High end restaurants like Kashiwaya are by far not the end all be all of Osaka’s food scene. Here’s a rundown of the other culinary highlights

Seafood at kuromon 

As a seafood junkie, visiting Kuromon was mandatory. It did not disappoint one bit.

The entire area was lined with restaurants and stalls selling everything from giant prawns and crab to sashimi to these absolute massive oysters and live uni. I definitely had more than my fair share. 

I even got a taste of fugu (blowfish) and grilled eel liver. Both were delicious. 

As a tourist destination, a lot of the items are “expensive” but relative to what I could get in the US or China, everything was absolutely a bargain especially for the quality

Yakitori!

Next on the list of “must eats” is some good yakitori. I had a list of restaurants I wanted to visit courtesy of this restaurant (insert link). Unfortunately we only got to visit Motomi Osaka Nishi and Kuruma (Shinsabashi Branch).

Motomi Osaka Nishi is one of the few places open for lunch (yakitori is more of a late night drinking/ post drink meal) and happens to be only a mile from Osaka castle.

However, there was no yakitori for lunch, only set meals. We also had no idea what the menu said so when a group of regulars walked in a few minutes later, we took what they had: Soy sauce marinated char- grilled chicken thigh for me and fried chicken for dad.

Both were amazing. The chicken was incredibly tender and charred with the perfect balance of salt, sweet and umami from the sauce. I was actually more impressed with the fried chicken. It was thinly coated in a rice flour batter and fried to crispy perfection without a hint of greasiness. I also loved the seasoning. It was too much of a hassle to ask, but there was definitely pepper, paprika and cumin.

We got some proper yakitori at Kuruma, just a block from Dontoburi.

Our strategy was to try one of every type of meat, then reorder what we liked. So, from the left: Chicken meatballs, liver, Heart, chicken and leek, neck meat, outer stomach lining, neck meat with daikon, Pericardium, Gizzard, hip tendon and wings.

There were also some veggies: Oyster mushroom, Shitake and leeks.

Everything was phenomenal- perfectly charred, salted and high quality. We got seconds of the stomach lining, pericardium and hip tendon. If I had it my way, I would have gotten thirds of everything. Alas, there was more to try: house pickles, ponzu marinated liver and the house tofu.

I was similarly impressed with these dishes, in particular, the tofu had a creamy texture and light cheesy taste that I really enjoyed.

One thing I really wanted to try was the chicken sashimi. Unfortunately, they were sold out 😦

Regardless, I’d highly recommend coming here. They have menus in English!

That’s all for the food! I will definitely go back for more in the hopefully not to far future

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