Where to stay

Prices quoted are per night for a double room, without breakfast.
Cross Hotel Currently the hippest place in town, and with good reason. Stylish, comfortable and superbly located close to Dotomburi. Rooms from £125. 2-5- 15 Shinsaibashisuji, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6213 8281, http://crosshotel.com

Hilton Osaka Large, well-equipped rooms in an excellent location near Osaka station. Rooms from £191. 8-8 Umeda 1-chome, Kita-ku, 00 81 6 6347
7111, http://osaka.hilton.com

Hyatt Regency Osaka Large leisure-orientated hotel with spa located on an island in Osaka Bay, accessible by monorail. Enjoy the excellent night vistas from the top-floor Bay Lounge. Rooms from £116. 1-13-11 Nanko-Kita, Suminoe-ku, 00 81 6 6612 1234, http://osaka.regency.hyatt.com

Kaneyoshi Ryokan Friendly, centrally located hotel featuring 15 Japanesestyle tatami (reed mat) rooms with views of Dotomburi canal. Surprisingly quiet, given its location in the hub. Rooms from £96. 3-12 Soemoncho, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6211 6337, http://kaneyosi.jp

Hotel Nikko Osaka No-frills hotel with medium-sized rooms. What this hotel lacks in charm it makes for in its great value and superb location on Midosuji. Rooms from £108. 1-3-3 Nishi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6244 1111, http://jalhotels.com

The New Otani This hotel boasts spacious, comfortable accommodation with grand views of the Osaka Castle and its surrounding park. Rooms from £297. 1-4-1 Shiromi, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6941 1111, http://osaka.newotani.co.jp

St Regis Osaka Opened in October 2010, this luxurious 160-room property has 360-degree views of the city. Rooms from £575. 3-6-12 Honmachi, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6258 3333, http://starwoodhotels.com

Travel Information

The currency is the yen (£1=119JPY). Osaka is 9 hours ahead of GMT. The city has four distinct seasons, with cool winters and mild springs that turn into hot, humid summers. May is the wettest month. Early spring and autumn are the best times to visit, when the climate is mild but not humid, and the seasonal colours are at their most attractive.

Where to eat

Prices are per person for three courses with wine, unless otherwise stated.

Kaishoku Shimizu Classic counter-style restaurant, with the added bonus of a Michelin star. Eight-course dinner menu from £69. 2-13-31 Shimanouchi, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6213 3140

Kinryu Ramen Wildly popular ramen bar on the main street of Midosuji. Has four other branches all around Dotomburi. Noodles from £5. 1-7-13 Namba, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6211 3999

Koryu Chef Shintaro Matsuo oversees this atmospheric restaurant with just 12 counter seats offering uninterrupted views of him working. Well deserving of
its three Michelin stars. Seven-course dinner menu from £83. 1-5-1 Dojima,
Kita-ku, 00 81 6 6347 5660

Kushinobo Hozenji Honten Atmospheric kushikatsu restaurant in an old building filled with Japanese ornaments. Watch chefs prepare skewers from the counter. About £34 per person for an average of 16 skewers. 1-5-6 Namba, Chuo-ku, 00 81 50 5831 2073

Mikan Intimate restaurant on the ground floor of The New Otani (see also Where to stay), serving kushikatsu with fine wines and great views of Osaka Castle. About £48 for an average of 10 skewers. 00 81 6 6949 3295

Okonomiyaki Mizuno Popular okonomiyaki shop in the Sennichimae arcade that serves yama imo (yam) pancakes with scallops and pork. Pancakes from £13. 1-4-15 Dotomburi, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6212 6360,mizuno-osaka.com

Yoshino Sushi Rare hakozushi shop and restaurant. Mixed set from £30. 3-4-14 Awaji-machi, Chuo-ku, 00 81 6 6231 7181, yoshino-sushi.co.jp

Wanaka Takoyaki shop in the Sennichimae arcade, recommended by Toshihiro Shimizu. From £3 for eight pieces. 11-19 Sennichimae, Namba, Chuo-ku

Food Glossary

Hakozushi

Literally ‘box sushi’. Seasoned rice and seafood toppings are pressed into a square mould, then turned out and sliced.

Hamo

Pike conger eel.

Kaiten

‘Conveyor belt’ type of sushi bar.

Kappo

Popular type of restaurant where diners eat at a counter.

Kushikatsu

Meat, seafood and vegetables deep-fried in breadcrumbs.

Matsutake

Highly sought-after pine mushroom.

Naniwa yasai

Heirloom vegetable varieties unique to Osaka and the surrounding region.

Okonomiyaki

Savoury batter pancake usually cooked in front of the customer and topped with meat, squid, octopus, vegetables, cabbage, sauce, seaweed and bonito shavings

Ramen

Chinese-style wheat noodles.

Shiso

(perilla) Green and red varieties exist; the green variety is often served with sashimi and tastes of basil and mint.

Sudachi

Sharp citrus fruit.

Takoyaki

Octopus pieces in balls of batter, usually topped with a viscous vegetable sauce, bonito flakes and strips of laver.

Tonkotsu

Simmered belly of pork.

Togan

(winter melon) Large gourd used to make soups.

Udon

Wheat-flour noodles popular throughout Japan. Osakan udon is served softer and in a lighter broth than that of Tokyo.

Food and Travel Review

The first subway train pulls into Namba station, beneath a rainbow of flashing neon; it’s about 5am, and already the queue at Kinryu Ramen, on Midosuji Street, is growing. Here in Dotomburi – the brash, pulsating heart of central Osaka – nights end and days begin like this. Off-duty taxi drivers on their way home; sleepy office workers on their way to work; hip youngsters returning from a night out; all are lured by the steam and enticing aroma of a salty, satisfying bowl of wheat-flour noodles served at the orange Formica bar. There’s just one dish on the menu – a light tonkotsu (pork) ramen – the only thing the restaurant has served throughout its 29-year existence.

This is not unusual. Osaka, Japan’s third-largest city and the working hub of Honshu’s Kansai region, is a place where people love to eat. Sprawling west to Kobe and north and east towards mountains that separate it from the ancient capitals of Kyoto and Nara, the metropolis has long been one of the country’s most important trading ports – indeed, it was the first area of Japan to be settled in 7,000 BC. After growing prosperous from trade with China and Korea during the 18th and 19th centuries, Osaka later became home to a flourishing arts scene. Many forms of Japanese theatre, including noh and kabuki were developed here – and even now Osakans enjoy a reputation for being outgoing and a bit theatrical.

Today visitors are drawn to this vibrant city by its numerous art galleries and theatres; Osaka Castle, whose grounds are engulfed by the pink blossoms of 4,000 cherry trees every spring; and the many other charms of a place where people are out to have fun, at any time of the day or night. Especially when it comes to food. Its 18 million residents tuck into everything from fast food, such as takoyaki (octopus in balls of batter) and okonomiyaki (savoury pancake) to Michelin-starred fine dining at 60,000-plus eateries. Families chatter in the colourful Kansai dialect as they slurp down Osakan udon (wheat flour noodles), which is softer, and served in a lighter broth, than the Tokyo version. Friends catch up in the entertainment district over round after round of kushikatsu (skewers of deep-fried meat), while, in the upscale restaurants of the northern business district, salarymen entertain clients.

Locals have an old saying that while people in nearby Kyoto may bankrupt themselves buying kimono, people in Osaka go bankrupt through gluttony. So ubiquitous is the love of food here, it would seem that even the famous Japanese spirit of innovation serves its cause – the city is the birthplace of instant ramen and kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi bars, both of which were invented in 1958. Osaka’s booming food culture, however, isn’t all instant gratification. As in other parts of Japan, working endlessly towards ‘perfection’ is a major part of the USP. And when you’re talking about the pursuit of culinary perfection, it’s hard to avoid a discussion of Michelin stars, a marker of any major gastronomic destination. London has 54 starred restaurants. Paris has 92. Osaka has 108.

Forty-year-old Toshihiro Shimizu is a chef at one of the 88 onestarred restaurants (there are 15 with two, and five with three) in Osaka. Shimizu’s day has started early too, as he arrives at the Central Wholesale Market to select produce for his menu. Striding across puddles of water and ice into the maze of fishmongers’ stalls, Shimizu heads for one of his regular suppliers. Among the scallops as large as a fist, mustard-yellow sea urchins from Hokkaido and thick Nagasaki squid, he spots some glistening red-spotted groupers and indicates that he’ll buy three with a barely perceptible gesture. Two enormous lobsters from Wakayama also get the nod. Cash is paid. Upstairs in the vegetable market, Shimizu smells and returns a box of expensive matsutake (mushrooms). They’re from China; the Japanese variety, he explains, smell much better but are not quite in season yet – he’ll wait. Shimizu settles on a large togan (winter melon), a typically late-summer vegetable, that he will feature on today’s menu to ensure his customers ‘feel the season’.

His restaurant, Kaishoku Shimizu, is accessed via a discreet sliding door in a nondescript city side street. Shimizu serves fine seasonal Japanese cuisine to diners at the counter or in a private tatami (reed mat) room. ‘My style of cooking is traditional Japanese cuisine a little bit modernised,’ he explains, as the morning’s ingredients are transformed into a dramatic eight-course menu. We are presented with a large bowl filled with crushed ice onto which he has placed a ceramic abalone shell containing a crescent-shaped block of tofu, mountain vegetables and yuzu dressing. The crushed ice is to make the customer feel cooler (it’s a stifling hot day outside), while the abalone shell is a symbol of summer in Japan, and the crescent of tofu represents the current ‘moon viewing’ season. For all the classic Japanese sentimentality for the seasons demonstrated in his tofu dish, Shimizu shows his flair by breaking all the rules and making his tofu with gelatin instead of the traditional bitterns coagulant. ‘Osakan customers are very severe critics, especially when it comes to balancing price and quality – they give the cooks a very severe evaluation,’ he laughs. ‘If you can succeed as a chef in Osaka, you can succeed anywhere.’

It’s true. Osakan diners are pretty discerning – you can tell just by the presence of so many stalls selling takoyaki. There might be two stalls alongside one another, apparently offering exactly the same product – chunks of octopus bathed in batter, cooked into a crisp ball and served with a thick brown vegetable sauce topped with glistening bonito flakes and laver – except that one will have a long line of expectant customers and the other won’t. Shimizu’s favourite takoyaki shop, Wanaka, in the Sennichimae arcade, is a case in point – there’s a queue pretty much whatever time you visit. But this fine dining chef is just as happy to join the line for his fix of Osaka’s favourite street food as the next hungry person.

Growing up above his parent’s fish shop, Shimizu was inspired to become a chef after reading a book by Shizuo Tsuji, whose Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art is considered by many Western chefs to be the bible of Japanese cuisine Tsuji also established the Tsuji Culinary Institute in his native Osaka in 1960, and it’s now the largest cooking school in Japan, producing graduate chefs and pâtissiers of renowned ability – over 12,000 to date. The school is now run by the founder’s son, Yoshiki, who explains the core emphasis is not just education. ‘In the past 20 years, the goal in the food industry has been to be rich and successful as a chef,’ he says. ‘But sometimes being an artisan has nothing to do with being rich, it has to do with being happy.’

This is something that 34-year-old Tsuji graduate Shintaro Matsuo, chef-patron of Koryu, can attest. His atmospheric kappo (counter) restaurant, in the Kita-Shinchi district, was awarded two Michelin stars within six months of opening in 2009 and was elevated to the coveted three stars in the most recent round of judging. Standing proudly in his chef’s whites and a tie, Matsuo invites his 12 guests to watch, ask and understand the preparation of the seven-course menu that changes daily, depending on what he finds in the market that morning. His menu is undeniably Japanese fine dining, but, as he ‘lives in Osaka not Kyoto’, rather than stick to traditional formulas favoured in the nearby ancient capital, Matsuo tries to surprise his customers with his own touches. He chooses not to define his cuisine by genre on his business card – a bold step in a land where such cards are a crucial tool. ‘I want to serve my style of cuisine without such preconceptions,’ he says.

Today he begins by preparing hamo (pike conger), typically eaten during late summer and autumn. First Matsuo deftly fillets the eel, then reaches for a lovingly stored knife, used only in the preparation of hamo, to cut the fine bones without damaging the surrounding flesh. The knife, Matsuo explains, was made in the city of Sakai, in the south of Osaka’s sprawling conurbation: a place renowned for its metal craftsmen, whose skills date back to the days of the samurai. Now instead of making swords, the artisans of Sakai make some of the finest knives in Japan. He continues by seasoning the fillets with salt, threading each onto a bamboo skewer and holding them over a direct flame to soften the skin before serving.

The labour-intensive hamo makes up just one small but crucial part of Matsuo’s signature dish, a lacquered tray of assorted sashimi that also includes horse mackerel in sudachi (citrus) dressing, topped with rainbow trout roe; a pairing of flounder sashimi with a tiny squid stuffed with its own tentacles; and a slice of skipjack tuna paired with an egg yolk marinated in soy. The hamo is served alongside a creamy sea urchin from nearby Awaji Island, and is accompanied by fresh wasabi, a spicy chrysanthemum flower and red shiso microleaves, as well as dipping bowls of soy and seawater, and a glug of light local sake.

Matsuo’s commitment to using local ingredients is laudable – and also necessary if the city is to retain its culinary heritage. After just three years in business, Matsuo’s restaurant plays as important a part in the city’s culinary landscape as another business not far away that has been around for 170 years. Now in its seventh generation of the Hashimoto family, Yoshino Sushi specialises in the Osakan tradition of hakozushi (sushi that is made by pressing vinegared rice and its toppings into a square box mould). The presentation is unique but, crucially, so too are the ingredients: for example, Osakan sushi rice is seasoned with sugar, in the way that the more familiar Edo (Tokyo) style of sushi is not. Changing tastes and the economics of such a time-consuming, labour-intensive production process have made business increasingly difficult. To make just one small square box of mixed sushi, the chef must prepare at least four toppings, cook and season the rice and then assemble each box by hand. ‘Business is getting harder because the economy is tough and people want to buy cheaper things,’ explains company president, Hideo Hashimoto. Indeed, Yoshino Sushi is one of only five hakozushi specialists left in the city.

But for those who take the time to ‘eat in’ and witness the chef’s artistry at work, there is a rare opportunity to contemplate one of Osaka’s great culinary traditions before stepping back out into the neon city.