Osaka is one of the places you can always come back to for it being labeled as the kitchen of Japan. I am not going to spend too much time on the tourist sites as you can find them in most guides. I will focus on the little nice restaurants we found and also surrounding onsen ideas.
Accomodations (Updated: Nov 2023)
You are never short of options in Japan for it been such a clean country. There are plenty of options around Dōtonbori (Main Toiurist Area), so all you have to think about is your priorities as it can get quite expensive during peak seasons. I have decided to stay at the Cross Hotel Osaka this time. The location is perfect and it has a genereous bath and showroom seperate to the toilet. The room is also larger and newer compared to other hotels such as the Holiday Inn 5 mins away. I was staying in a room which offer breakfast and their lounge access, which provides free snacks and alcohol during certain period. However if you are in Osaka I dont know why you would like to waste time here for hotel food.
Restaurants
Japanese has come a long way since their olympics and many restaurants are now able to be reserved online. I would recommend you to book all the restaurants you would like to visit as it is getting harder and harder to get reservations.
DEARBROS.ディアブロ道頓堀千日前店 (Updated: Nov 2023)
Osaka is a late night city so you will be hungry at some point in the night. This is a great joint to people watch, have a beer and order yourself some made-to-order japanese fried chicken (Karaage).
Sumibiyaki Unagi no Nedoko / 炭火焼寝床 心斎橋本店 (Updated: Nov 2023)
This is hands down my favourite find of the trip. Japanese Grilled Eel (Unagi) Rice has 2 types, one is grilled with the sweet sauce on top and the other one is crispy grill and a light sauce directly on the rice. This restaurant is specialised in the latter. The eel was grilled to order and the wait is around 25mins from ordering. It was crispy yet had such soft texture. It was certainly worth the wait and the place got filled up pretty quickly so either book in advance or go early at 11:30am like I did. They have an english menu as well.
Kibitaki / 炭火焼鳥きびたき (Updated: Nov 2023)
This is another hidden gem for Yakitori (Japanese Skewer BBQ) where the main focus is chicken. They have set menus and also a la carte so it really depends if you really know what you want. The experience was great and staff was friendly and helpful with the lack of english, however again they have an English menu available. I ordered the omakase set which you can also choose how well done you would like your chicken. Japanese has bred specific chicken which you camn eat raw so if you are up for it you should definitely try chicken sashimi. There was certainly enough food but the chef was serving a little bit too quickly, so I would recommend you go a la carte along the way so slow things down.
Kadoya Shokudo / 中華そば カドヤ食堂 総本店 (Updated: Nov 2023)
Voted No.1 domestically in Osaka as the best ramen store, this Ramen Shop is the original OG. This eatary opens at 11:00am and on the Sunday I arrived at 11:15am and I had to wait 2 hrs before I got seated. The store speciallied in their black pork charshu either in the traditional ramen soup form or the Tsukemen where you have to dip the noodle into the soup before eating. You can choose the portion S/M/L and add an Egg, however you cannot order extra charshu. This place is so particular in their technique and ingridients they have a menu on the table just to tell you which each came from. You can also buy their repacked noodles as they make for great souvenirs.
Watanabe Cafe Shinsaibashi / 渡邊咖喱 心斎橋店 (Updated: Nov 2023)
This is not your usual Japanese sweet curry. This chain is famous for their light indian style curry but with a strong Japanese inflence.
やきとり味鳥 / Midori
This is a husband and wife run Izakaya specialised in Japanese Chicken Skewer. The son has recently quit his job to help out and he is the one that speaks English. This is very much a local joint and it is hard to get a table walking in. I would suggest you to book it via your hotel but do note a lot of small restaurants in Japan do not allow hotel reservations.
鮨さえ㐂 / Sushi Saeki (Closed)
This is really just for me to brag as this restaurant takes about half a year to book and it is no longer here. Mr. Saeki has moved to Kyoto for a slightly quieter life. I believe he has recently been recruited to work at one of the top hotels in Tokyo but thats still to be confirmed. They specialised in serving sushi with innovative preparations and techniques.
La Cime
A fine-dining gem in Osaka serving modern French with freshest Japanese ingredients. We came here for lunch and it was still a 7-9 course affair. I would recommend this as the pricing was really good for the quality of food but I do believe they have increased their pricing recently.
網元 本館 / Amimoto Bekkan
Amimoto Bekkan is the upscale branch of the famous 蟹道樂/Kani Douraku group serving seasonal Crab banquet. They have 2 locations of Amimoto Bekkan in Osaka but obviously try to go to the original store. They are great for tourists as not only you can book online, all the tables have individual booths set in a traditional Japanese garden interior. It is a restaurant that I refuse to miss if I go to Osaka. Crab is expensive in Japan so I would recommend you to have lunch here. I honestly don't think you can tell the difference. Don't worry about ordering as they have plenty of set meals which is what I normally order as well. You would want yo order the set for the full experience.
Pablo
Pablo is a chain dessert restaurant serving cheese based pastry and the locals are mad for it. They do tend to sell out of their popular dishes quite quickly so go early.
On-Yasai / 溫野菜
This place is known for their all you can eat hotpot. They have a branch in Hong Kong as well but the ones in Japan offers way better quality and its also cheaper!
Around Osaka
Arima Onsen is a hillside onsen town 1.5hr (bus) from Osaka. If you are planning to travel to other places after Osaka, Umeda is a good area to stay in for its good transportation links. Taxis in Japan is super expensive after all. For a town this size I would recommend you to stay no more than 2 nights here as there is really not much to do but to walk around the relaxing town. We stayed at the Tocen Goshoboh. This is one of the closest Ryokan to the town centre and is great for onsen first timers and couples. Most onsens have separate male and female side which is totally block off from each other. However at Tocen Goshoboh, although small, the male and female onsen are connected by a sloping wall down to shoulder height. You can have a face to face conversation at the low wall end and should there be other guests in the area you can move towards the higher wall end to be more discreet. We chose half-board for our stay and for lunch we went for Ramen at 青龍居 close to the Arimaonsen train station as you walk towards it. It is ok as there are not many ramen options in the area.
Rugby and Late Night (Updated: Nov 2023)
The 2024 Paris Olymipic Rugby 7 Qualifier was happening in Japanese so I decided to go support our boys as there were playing in Osaka at the same time. It was a shame that they did not go through this time but it was a solid efford from the boys. We also visited Murphys Bar for a 'few'.
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