Osaka Food Guide

We spent a fortnight in Japan’s kitchen to prepare the ultimate Osaka food guide with our favorite Osaka street food and some not-to-miss Osaka restaurants. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it!

Let’s just get it out in the open – we love Osaka. To outsiders of Japan, Osaka lives in the shadow of Megacity Tokyo and historic Kyoto. The food options in these cities are great – some of the best in the world.

Osakans take their food love to an even higher level of obsession with the concept of “kuidaore” where people literally eat until they drop. Yes, food is that important in Osaka and it shouts to be eaten from every street corner vendor and hidden noodle shop.

Discover the best food to eat in Japan.

Many people visit Japan to see the temples, the geishas and the castles. While we enjoy those sites, we love day-to-day modern Japanese culture even more.

From the giant railway complexes littered with 10 story department stores to the tiny ramen shops that are tucked away deep in the drab basements of those very same train stations, modern Japan is a feast that never lets up.

Osaka is everything we love about Japan – wonderful people who literally walk you to their favorite restaurant around the block, long shopping streets that seem to never end and dimly lit, restaurant filled alleys.

Tour Idea
Click here to book a 4-hour Downtown Osaka and Local Food Walk Tour where you can see sites and taste local Osaka Japan food favorites.

Many of these restaurants are lit with big neon signs. Others are Osaka hidden gems, hiding in plain sight. They’re all the reason that ‘Japan’s Kitchen’ is one of the best food cities in the world.

Osaka Food Guide | What and Where to Eat in Osaka

Are you wondering what to eat in Osaka? We tackled the tasty challenge of creating our Osaka Japan dining guide through a combination of advance research of how Osaka eats and on-the-ground reconnaissance where we scoured the internet, talked to locals (through the extraordinary power of Google Translate) and followed our noses.

36 meals and many snacks later, we are proud to present an Osaka guide that is perfect for visitors and also has a surprise or two for residents, even those with an Osaka food blog.

Osaka Street Food

Osaka is infamous for its snack food. Streets like Dontonbori and Ota-Road are teeming with vendors selling a myriad of fried treats, and some of the best restaurants in Osaka Japan are actually street food vendors.

While “researching” the best food in Osaka, we found many favorites plus some new treats like the Pombashi rice dog, a hot dog encased in a fried Japanese rice batter. We also discovered that the Japanese love to reinvent treats with fried batter as witnessed by the strange batter-fried heads pictured above.

If you’re looking for the best places to eat in Osaka that won’t break the bank, we recommend starting on the street. Not only is Osaka street food tasty, but it’s also some of the best cheap food in Osaka.

Takoyaki

Osaka first hit our radar as the home of takoyaki. For the unfamiliar, tayokai are little dough balls stuffed with octopus and topped with savory sauce, mayonnaise, seaweed and katsuobushi flakes.

Okonomiyaki

Taiyaki

Okonomiyaki Taiyaki

Trust the Japanese to combine two great snack foods into an even greater snack food. The folks at Kogasin created the Okonomiyaki Taiyaki to create a fish-shaped sandwich with cabbage and meat in the middle. Or, as we like to call them – crazy fun pancakes.

Tako Tamago

On the odd occasion when we eat lollipops in the USA, we choose among flavors like cherry and lemon. In Osaka, however, our lollipop of choice is glazed baby octopus stuffed with quail eggs.

Tamago Katsu Sando

Considering all the snack food we ate in Osaka, we never expected one of our favorites to be a breaded egg sandwich. Yes, a breaded egg sandwich.

Osaka Sushi

Maguroya Kurogin at the Kuromon Ichiba, a central market for Osaka shopping, sells some of the world’s freshest tuna. You can witness the fish being sliced all day and served in luscious pink blocks or chirashi-style topped with popping good salmon eggs over rice. If you’re lucky enough to get a seat at the stand’s small counter, you may even be offered free slices of otoro. Do not turn this offer down.

We first encountered Kizu-Ichiba fish market just south of Namba through a wrong turn while walking to our favorite coffee shop. Once there, it only seemed logical that a down to earth sushi counter like Maruyoshi would sit at the market’s entrance. This is the kind of shop where market employees sit, cigarettes dangling from their mouths, as they enjoy some of the freshest, most affordable sushi in town.

Do not miss the gargantuan eel nigiri. Maruyoshi’s fatty, savory eel will make you think twice about what your favorite fish may be on a sushi plate. As we say in our video, this is two-bite sushi even though somehow Daryl managed to fit the luscious eel rice combo in his mouth in one big bite.

Osaka Ramen

Once you find 7.5 Hz under one of the many nondescript modern buildings in Umeda, you will be rewarded with takaida-kei ramen – thick, hearty, al dente noodles served in an addictively salty beef broth along with a soft-boiled egg topped with large scallions. Ramen at this quiet counter is serious business, and the energy-packed noodles will satisfy your appetite for days.

Sometimes you just need to ask a local for food advice in Japan. In our case, that question resulted in one of the friendly staffers from nearby Brooklyn Roasting Company (see below) guiding us on a two-block walk on a brisk Osaka evening to Ryukishin. Once there, we noticed the line snaking from the ramen counter’s front door – always a good sign.

Osaka Udon

Yamato, a tiny udon shop located at the Kizu-Ichiba fish market, serves one thing and serves it well. We first noticed this tiny gem when we were eating sushi at Maruyoshi just next door. Actually, we couldn’t help but notice Yamato because the line outside was literally ou the door and down the sidewalk.

We understood the line when we went to Yamato for our very last Osaka meal which we ate before flying to London via Helsinki. The restaurant opens at 5 am.

Yakiniku (Grilled Meat)

The word yakiniku literally translates to grilled meat, but that’s just part of the Osaka dining story when it comes to meat. Yakiniku is THE way to eat kobe beef in Osaka. A yakiniku dinner involves grilling meat on a tableside gridiron in a style more typical in Korean cities like Seoul and Busan.

Food is not cheap at an Osaka steakhouse, but Yakiniku is an essential way to eat in Osaka. It’s also a fun way to dine with friends on a Saturday night, which is what we did at a restaurant called Tsuruichi.

Osaka Kushikatsu

Why eat hamburgers in Osaka when you can eat katsu, deep fried chicken cutlet strips served over rice? If you love meat on a stick, then you’ll love kushikatsu which takes meat on a stick to the next level by frying it and serving it with a dipping sauce.

Osaka Drinks

We were surprised to find a thriving Osaka bar scene and even more surprised to find third wave coffee shops. The following are our favorite spots to drink in Osaka.

Cocktails, Beer and Japanese Oddities

It’s a known fact that the Japanese love kitsch. This love is visible in anime and manga art, at maid cafes and at Mr. Kanso, a chain of quirky bars that serve a variety of food from cans. Ironically, the beer is served from a tap. Go figure.

We were intrigued by the concept but were less enamored by delicacies like canned scallops. It’s a fun stop during a night out in Osaka, though we recommend sticking with beer. You can eat great Osaka must eat food like ramen and sushi later.

Craft Beer in Osaka

Lager beer is cheap and plentiful in Osaka. Though it goes well with food like ramen and sushi, sometimes we want something more.

Osaka Coffee Houses

One of our first priorities whenever we arrive in a city is to find a good coffee bar, preferably one of the third wave variety. These coffee bars not only serve as our sources of liquid energy but also as workspaces and ways to connect with the community.

We discovered Brooklyn Roasting Company on our first full day in Osaka – we liked it so much that we returned most of the following 11 days of our visit. This coffee bar has it all – good coffee, solid pastries, plenty of electrical outlets and friendly people on both sides of the counter.

Vending Machine Beverages

Osaka Restaurant FAQs

Things To Do in Osaka

Original Publication Date: November 18, 2016