What to Eat in Osaka

Three dishes carry the city’s reputation, and the useful thing to know is that each one belongs somewhere different.

Takoyaki

Octopus in a spherical batter, cooked in a dimpled iron pan, brushed with sauce and topped with bonito flakes that move in the heat. They arrive molten. The first one will burn your mouth; that is practically the ritual.

Home ground is Dotonbori, where you will find a stall every few metres.

Okonomiyaki

A savoury pancake of cabbage, batter and whatever else — pork, prawn, cheese — cooked on a griddle, often the one built into your table. The name comes from okonomi, “as you like it”.

This is a sit-down dish, not a walking one, and it is the one to choose if you want an actual meal rather than a series of tastings.

Kushikatsu

Skewers of meat, vegetables and stranger things, crumbed and deep fried. The spiritual home is Shinsekai, the retro district under Tsutenkaku tower.

The one rule: no double dipping. The communal sauce pot on the counter is shared by everyone. You dip a skewer once, on the way to your mouth, and never again. If you want more sauce, use the cabbage as a spoon. Every shop has a sign about this and every visitor breaks it once.

What else is worth ordering

• Kitsune udon — Osaka claims the invention; sweet fried tofu on noodles.
• Horumon — grilled offal, better than it sounds and a genuinely local order.
• Ikayaki — pressed squid pancake, a market and festival food.

The order to eat them in

If you have one evening: takoyaki standing up in Dotonbori while you walk, then a sit-down okonomiyaki, then skewers if you are still going. If you have two, put Shinsekai on its own night — see Dotonbori or Shinsekai.