Roan Kikunoi Kiyamachi Branch 露庵 菊乃井 木屋町店 @ Kawaramachi, Kyoto (3rd Visit)

Roan Kikunoi Kiyamachi Branch is a micheln starred restaurant located very near Kawaramachi Station. In fact if you spot McDonald's, the restaurant is just down the lane. This is my third visit here and it seems like this place gotten very very and I mean VERY popular among tourists and I can totally understand why. Kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto are extremely expensive and more often than not you have to pay an exorbitant amount of money for dinner at one of these restaurants.

However, over at Roan Kikunoi Kiyamachi, they may not serve you the most creative or mind blowing food but they feed you A LOT and definitely give you your money's worth. The 2nd cheapest course priced at 16000 Yen is already good enough for me and that's exactly what you're gonna see in the photos below. My most recent visit was in December 2018.

Zenen 禅園 @ Herbis Plaza, Osaka (3rd Visit)

Zenen is a restaurant located in Herbis Plaza basement 2. If you ever encounter problems finding this place, just look for the restaurant closest to the Ritz Carlton entrance. I previously blogged about this place and stated that it was an izakaya restaurant. Actually, it's more of a combination of an Izakaya, Kappou and Kaiseki restaurant. You can order both ala carte dishes or a course menu here depending on how big your group is which makes dining here very flexible. By the way, their claim to fame dish is a snapper claypot rice; I liked it when I tried it last time but I didn't order it this time before my parents weren't fans of it. Anyway, This is my 3rd visit here and as much as I enjoyed my meal given the very classy but relaxed atmosphere and generally good standard of food, the tempura and karaage dishes were rather disappointing this time round. But before I continue with this short review, shall we have a look at the pictures of my meal:

Hakata Motsunabe Ooyama 博多もつ鍋 おおやま 大阪駅 @ Lucua Umeda, Osaka

Lunch at Hakata Motsunabe Ooyama over at Lucua Umeda level 10.
Motsunabe to me is a love it or hate it dish. If you're a fat of innards, then you're going to love this. Imagine a boiling hotpot full of innards with its fats slowly melting and fusing with the soup - that's motsunabe for you. The longer you let the soup boil, the sweeter and tastier it gets. My favourite motsunabe restaurant is called Hakata Yamaya. It's a chain restaurant and it's all over Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. Unfortunately, they don't serve motsunabe during lunch so I settled for another Hakata-based restaurant known as  Hakata Ooyama, another chain restaurant that competes against Yamaya.
Before I elaborate more, let's have a look at the photos shall we:

Cafe Y 喫茶Y @ Nakazakicho, Osaka (3rd Visit)

Looking for a breakfast place in Osaka that is cosy, friendly, serves big portions at a very affordable price then this is the place for you. Cafe Y is modeled like an American diner and is located near Nakazakicho station, which is one station away from Umeda. The owner, a very cheerful and friendly woman called Chiisato-san, is extremely generous with her food and makes sure you are feeling full and satisfied when you leave her restaurant. Looking at the many pictures that she hangs on her restaurant walls, it seems like she spent a period of her life in the US. You can see that she lived with an American family and her son became involved in musical and arts theatre productions like Les Miserables. Anyway, I'm sure she drew inspiration from her time in the US to setup her restaurant like that. Her most famous dish is her "half sandwich" which does not look like half at all lol, you'll see what I mean below:

Sushi Amano あま野 @ Shin Fukushima, Osaka (2nd Visit)

Sushi Amano is a 1 Michelin starred restaurant located near Shin Fukushima station in Osaka. It can be a little hard to find this place because it's located in a residential area behind a row of restaurants that face the main road. But worry not, his sign is pretty big and bright, so it'll be hard to miss. This is my second time eating here and I noticed that he got better. His food has improved and he has tweaked some of his items to bring out more flavour. Thankfully, his price has not changed and it's still 13000 Yen....for now...lets have a look at the pictures:

Koryu 北新地 弧柳 @ Kitashinchi, Osaka

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:

Tajimaya Lucua 但馬屋 ルクア イーレ @ Lucua Dept Store Umeda, Osaka

I've been to Tajimaya in Lucua Department store multiple times and have always enjoyed myself here. I think in terms of quality and price performance, it's one of the best deals for wagyu steak lovers. The Tajimaya corporation owns a chain of beef restaurants and their claim to fame is their desire to serve premium aged wagyu beef at affordable prices. This branch in Lucua which mainly caters to the middle class, may not serve super high premium aged beef, but I think what they have is good enough and in fact it is already good quality steak. English menus are available are identical to the Japanese menus which feature a variety of beef slabs depending on which part of the cow it's sourced from. They also have porterhouse slabs which easily feed 4 to 5 people. During this visit with my parents, I ordered a premium T bone steak which costs around 18000 yen. We finished it and were extremely full - I myself was struggling during the last few pieces because my mouth was getting quite jelat already lol. Anyhow let's have a look at the pictures shall we:

Tempura Ippoh 一宝 本店 @ Higobashi, Osaka

I've always wanted to try the main Tempura Ippoh shop in Osaka ever since I ate at the branch at Dempsey Hill in Singapore. While I enjoyed the tempura served at the Dempsey Hill branch, I knew it wasn't top quality, I couldn't help but wonder how much better it can be at the main shop. Well, looks like God's blessing was upon me as my parents and I managed to secure a lunch reservation there. We took a taxi to the restaurant and as we entered the main hall, there were several women dressed in their traditional yukatas bowing extremely low and welcoming us into the restaurant. We had to take off our shoes and change to their indoor slippers which I have to admit were really comfortable. We were then ushered to a private room which had a lovely view of the garden outside. Shortly after, a very senior but friendly chef entered with his tray of ingredients and began preparing the fantastic tempura meal that was about to come. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Sushi Harasho 鮨 原正 @ Osaka Uehommachi, Osaka

I've been trying to get Sushi Harasho for years. This 2 Michelin star sushi ya is one of the most popular, or should I use the word famous, restaurants in Osaka. Anyway, ever since the chef and owner, Ishikawa-san, started opening his restaurant for lunch, reservations definitely became a lot easier. However, when I say a lot easier, you still have to book at least a month in advance. What I like about Sushi Harasho is that the chef and his sous chefs are friendly, the food is great as expected of a 2 star michelin restaurant, and the cost performance/price performance for this place is really good. By the way, he serves the same for lunch and dinner, and yes the prices are the same for both at around 16000 Yen per person.

Let's have a look at the photos:

Naniwa Kappo Kigawa 浪速割烹 喜川 @ Nipponbashi, Osaka

Kappo Kigawa is an old and very established Kappo restaurant located in a small alley in Nipponbashi. It is foreigner friendly and extremely popular (especially among tourists) for their lunch courses which are moderately priced at 5000, 8000 and 12000 yen. Dinner starts at 15000 yen and can go up to 30000 yen which I feel is a little on the ridiculous side since Kappo is supposed to be like a sister version of Kaiseki (i.e. supposedly cheaper too). Anyway, this is my first visit here and my parents and I decided to order the 12000 yen course since we intended to come here only once.

Our 8 item course consisted of the following items:

Alto Tritone アルト トリトーネ @ Umeda, Osaka

Alto Tritone is a Japanese-Italian restaurant located near Westin Hotel Osaka and Umeda Sky Building. It is a family-owned restaurant with the father being the head chef, the mother mainly serving customers and the son who does some of the cooking and serves customers as well. They are very friendly and welcoming to all their patrons. The pasta here is all handmade using their guitar strings contraption which was built by the father.

Before I elaborate a little bit more, it's time to have a look at the pictures first:

Washoku iikura 和食 いいくら @ Minami morimachi, Osaka

Washoku iikura is an Izakaya restaurant opened recently back in December 2017. It is run by a very friendly husband and wife team and is located one train station away from Kitashinchi. This is my first visit here and boy did it leave a fantastic impression. Not only was the food really good but the atmosphere was really relaxed, which made the meal all the more enjoyable. Before I post the pictures, do note though, there are NO ENGLISH menus i.e. Japanese menu only. If you can't read Japanese, you can order either the 7000 yen course or the 10,000 yen course. If you can read some Japanese, you're free to pick whatever you want from the Ala Carte menu.

Lets have a look at the pictures shall we:

Orankuya おらんく家 @ Kitashinchi, Osaka

This is a favourite of mine in Osaka. This is not a cheap sushi place, but neither is it an overly expensive joint like the Michelin Starred restaurants. I would describe Orankuya as a sushi restaurant meant for entertaining clients and businessmen. As such, the sushi you get here is of pretty high quality at a reasonable price (to me at least).

I've been going to this restaurant every time I go to Osaka for the last 7 years or so, shall we have a look at some of the photos that I've taken over the years? I'll be using a mix of English and Japanese in the captions.

Kissawai 喫茶Y @ Nakazakicho, Osaka

 The breakfast place that you would want to go to in Osaka.

Kissawai  喫茶Y is a fantastic western breakfast place located in Nakazakicho (near Umeda), Osaka. The breakfast menu consist of mainly eggs, ham, bacon and a huge sandwich with its roots based on American breakfast. The owner and chef  herself、Chisato Kiji, seemed to have spent quite a significant portionof her life in America based on the many pictures of her displayed in her cafe. Anyway on to the food, I don't know where to start. The toast, the eggs and bacon, the sandwich, especially the sandwich, everything she served was fantastic. Have a look at the pictures and you'll know what I mean:

Taian 太庵 @ Nagahoribashi, Osaka

Taian is a 3 star Michelin Kaiseki restaurant located in Nagahoribashi, Osaka; it's about a 10 to 15 minutes walk from Dotonbori. I wouldn't say there is anything fancy or very creative about the dishes served in Taian but whatever they serve, as ordinary as it may seem, are of very high quality. Anyway, I came here during December 2016, so I had the winter dinner course. Let's have a look at the pictures:

Amano あま野 @ Fukushima, Osaka

Amano is a sushi restaurant tucked away at small street in the Fukushima Area in Osaka. It is about 10 to 15 minutes away from Ritz Carlton Hotel (walking). With only 1 course set available, it costs about 14000 Yen per person (CASH ONLY). Although the price is rather expensive, the food served in Amano is very delicate and enough to fill you up; a real treat to those who love to eat fine-dining food but not at fine-dining portions. There were about 18 to 19 high quality small dishes served. I'll let the pictures illustrate this:

Zenen 禅園 @ Herbis Plaza, Osaka

Zenen 禅園 is an upmarket izakaya restaurant located in Herbis Plaza (Umeda area) in Osaka; it is next to the basement lift lobby of The Ritz Carlton Hotel. I discovered this place purely by chance when my dad told me to take a look at the menu outside the restaurant for fun. The items did indeed look attractive, especially to a foreign visitor like myself. I figured, lets give it a try! Here are some pictures of the items we ordered.