saying its reservation only. After a few rounds of clarification and rejection, we finally convinced the chef that it was us who made the reservation, by quoting the name of our helper, that’s written in his reservation book.
I think he thought no way tourists could find his restaurant. And thought we went to the wrong place. Anyway, we proceeded to do our best impression of most educated Japanese eater by ordering and eating properly. Slowly the chef understood we weren’t the Yelper types who had no idea what we should be eating and ruined his food.
At one point, I told him I knew he was from Ishizu. And he was genuinely surprised that a tourist who didn’t speak Japanese knew where he came from, and found him so quickly after his relocation. That added a lot of credibility with him.
Anyway, onto food. It was my favorite meal in Osaka. To be honest, I forgot most of the specifics about the meal already. But the level of cooking was high. And the price performance ratio was high also.
What a feast! We’ve still not figured out how to reserve, even on Tablelog, restaurants in Japan, since they require a local phone number. We’d asked at one of our hotels if they would make the reservation for us but they declined…
I found her on Upwork. its not specifically that she reserves restaurants, but they do other things with their language ability as well. But restaurant reservations happened to be something that I need. If you want I can pass her contact to you so you can seek her out when you go to Japan again.
The only caveat is, she’s effectively acting as a concierge, and using her name and phone to reserve. So I made it a point to try my very best to honor the reservations. But even then, because of long distance travel, I think I missed a couple. Reservations are best for not the first meal in a town, but the ones after.
I am in the process of planning a fall, Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe…food crawl.
My go-to restaurant reservation concierge service for this venture is ‘Omakase.com’ . A nonrefundable $4 service charge fee is normally involved. I use it to book ‘excellent /outstanding rating’ Tabelog restaurants with near 4.0 rating and /or Michelin star rated restaurants. …eg., the 4.11 SEN in Kyoto or the 4.51 Sushi Sanshin in Osaka. The website usually provides the time, they open for reservations
Depending on restaurants, some require full payment at time of reservation ( read fine print for cancellation refund policy ).
Based on the rarity and popularity of restaurants, sometimes one needs to look into other concierge service to expand chances of securing a place. For this, I look into 'Pocket Concierge ', ’ My Concierge ', JPNEAZY, Tabelall…etc
Prices quoted for service charges and menu pricing sometimes varied amongst the various concierge service. Useful to check before committing!
Have Fun!
