¥¥¥French
‘Kuude’ is ‘let’s eat’ in Osaka dialect, the chef’s nickname is Kiyo, and the whole name has a French sound to it. A colour scheme of bright blue and green declares the shop’s freedom from convention. The theme is ‘unforgettable cuisine’: each dish features no more than three items, arrangements are minimal, and portions are generous. At lunchtime, set meals of Western items paired with rice and miso soup make ku:de kiyo a local favourite.
¥¥¥Japanese
The restaurant weaves the culture and traditional ceremonies of Japan into its menu. In the seventh lunar month, to celebrate Tanabata, the Star Festival, wanmono is served in lacquer bowls featuring the Milky Way in powdered precious metal. Other tableware also reflects the seasons. One wanmono item features a pairing of hamo and samatsu mushroom in a dish that recalls the tale of Hikoboshi and Orihime: the stars Altair and Vega, two lovers destined to meet but once a year. Sweets include umegae mochi, from Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka. Tea from the Yame area of Fukuoka is served in hom
¥¥¥French
Tadashi Michino has been a driving force in Kansai’s French-restaurant community, powered by his avant-garde spirit. Michino ran a restaurant focused on vegetables before his current project, in which he partners with a biologist to explore the future of food. ‘Tourbillon’ means ‘whirlwind’. Being a chef is life itself, he says, and he is determined to always be a fresh wind that stirs up change and moves people’s souls.
¥¥¥Japanese
‘Flavour first’ is the watchword at this kappo-style restaurant, where food is prepared before your eyes. The chef also serves generous helpings of smiles and conversation. Orders are placed in kaiseki fashion but varied by the mood of the day and guest preference. ‘Shinjo o hakari, ninjo wo kurau’— words from the restaurant where the chef apprenticed, serves as an exhortation to be thankful for the good fortune of providing what the diner desires. The craftsman spirit of a Naniwa (Osaka) kappo is enshrined in the name.
¥¥¥Sushi
The delightfully varied omakase menu begins with a snack. Bright perilla spikes and grilled soy marinated fish show the chef’s experience. Nigiri is painstakingly crafted, sparing neither effort nor inventiveness. Clams are broiled to a pungent fragrance, sweet shrimp comes with roe marinated in soy sauce. The vinegar for the rice is coupled with roasted sesame seeds for an inviting aroma. The name means ‘sushi smile’, conveying the chef’s desire that patrons enjoy the restaurant in a relaxed mood.
¥¥Spanish
‘Óptimo’ means ‘best’ or ‘ideal’. With the warmth of its interior and service, the restaurant aims to be the best place for guests to dine. The diverse range of dining styles—tapas, à la carte, prix fixe—aims to ensure the ideal experience for each guest. Favourites here include a richly flavoured gratin of crab and callos, which is a stew of simmered honeycomb tripe and beans. Rice dishes simmered in a savoury broth, such as ‘arroz meloso’ and ‘arroz caldoso’, are also crowd-pleasers.
¥¥¥Tempura
In his tempura creations, Dai Urakami prizes lightness above all. Frying in light safflower oil brings the flavour of each piece to the fore. The meal begins with two tiger prawns. To ensure that the sweetness of the flesh makes an impression, fragrant prawn legs are served afterward. Tempura items such as abalone and milt are imaginatively paired with vinegared rice stuffed with sea urchin. The painting of Mount Fuji on the wall reminds Urakami always to seek greater heights.
¥¥¥French
The meaning behind the name ‘Artisan’ is twofold. Firstly, it reflects the career of the chef, who left carpentry to take up cooking. Secondly, it denotes respect for farmers, fishermen and potters. A devoted fan of a popular Japanese manga, the chef wears its protagonist’s trademark straw hat on his back, as he sees himself in that character. Duck in pie crust, dubbed ‘Shinjidai’ (‘New Age’), resembles the prow of a pirate ship, showcasing his artistry. Humorous sensibility and skills polished in Paris shine through.
¥¥¥Italian
A small light shines from a back alley. The restaurant’s name means ‘firefly’, and the chef’s sunny smile lights up the spirits of his guests. The fare is Italian, yet Japanese sensibility lives within it. Counter seating is kappo-influenced, while the charcoal grill reflects use of longstanding Japanese methods. Japanese and Western serving-ware are used to suit each dish; the chef personally repairing pottery with kintsugi gold and lacquer comes from the Japanese spirit. Many customers frequent La Lucciola to enjoy the presence of the good-humoured chef.
¥¥¥Japanese
Do everything to the best of your ability, his mentor taught him. The chef takes those words to heart, channelling all his skills to offer fresh-from-the-grill aromas and flavours. The menu strikes a delightful balance between seasonal fare and creative cuisine. New items are constantly added, rewarding every visit with fresh sensations. Eager to satisfy expectations, the chef caters to diners’ preferences, adjusting portions to focus on customer satisfaction.
¥¥¥Tempura
Boxed sea urchins, foods from both land and sea, and tempura to start. The tempura, fried in blended oil, is light and airy. The secret is in the batter: to reduce gluten, wheat flour is chilled to below freezing before frying. One inventive dish is tempura of sea urchin and nori seaweed. Combinations are delightful, including eel grilled without seasoning then brushed with wasabi, and Orient clams dressed with pepper flowers.
¥¥¥Chinese
Jiang Nan Chun, meaning ‘springtime in Jiangnan,’ is borrowed from a four-line poem of the Tang dynasty. The chandelier with its plum motif symbolically echoes this poem of early spring. From its perch on a high floor of a tall building, the restaurant offers sweeping views of the Osaka cityscape. The chef, a native of Hong Kong, exercises his talents in traditional Cantonese cuisine. Deferring to yum cha tradition, dim sum is served at lunchtime only. Seasonal fare, served prix fixe only, is a delight.
¥¥¥Italian
QUINTOCANTO is a cucina creativa, respectful of Italian tradition yet creative. The chef delves deep into Italian hometown cooking and presents his results with a contemporary feel. While offering perennial favourites such as Catalana of foie gras and spaghetti pomodoro, the restaurant is always conjuring new and creative menu items. Like every restaurant managed by the Salone Group, QUINTOCANTO strives to be a salon that provides guests with graceful service.
¥¥¥Tempura
Helping his mother with the cooking as a little boy was the chef’s gateway into the world of Japanese cuisine. He learned the craft at a hotel, where he was entrusted with tempura; later he went independent, fulfilling his dream. The sign was written by his mother, a calligraphy instructor. The chef’s aim is to serve tempura so light, you wouldn’t know it’s deep-fried. Pieces are lightly coated and aromatic when fried. Points of pride include tempura using sea urchin and nori, as well as wagyu beef fillet wrapped in perilla leaf.
¥¥¥Yakitori
The restaurant stands on the site of Yakitori Ichimatsu, the restaurant where the chef apprenticed, hence the name – a word formed by taking one character from Ichimatsu and one from the word meaning ‘hometown’. The omakase menu begins with flavour-rich chicken ham. Seasoning shifts from salty to sweet dipping sauce, offering a variation from light to rich flavours. Yakitori chicken is delicate, gauged according to the size of the chunks when bitten and the texture on the teeth.
¥¥¥French
Tables sparkling in the light of opulent chandeliers. Taking ‘classic modern’ as his theme, the chef jealously guards traditional techniques while incorporating Japanese ingredients: French cuisine, but à la japonaise. Thus, he also uses a Japanese-style dashi made from kombu and katsuo. ‘Varier’ is French for ‘to change’, expressing how ingredients shift with the seasons, and the changes to the aroma and flavour of each dish. Crockery, much of which is Mino ware, is richly varied.
¥¥¥French
The chef and sommelier, who apprenticed at the same restaurant, opened this place together. Their aim is to present French cuisine that conveys Japan’s climate and culture. They pursue originality by applying French technique to Japanese ingredients in season. The menu is written vertically, inspired by kaiseki. Pairings with Japanese tea spring from the house’s Japanese soul. Le Progrès is a restaurant that ‘progresses’ through the passion of its two partners.
¥¥¥Japanese
The menu, incorporating seasonal ingredients when available, changes each month. The head chef, whose passion is cuisine that sparks conversation, respects tradition while sneaking a little playfulness into his menus. Even familiar items are presented with ingenuity: the crab croquettes, for example, are suffused with the aroma of toasted crab shells to add the flavour of baked crab to the creamy fillings. The counter features sleek, modern design and five private rooms are available. Guests are graciously attended by kimono-clad staff.
¥¥¥Japanese
The interior of the restaurant, an old family home, exudes warmth. The affable owner-chef, Koji Kawahara, is creative too, as his menu abounds with ingenuity. Rishiri kombu kelp is used only for soup dishes, ensuring an elegantly flavoursome broth. In cooked items, however, ma-kombu is favoured, to bring out flavour. In an innovative touch, fish is marinated in miso before frying. An assortment of items come together in a single dish, creating a unique expression that adds variety to the meal.
¥¥¥Japanese
The owner-chef prizes nothing more than the temperature and aroma of his cooking. All dishes are prepared and served fresh, so counter seating is arranged around the preparation surface. In a twist, the sashimi is served with unconventional dressings such as nori seaweed soy sauce and monkfish liver with ponzu. Char-grilled beef and, in winter, shabu-shabu of bear and boar are prepared in front of customers. To finish, a selection of takikomi-gohan, rice seasoned with various ingredients, allows diners to enjoy comparing flavours.
¥¥¥Kushiage
Kitashinchi Kushikatsu Bon serves skewers of unstinting luxury, including chateaubriand and foie gras. Creative combinations of delicacies, such as ‘pregnant kombu’ (kombu kelp with Pacific herring roe attached) with sea urchin and caviar or name-brand pork with truffles, are especially fun. To ensure a light palate, items are coated in powder-fine breadcrumbs and deep-fried in cottonseed oil. Osaka soul food, enriched with uniquely conceived ingredients.
¥¥¥Japanese
Looking at the extensive menu, it’s fun to ask the chef which items he recommends. The cuisine runs the gamut from old-school Japanese to creative Western dishes. Grilled celery with vinegar and miso dressing, bite-sized beef cutlets and crab cream croquettes are popular year-round. Like an Osaka kappo, the chef is happy to adjust salt and portion size to suit customer tastes; like a ryotei, items are beautifully plated on attractive serving-ware.
¥¥¥Chinese
In this Chinese restaurant, Japan’s famous wagyu beef is the star. ‘Wagyu Chugoku-sai’ means ‘Chinese cuisine made with wagyu’, and the restaurant has created unique prix fixe offerings with that theme. The chef, who has studied Japanese cuisine, draws on extensive experience to challenge tradition. Ingredients at their peak are woven into the menu to capture a sense of each season. Char-grilled chateaubriand is wrapped in Peking duck pancakes. Building on Chinese techniques, the cuisine weaves Japanese and Western influences to create its own new and unique style of Chinese cooking.
¥¥¥French
The chef layers Japanese elements over French cuisine. Insisting on only the finest Japan-grown ingredients in season, he uses kombu dashi and soy sauce as subtle accents of flavour. The chef values knowing the people behind his produce, and deepens his ties with them, while crockery and cutlery are specially commissioned from artisans. The restaurant name is French for ‘memories’, reflecting the chef’s desire to make it a place that recalls the happiness of chatting contently around a dining table.
¥¥¥Japanese
‘Naniwa’ is an old name for Osaka; ‘kappo’ derives from the words meaning to chop and cook ingredients. And to convey the character of Osaka people and the foods they love, the ‘Naniwa kappo’ was born. That spirit living on through the extensive menu reflects Osaka’s culinary ethos of preserving the native flavours of ingredients while pursuing the preferences of guests. Being spoilt for choice, unable to decide which of many tempting choices to order, is all part of the fun.
¥¥¥Sushi
The focus is on à la carte out of a desire to be customers’ regular haunt. Fish is carefully prepared, with red vinegar for the sushi rice, in deference to the history of nigiri. White-fleshed fish is pressed between sheets of kombu; sweet shrimp is marinated with miso for an added twist. In response to customer requests for lighter flavours, young onion sprouts and cabbage are offered as toppings. ‘Shinkan’ in the name means, very roughly, ‘pouring my heart into every morsel of sushi’.
¥¥¥Chinese
The characters on the sign read ‘tàocān’, meaning ‘set menu’ in Chinese. Keen to become their customers’ habitual haunt, Yiwanshui serves Chinese home cooking. Jiǔ cǎi pén, served at lunch, features a colourful appetiser platter showcasing nine different dishes. The approach here is to use familiar ingredients and take the time and effort to bring their native goodness to the fore. A light touch on the oil and seasonings makes the fare easy on the constitution and places natural flavours front and centre.
¥¥¥Steakhouse
The steaks at Kitashinchi Fukutatei are grilled by the double action of Bincho charcoal flame stoked in a furnace and far-infrared photothermal heat. Beef is Japanese Black wagyu, heifer only. Tasting and comparing different cuts, such as tenderloin, rump and aitchbone, is part of the fun. To ensure you fully enjoy the fragrant, delicate quality of the meat, seasoning is limited to salt and pepper. While the meat is being patiently grilled, tuck into wagyu consommé soup and appetisers.
¥¥¥Contemporary
Drawing from experience in Italian and French cuisine as well as pastries, RiVi creates a genre-less cuisine. It is a dialogue between Japanese cuisine, the influence of the chef’s birth and upbringing, and the Western cultures he admires. As his craft is always evolving, he has no standard dishes. The theme of the first half of the prix fixe menu is a celebration of all things Osaka. The meal finishes with seasonal mixed rice because he wants his guests to taste it with the bowl in their hand. Crockery created by an artisan adds beauty to the presentation.
¥¥Yakitori
Only prix fixe menus using chicken from Kyushu, prized for its quality, richness and texture, are available. Appetisers and stews, served first, are meticulously prepared, worthy of a much more formal restaurant. Zucchini smothered in Italian cheese suggests snow-clad landscapes of purest white. Chicken wings are lightly scored to make them easier to eat. A serving of white rice brings the meal to a close.
¥¥¥Italian
Masaaki Fujita reaches deep into the character and history of Japan and Italy to conjure his cuisine. Eel, Chinese yam and red rice on a single plate fuse the gustatory senses of the two countries, both rooted deeply in cultures of river fish and rice. Zest of Japanese pepper married with the bittersweet of red wine sauce is somehow nostalgic. Fujita’s motto is ‘to be master of one is to be master of all’. His long study of hometown cooking followed by his own innovations proves the point.
¥¥¥Japanese
The lively mingling of guests and staff mirrors the bustle of Kitashinchi. The chef reads out the orders to his cooks, who rush to fulfil them. The packed menu promises the joy of many choices as only a kappo can. Pike conger in summer and pufferfish in winter are renowned fare. Eel, a popular standard, is served at lunchtime over rice in a lacquered box or in a bowl of rice topped with egg. The shop lives up to its founder’s motto: ‘Anyone, as they please, anytime’.
¥¥¥Oden
Man-u’s ingenious oden, which borrows from other Japanese cuisines, is a whirlwind of flavour changes. Items are selected from a large pot and paired with condiments and broth to bring different flavours to the fore. Beef sinew is cooked with green onions; octopus is paired with unripe pepper. Clams, wakame seaweed with bamboo shoots, and pike conger with matsutake mushrooms are served as soup dishes. Lettuce, tomato and figs dressed with starchy dashi soup stock sauce provide interesting alternatives. Painstaking preparation results in an oden with a unique finish.