Koryu is an award winning, 3 star michelin restaurant located in Kitashinchi, Osaka. They don't feed you a lot here but every dish is delicious and made from high quality ingredients. Pricing here is also very reasonable at just 16000 yen. They have two timings - 7pm and 9:30pm. The first seating is usually reserved for Japanese customers only as there is no English spoken during this timing. At 9:30pm there will be a translator available who can explain these dishes in detail as well as how to consume these dishes in the proper manner. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of this place but before I get to that, let's have a look at the pictures:
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| Shiitake Mushroom with snow crab |
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| Mixed seasonal ingredients with prawn and konjac in a salad cream-like sauce |
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| Assorted Sashimi platter |
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| Chuutoro with egg yolk |
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| Kawahagi with liver |
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| Red Snapper and Squid |
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| Mackerel |
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| Minced fatty tuna with pickles maki |
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| Seared Barracuda with daikon and matsutake mushroom in clear soup |
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| I honestly can't remember what exactly this was but I believe it was minced crab roe with shrimp topped on a piece of mountain yam |
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| Seared fatty fish stuffed with fragrant veggies |
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| Ice Fish with salmon roe with yuzu sorbet |
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| Grilled A5 Miyazaki beef topped with grated apple |
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| Snapper porridge. Looks plain and simple but the taste was outstanding! |
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| Fruits and ice cream for dessert |
Now that we've seen the pictures, I'll explain why I was skeptical at first. Funny thing about this place is that more often than not I read up about foreigners complaining about discrimination and being treated unfairly. Honestly, I don't know whether this is true or not but I have to admit my experience here is pretty unique in the sense that my parents and I were allocated to the earlier slot which was the Japanese only slot. We were served exactly the same as all the Japanese customers - no discrimination or unfair treatment on my end. There was no interaction with the head chef (Shintaro Matsuo) however as we were seated a little far from him but I did have a pleasant chat with one of the customers who became very enthusiastic when he learnt we were from Singapore.
Long story short, I generally enjoyed the food here. I thought every dish was unique, delicious and very well presented. I thought the beef dish and the snapper porridge were outstanding and definitely stood out from the rest while that yam dish and salad dish were tasty but nothing to brag about. I also wished the portions were bigger though because I finished dinner feeling "Ok" only. I wasn't exactly full and could easily whack a bowl of ramen (I ended up going to Alto Tritone and downing 3 plates of pasta lol).
At the end of the meal, the head chef and owner Shintaro-san
smiled at us and used a mix of Japanese and English to thank us for
patronizing his restaurant and hoped that we would come again.
I managed to translate about 70% of whatever the assistant chefs described in their food and how to eat it etc, so if you know your food in Japanese and are lucky enough to be allocated to the Japanese slot, you should be fine :). Even if you don't, just smile, be thankful and enjoy your food. I have a feeling that the reason behind the many foreigners who complained about discrimination is because they themselves expect to be treated like royalty and don't even respect the chef and his restaurant in the first place, especially those who dress terribly and speak rather loudly.
Website:http://www.koryu.net/en/
Address: Esbas Kitashinchi 23, 1F, 1-5-1 Dojima Kita-ku,Osaka, post code 530-0003
Budget (Dinner): 16000+ Yen @ 7pm (Japanese) or 930pm (Foreigners)
My rating: 4 / 5
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