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August 15, 2024
 

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OSAKA RESTAURANTS

Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Feb 26, 2016
Oimatsu Kitagawa: A moment of calm in a swirling galaxy of Michelin stars
Toru Kitagawa, the chef and owner of Oimatsu Kitagawa, has a casual air about him that borders on insouciance — an air that belies the imagination, creativity and earnestness of his cooking. Perhaps this equanimity is an Osaka trait, but it could just have easily been cultivated at Gion Sasaki, the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Feb 26, 2016
Gokan: Tea and cake for modernist samurai
In Kitahama, just north of Umeda, there are two rather stately teahouses within cake-throwing distance of each other. Kitahama Retro is where you'll want to go if you like crustless cucumber sandwiches, afternoon tea and Edwardian cosplay. But don't let the pretense fool you, it's a great teahouse.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jan 29, 2016
Rikyu: Playing games with traditional 'kaiseki' cuisine
Tsukasa Yamaguchi likes to play. But not much of what he does behind the counter of Rikyo, which he opened nearly two years ago, suggests this. Like many of his contemporaries working in haute cuisine restaurants, Yamaguchi has the manner and intensity of a surgeon. If you look closely, you'll see his...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jan 29, 2016
Kashmir: An austere setting for a flamboyant curry
Let's start on the street. That's where I waited in line for an hour before moving to a dark, narrow hallway for another hour of waiting. At infrequent intervals the door to Kashmir would open, allowing in customers and expelling the spicy aromas from within.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Dec 25, 2015
Kurosugi: A fish doesn't need to be sexy when it's sublime
Without a doubt the worst-named restaurant of the year is London's "Sexy Fish." But, the name — the audacity and stupidity of it — did set me thinking about fish seafood and sexiness (as opposed to fish and sex). Can a fish be sexy? Certainly not. When thinking about fish, "sexy" is one of those...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Dec 25, 2015
Wai Tan Hong Lu Deng: Rowdy waiters and sizzling dumplings
Tenma is one of the best spots in Osaka for food and drink, especially street eats. Japan's longest shōtengai (indoor arcade) bisects this eating area, along which there are dozens of restaurants and stalls, serving local savory treats. But get off the main drag and there's even more to offer. A word...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Nov 27, 2015
Aozora Blue: Where perfectly simple udon noodles get the spotlight
Ramen, soba and udon are the trinity of Japan's noodles, though it can sometimes feel as if the last one on that list is underappreciated. Ramen has followed sushi down the path of global domination — no doubt helped by instant ramen's popularity — and buckwheat soba noodles can swing from low to...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Nov 27, 2015
Tashinami: Seasonal Japanese dining at a tiny horseshoe-shaped counter
Located in the bowels of Osaka Station City, Tashinami only has room for about eight diners at its horseshoe-shaped counter. All that separates you from the surrounding shops in the basement food hall is a see-through beaded curtain, meaning you, as well as what you eat, are on show. Furthermore, owing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Oct 23, 2015
Kaishoku Shimizu: Slow kaiseki dining, watched over by Van Gogh
Across from Osaka's Van Gogh museum is Kaishoku Shimizu, a Japanese multicourse restaurant with a facade that looks small enough to squeeze onto a canvas. Between the counter and the two tables it can accommodate 15 diners, which may be a decent amount for restaurants of this kind but good luck trying...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Oct 23, 2015
A La Campagne: A patisserie lacking a little 'je ne sais quoi'
A La Campagne, or "in the countryside" is a loosely French-themed chain of patisseries and cafes. The first shop opened in the sweet-toothed city of Kobe in 1984 and since then they have been sprouting up all over Japan. On a recent sojourn to Osaka, I popped into the branch in the city's Shinsaibashi...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Sep 25, 2015
Kagaman makes lunch a personal experience
Although I frequently dine alone while reviewing, I'm rarely alone, in the true sense. Especially at kappō, or counter-style restaurants, where there's a miscellany of worthwhile distractions and on occasion small talk.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Sep 25, 2015
Expect an open-air courtyard and some wine when you pull up to the garage
Even though it's called Garage, this eatery is probably better described as a shack. On weekdays, during lunch and after work, the clientele is mostly drawn from the surrounding offices, but on weekends the crowd is not as uniform.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Aug 21, 2015
Takama: Affordably luxurious soba lunches
It would be easy to breeze past the understated exterior of soba restaurant Takama without ever realizing what's inside, but that would be unfortunate — especially if you like soba. Michelin-starred Takama is located on the same street that leads into Tenjinbashisuji Shotengai, one of Japan's — if...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Aug 21, 2015
Olivier le Francois: Kitsch French interiors saved by unpretentious home cooking
There's no mistaking where Olivier le Francois takes its inspiration from. One step inside will transport you to what feels like a bistro beside the Seine, replete with tables covered by checkered tablecloths, posters of European movie stars on the walls, wine glasses hanging in rows over the bar and,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jul 24, 2015
Difference: Small but intense challenges served on big plates
Certain foods are like certain songs: they transport you to another time and place. Foie gras always reminds me of Belgium — specifically a wedding I once attended outside Brussels. It was the bride's wish (and command) that all 200-plus guests would eat foie gras, and from that time I've always associated...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jul 24, 2015
Patisserie Ravi,e Relier: Let them eat cake
A short walk from Osaka Station, on the edge of Ogimachi Park, is a petite cake shop called Patisserie Ravi,e Relier, which opened in 2009 and follows the royal maxim "let them eat cake" with an update: "Let them eat cake and drink water." This patisserie serves only cakes and water, but what a sweet...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jun 26, 2015
Rakushin: Austere multicourse dining in a traditional Osaka town house
What does austerity look and feel like? Well, it depends on whom you ask. I imagine for Greeks it’s a sort of endless despair engendering cynicism, but here in Japan, austerity — or, rather, restraint — can engender a sense of luxury, subtlety and even sensuality. Austerity has a long and rich...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jun 26, 2015
A traditional Izakaya as rough and raucous as life on an old fishing trawler
This restaurant is loud, raucous and busy, much like life on a fishing boat, which may or may not be incidental since Isaribi takes its name from the light used to lure fish at night — often seen on trawlers used to catch squid. Isaribi is the original (opened in 1973) of a small chain of robatayakis...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
May 22, 2015
Matsumoto Eiraku's lunch course is a seasonal delight
The establishments around Matsumoto Eiraku in Osaka's Kitashinchi neighborhood have names like La Madonna, Salon de Miyu, Lady Hawk and Blanc de Blanc. This may suggest the restaurant keeps ostentatious company, but you should never judge a building by its marble colonnades; the aesthetic inside is austere...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
May 22, 2015
Owl Family Cafe is fun, unless you're peckish
Let's address the coffee first. It's as good as anything you'll get from a convenience store, which is to say it's not good. At all. The only beer on offer is Budweiser — also known as "The King of Beers." It's not. Budweiser wouldn't even make it past the moat for a royal gathering of beers. There's...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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JNTO promotes sustainable tourism initiatives

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