Where to eat in Osaka, Japan. Photo / Getty Images
Where to eat in Osaka, Japan. Photo / Getty Images
Tamara Hinson takes a deep dive into Osaka, otherwise known as Japan’s kitchen, to find the city’s best places to eat
It’s 9pm in Dotonbori, a neighbourhood in downtown Osaka, and I’m feeding coins into a vending machine.
My reward isn’t a can of hot coffee (one of the more unusual items dispensed by these machines) or a box-fresh shirt (popular with office workers, apparently). It’s a paper ticket I hand to a waitress who ushers me inside the tiny restaurant – one of dozens dotted throughout Dotonbori.
The ticket lists the items I’ve ordered (takoyaki, small, fried balls of dough filled with chunks of squid, and a glass of Suntory beer) which arrive at my table three minutes later.
Yes, it’s cheap, fast food, but not the type you’ll find in Hungry Jacks.
Items on the menu at these restaurants range from kitsune soba to okonomiyaki (savoury pancakes made with cabbage and typically topped with meat or fish) and they’re dishes which represent the spectacular diversity of food in Osaka.
It’s a coastal city on the Yodo River delta, close to the Japanese Alps and surrounded by villages filled with historic sake distilleries.
Okonomiyaki, a savoury pancake, is a signature dish in Osaka, often cooked on communal hot plates. Photo / 123rf
Seafood, however, is Osaka’s speciality, and nowhere is this more obvious than in canal-side Dotonbori. While visitors to Las Vegas snap selfies against neon cowgirls, in Osaka, it’s the animatronic crabs which attract the biggest crowds.
Years ago Kani Doraku, a Japanese seafood restaurant chain, stuck a supersized animatronic crustacean to the front of its Dotonbori restaurant, and it became Osaka’s most photographed spot.
Other restaurateurs followed suit, and today a supersized piece of seafood is the must-have item of signage. Within 50m of the original crab, I spot animatronic octopuses, clams and scallops, while other restaurants advertise specialities with sculptures of wagyu steaks and the aforementioned okonomiyaki.
These particular delicacies, an Osaka speciality, are impossible to miss - many restaurants have glass-walled kitchens facing the street, allowing visitors to watch nimble-fingered takoyaki chefs rotate these fried balls of deliciousness.
Takoyaki, a popular street food in Osaka, are small fried balls filled with chunks of squid. Photo / 123rf
Another great – albeit less traditional – place to stock up on all things Japanese is Don Quijote, a Japanese chain store where you’ll find everything from Hello Kitty toilet brushes to chestnut-flavoured Kit Kats.
Osaka has one of Japan’s largest branches, but proceed with caution. Step inside and it’s a chaotic, maddening scrum of shoppers scrambling to stock up on weird and wonderful Kit Kat varieties and Kinoko no Yamas (mushroom-shaped, chocolate-dipped biscuits), and more than happy to use their trolleys as battering rams to do so, all to a backdrop of the store’s insanity-inducing jingle.
Don Quijote in Osaka sells a wide variety of unusual Kit Kat flavours and other unique Japanese snacks. Photo / 123rf
For a calmer retail therapy session, head to a depachika, the basement food stores in Osaka’s swankiest department stores – I recommend the ones in Osaka’s swanky Daimaru stores.
I could happily spend entire days in these temples to gastronomic greatness, marvelling at the art-like displays of wagyu beef in the meat sections, the individually packaged prawns and the sake from every corner of Japan. But it’s the fruit and veg section where things get really interesting.
This is where locals come to purchase items of fruit given as gifts, including white strawberries from Hokkaido, golf ball-sized grapes and rare types of melon, chosen for their perfect roundness, wrapped in a ribbon and sold for $70 a pop.
Gift boxes of flawless strawberries for sale. Photo / Getty Images
The pastries you’ll see in depachikas are equally stunning – the most sought-after items include rice crackers adorned with kawaii images of cartoon characters, colourful domes of fruit-infused jelly and Hello Kitty-shaped cakes. Short on time? Grab a wagyu beef bento box – albeit in the knowledge that from this point on, all packed lunches will be a disappointment.
And if you’ve overdone the green tea, do as I do and make a beeline for Daimaru’s all-singing, all-dancing toilets. After various blasts of cold air and squirts of water I’m still no closer to getting to grips with the control panel attached to my Toto toilet, although I discover that pressing the button adorned with a musical note prompts a strangely soothing audio recording of running water.
Tenjinbashi-suji shopping street, a 2.6km covered shopping arcade near Osaka Station, is another great place to work up an appetite.
It’s lined with independent stores and restaurants, and one of my favourite finds is the Kunishige knife store, where I can buy samurai swords and bonsai tree pruners with beautifully carved wooden handles.
One of the strangest stores is the Railway Lost Item Market, a tiny shop filled with objects left on trains. I’m unsurprised to see a high quota of umbrellas, but confused by the full samurai outfit, complete with sword.
Other Tenjinbashi-suji favourites include a deli dedicated to food from Okinawa, the southernmost and westernmost area of Japan, and another specialising in Japanese gins.
For some DIY dining, it’s got to be Okonomiyaki Yukari, where I duck beneath Japanese door curtains and take a seat next to a communal hot plate. My host spoons on hot batter and I add seafood, vegetables and drizzles of okonomiyaki sauce, often referred to as a sweeter version of Worcestershire sauce.
Okonomiyaki in Osaka. Photo / Daniel Hooper on Unsplash
For dessert, I waddle over to a nearby stand selling taiyaki, fish-shaped pastries filled with sweet red bean paste.
Apparently I’m in good company – the stall owner tells me that Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler is a fan, and that he once collaborated with taiyaki chain Naruto Taiyaki Honpo. Google the words Steven Tyler and taiyaki and you’ll see an image of the rocker wearing a taiyaki-shaped hat.
Taiyaki are fish-shaped pastries filled with sweet red bean paste, popular in Osaka. Photo / 123rf
Don’t miss the chance to visit nearby Pulala Tenma, a bustling fish market where still-twitching crabs are carefully appraised by eagle-eyed locals, and where other fresh seafood includes sea snails, eels (heads still attached), huge tuna fish (heads still attached but eyes removed) and fugu (puffer fish), a species so poisonous that they can only be sold at licensed restaurants. And fish markets, apparently.
Osaka’s fish markets offer fresh seafood including still-twitching crabs and fugu. Photo / 123rf
Fugu might not be on the menu at Hanagatami, the fine dining Japanese restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Osaka, but it doesn’t get more traditional than this.
Guests can dine at a teppanyaki grill or in the main restaurant, where the most popular option is kaiseki, a multi-course meal designed to showcase Japanese ingredients and cooking techniques.
Each course is a work of art, and highlights include chiayu (known as sweet fish due to the sweetness of its flesh, and served whole), a freshly picked alkekengi (also known as Chinese lantern, due to the fruit’s shape), and a chunk of glistening octopus tentacle.
The Ritz-Carlton Osaka’s restaurant Hanagatami offers traditional kaiseki meals, showcasing Japanese ingredients and techniques. Photo / 123rf
Don’t panic if you’re concerned about piling on the pounds, either. The Ritz-Carlton Osaka’s guest relations manager (and New Zealand transplant) Simon Finch regularly takes guests on bike rides through the city.
He’ll also take them on guided runs to nearby Osaka Castle, although a word of warning – this is someone who’s run numerous marathons in various countries, so be prepared to pick up the pace.
I leave Osaka several pounds heavier but buoyed by the knowledge that this is a place which cares deeply about its food – a place where I can grab some okonomiyaki and know it will taste as good as the ones served in a swanky restaurant.
“Osaka has always been known as the nation’s kitchen – it’s a treasure trove of culinary delights,” says Chef Maeda from the Ritz-Carlton Osaka’s Hanagatami restaurant. “It’s close to the sea and mountains, and locals’ desire to bring joy to people through food is palpable.”
And after all, if it’s good enough for Aerosmith, it’s good enough for me.
