Osaka is recognised by many as a city of eats. It is known to the Japanese as the nation’s kitchen, and comes with a famous saying kuidaore (食い倒れ), meaning to “to eat yourself to bankruptcy”, or “eat until you drop”, which is certainly a possibility. It’s deemed by food critics – including François Simon, who is speculated to be the inspiration for Anton Ego, the food critic of the Pixar movie Ratatouille – to be the food capital of the world. That’s certainly debatable, as we’ve visited so many cities whose cuisine has impressed over and over again, but there’s doubt that Osaka has exceptionally delicious food.

Osaka is also home to one of Asia’s major trading ports, especially since the country opened back up to trade in 1868. Because of that, the cuisine sees major influences from other countries, especially Korea and China, so its local food is diverse. We’ve already tried some of Osaka’s favourite snack foods, sweet foods, and street foods – this post focuses on some of Osaka’s most famous local specialties.

Okonomiyaki Savoury Pancakes (お好み焼き)

Osakais famous for their “flour foods” – dishes made with a base of flour, such as fritters, pancakes, and noodles. Okonomiyaki is one of the most famous Osakan specialties. Translating to “as you like it”, these savoury griddle-fried pancakes are usually filled with chopped vegetables, meat, or whatever the diner prefers, and often topped with sauce. Other variations famous in Osaka are modanyaki (モダン焼き) or “modern yaki” which includes noodles, and negiyaki (ねぎ焼き), which uses spring onions (scallions) instead of cabbage.

Negiyaki Yamamoto (ねぎ焼 やまもと)

There is a restaurant situated close to Umeda Station in Osaka that is popular for hotplate-based dishes such as okonomiyaki and yakisoba fried noodles, with most of their menu featuring various versions of these dishes. The restaurant is not large, as the diners sit at counters with hotplates, where their orders are placed to keep warm as they eat. While the chefs do not cook the dish in front of you, the layout of the restaurant allows for easy viewing over the counter into the main kitchen where they prepare the food, allowing also for a visual dining experience. The restaurant has an English menu.

We decided to order a portion of their beef tendon negiyaki (牛すじねぎやき) at ¥1,190 (US$10.80) as Osaka is also famous for taking meat off-cuts such as tendon, as well as their pork okonomiyaki (豚肉玉お好み焼き) at ¥780 (US$7.10). They kindly asked if we wanted the pancakes cut in half if we were looking to share, and portioned the pancakes off neatly for each of us. For the price, the size of the pancakes are fairly large, and they are filled generously with flavourful ingredients which keeps the meal from becoming too heavy because of the carbohydrates.

Considering how extravagant the toppings of okonomiyaki can be, these ones were refreshingly minimal, some might even say disappointingly so, but that certainly didn’t come at the cost of flavour. The negiyaki was fragrant from the spring onions, with lovely little pieces of chewy tendon and konnyaku or konjac jelly, which added to texture. The soy-based sauce on it was light and not as sweet and savoury as compared to many of the sauces often served on top of okonomiyaki, which was suitable for the spring onion flavour to come out.

The pork okonomiyaki is one of the most basic dishes you can order but no less delicious. One of the ingredients that makes it especially good is the benishouga red pickled ginger, whose pungent and herbaceous flavour makes the pancake less stodgy, and the pork less greasy. It’s definitely a dish you should try if you’re in Osaka, and at a price that is very affordable. We recommend Negiyaki Yamamoto thanks to its friendly service, accessibility for tourists, and its tasty food, though it closes fairly early so is best for lunch, early dinner, or even a snack in between meals.

Kasu Udon Beef Offal Noodles (かすうどん)

As mentioned, Osaka is famous for taking a lot of meat off-cuts and turning them into delicious dishes, and this is mostly thanks to Korean influence. Kasu udon (かすうどん) is an example of this exactly. Udon (うどん) is a thick, flour-based noodle that many people around the world have already come to enjoy, and it can be enjoyed in soups or stir-fried. Kasu (かす) is short for aburakasu (油かす), a food made by rendering or boiling the fat from parts of the animal such as intestines, and then dried until crunchy, similar to crackling. In the case of kasuudon, the aburakasu is chopped up, seasoned, and used as a topping for udon noodles in a light soup, considered a fairly cheap meal.

Kasuya (加寿屋)

It may or may not surprise people that there is a chain of stores in Osaka called Kasuya that specialises in aburakasu dishes, especially kasu udon. We decided to stop off for a cheap lunch at their location near Nanba Station during one of our days maximising the Osaka Pass. The restaurant is shockingly small, seating probably only around a dozen at most, lined up at a counter around the tiny kitchen, with barely any room between the seat and the wall to squeeze past. Their menu is also not huge, consisting mostly of udon noodle soup with a variety of toppings. We decided to order their plain kasu udon (¥600; US$5.50), as well as the kitsune udon (きつねうどん), which also includes a fried sweet tofu pocket at ¥650 (US$5.90).

The udon noodles are incomparable to the tough, bland udon noodles that you usually find outside of Japan – these ones were soft and chewy, soaking up the lovely flavour of the light, savoury broth very well. The aburakasu had a certan soft, almost gelatinous feel, seasoned to be a little sweet with some soy sauce flavour. The tofu pocket was an excellent addition, spongy and chewy, the porous inside soaking up all of the flavours of the broth. This is not a fancy meal by any standards but for its price it is infinitely delicious. If you’re Osaka with a lunch to spare, we recommend stopping off at one of the many Kasuya locations around Osaka to try this for yourself.

Meibutsu Karē Specialty Curry (名物カレー)

It may surprise some people to learn that Japan loves curry, though the Japanese version is a far cry from other curries that most people are used to. Curry is a youshoku ( 洋食), or “western dish”, and became popular in Japan after curry spice powders were introduced by officers of the British Royal Navy in the late 19^th century, when at that time India was under British colonisation. True to Japan’s preference for milder flavours, curry in Japan is more of a brown gravy, often sweetened thanks to the addition of anything from honey to grated apples, and now fully integrated in the Japanese culinary scene.

Meibutsu curry (名物カレー), or “special curry” is a style of serving curry rice that originated in a restaurant in Osaka called Jiyuken (自由軒), which has been open for over 100 years since 1910. The restaurant found that the rice for the curry would cool down before it could be served, so came up with the ingenious solution of mixing the curry and the rice together so that both could be served piping hot.

Jiyuken (自由軒)

This restaurant is not fancy by any means, but is a fixture in the shopping complex near Nanba Station. The inside is very plainly decorated, and the shop is run by a number of pleasant older aunties who are very friendly and accommodating. They have a range of Japanese-style western dishes such as cutlets, omelettes, and curry dishes and the menu is also written in English and Korean. We decided to order the meibutsu curry rice (¥750; US$6.80) as well as the meibutsu haishi raisu (名物ハイシライス), which is rice and tomato-based beef stew mixed in the meibutsu style at ¥700 (US$6.40).

Both dishes come topped with a raw egg, which is very normal in Japan as their exceptionally strict hygiene standards means that raw eggs are safe to eat. For the curry rice, it is recommended to pour on a little bit of Worcestershire sauce over the egg before mixing it into the rice, whereas the haishi does not need the Worcestershire sauce.

Delicious! It is not gourmand food by any standards but it is clearly a very homey comfort food. The curry is very slightly spicy, the flavour is boosted by the savoury Worcestershire sauce, and made very creamy by the raw egg. The grains of rice are plump and chewy, and you can feel individual grains in your mouth rather than being one gluggy clump in the sauce. The haishi sauce mostly tastes of tangy tomatoes, made less acidic by the egg yolk. You can order these dishes with the rice separated as it normally is as well, but the meibutsu style is definitely an interesting way of experiencing curry.

Udon Suki Noodle Soup Hotpot (うどんすき)

Udon suki is a homey dish that originated in Osaka that consists of a combination of two typical Japanese dishes: udon, thick flour-based noodles, and sukiyaki, a soupy hotpot that’s usually cooked at the table with a group of people. Though often not a cheap dish to eat at a restaurant because of the variety of fresh, local ingredients used, it’s a great dish to eat with friends if you’re looking for something warming and filling.

Kawafuku (川福)

Just a couple of minutes’ walk from Shinsaibashi Station is Kawafuku (川福), a restaurant with traditional Japanese dishes that also makes the Osaka specialty of udon suki. This two-storey restaurant consists mostly of the kitchen downstairs and the dining area upstairs, and is well-established as a place to eat udon suki. One portion will set you back ¥3,890 (US$35.30) per person (at least 2 portions or more, minimum 1 portion per person).

It’s clear that Kawafuku takes great pride in the dishes that they make as the hotpot that is used for the udon suki is engraved with their restaurant name, and the carrots sliced in the shape of an owl, which is the animal on their logo. The udon suki comes with a variety of meat, seafood, and vegetables, including several types of mushrooms and cabbage, pumpkin, tofu, prawns, eels, sliced meat, and cubes of sticky rice cakes. There is certainly no shortage of food per portion, and if you’re still hungry at the end that’s when the instore hand-made udon noodles come in, already cooked in a bowl to be dipped into the soup to soak up the flavours of the light broth and the ingredients cooked inside. Though not a particularly cheap meal, it’s clear that there is a lot of thought and care taken when preparing the udon suki. The restaurant also serves a variety of udon noodle dishes both traditional and modern.

Kushikatsu Fried Skewers (串カツ)

An underrated dish in Osaka is kushikatsu, which comprises of skewered meat, vegetables, seafood, or literally anything, battered or crumbed and deep-fried and served either with salt or a Worcestershire-based sauce. There are a variety of ways that kushikatsu can be served and eaten, with many restaurants having their own recipes for batters and sauce. There are restaurants which allow you to deep-fry skewers at your table yourself, though of course there are plenty of places that will do it for you.

Note that there is a lot of etiquette involved with eating kushikatsu. Much like hygiene techniques because Covid-19, these rules are so that the sauce, which is kept at the table, is not contaminated, either with bacteria or other ingredients that could change its taste. These rules may differ from restaurant to restaurant but are typically as follows:

• Don’t double dip your skewers in the sauce, or dip it after you have bitten it;
• If you would like more sauce after you have bitten your skewer, take a leaf of cabbage that is served on the table and use this to scoop and pour sauce onto your skewers;
• If adding salt to your skewers, first move it onto your plate and apply it there, so that salt does not get onto the tray that is used to serve skewers; and
• There is typically a cup or small bucket that is meant for used skewers.

Don’t let these rules freak you out! Kushikatsu is a delicious dish and a great experience.

Kushikatsu Daruma (だるま 新世界総本店)

In the Tsutenkaku area of Osaka, there are countless restaurants that serve kushikatsu, ranging from big, diner-style restaurants that serve other dishes as well, to dinky little mom-and-pop bars that seat only a handful of people. We decided to pay a visit to the original Kushikatsu Daruma, a chain store which started just a couple of minutes’ walk from the Tsutenkaku Tower and allegedly the original restaurant which began the no-double-dipping rule. You can easily recognise Daruma restaurants from the statue of the angry-looking man visible from the street. The restaurant is tiny, consisting of fewer than a dozen seats around a counter from which two chefs cook the skewers and place them directly on a tray in front of the diners to order.

Diners should expect to arrive early and may need to wait for a seat, as we did; we were there for an early dinner but found there were already two ahead of us waiting in a makeshift queue opposite the storefront. The restaurant has menu and explanation cards in multiple languages including English, which explains the background of the dish and the rules of etiquette for eating. Their menu consists of different ingredients which can be ordered by the skewer, as well as some sets which include a number of popular items for a slightly discounted price.

We have no recommendations as to how to eat it – it’s all to the preference of the diner! We ordered skewers on a whim, and thanks to the excellent chefs that hosted us, we were also recommended whether to put salt, pepper, or sauce on each of the skewers we ordered for the optimal experience.

Each restaurant will differ in what items are available so we definitely cannot say one thing is better than another, but for anyone visiting Daruma, our recommendations are the following:

• Cherry tomatoes, for a sweet and sour burst in the mouth
• Quail’s egg, for a chewy egg with a creamy yolk centre
• Mochi glutinous rice cakes, for a tender, melty, chewy experience
• The Daruma 3-set skewer selection (だるまの厳選串３本セット), which consists of A4 Wagyu beef, Iberico pork, and hanamidori chicken
• Maguro (まぐろ) tuna under recommendation from the chefs themselves, which we had expected to be dry and bland but turned out to be juicy, tender, flaky, and possibly the best thing we ate that night

We also ordered doteyaki (どて焼き), a dish consisting of beef and tendons simmered in a sweet soy sauce, which was absolutely delicious, and another local specialty of Osaka. We spent a total of ¥3,993 (US$36.20) between the two of us, which considering we’re small eaters and don’t drink, is definitely on the lower end of what you might expect to spend.

Kushikatsu was one of our favourite dining experiences in Osaka, and Daruma was an amazing place to do it. We highly recommend the restaurant, though try to go outside of meal times to avoid the crowd! This is definitely the twins’ pick for a must-try dish in Osaka.

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