Denny's Nagai Park (Osaka, JAPAN) ★★☆☆☆

Growing up in Vancouver, Denny's was a family restaurant that I frequented with my friends. Heck, I even had a Denny's just a stone's throw from our first home in the city. That formed a very special tie between me and this franchise forever.

Ever since I left Vancouver more than a decade ago, I've been trying my best to make a return trip to a Denny's whenever I can. Tonight, I had that chance in Osaka again. 



This branch of Denny's near Nagai Park (長居公園), however, didn't remind me of the American diner that I grew up with at all. It's more of a fast-food joint with a localized food menu. 

Little nugget didn't really care cuz he has just made a new friend.

Raw ham salad – Some veggies to stay healthy after all the meat we had this afternoon. The paper-thin pancetta more for decorative purpose, I assume?

Spaghetti carbonara – Mom had pretty good comments about her carbonara despite its small size. 

Chinese noodles – Little nugget had a bowl of Chinese-style soy sauce ramen.

Not bad, he said.

Cheese curry with fried shrimp & potato croquette – Jelloman had the most sophisticated dish of the evening featuring a deep-fried shrimp, potato croquette and cheese all "stapled" together on top of a pool of steamed rice and Japanese-style curry sauce.

American clubhouse sandwich – For me, I decided to go down memory lane and had a clubhouse sandwich, the same dish I had when I visited Denny's for the first time. This tasted exactly like it did decades ago. OK, I forgot how it tasted already but it was good to have it again after so long.

Chestnut tiramisu – Time to have some in-season chestnut for dessert. Mom and I split a chestnut tiramisu between us two. And I have to admit, it tasted a little weird.

Tonight's experience definitely wasn't the best from what I remembered from Denny's. Especially without pancakes, hash browns and frosty milkshakes on the menu, it's never going to the same.

Food Rating: 3.5/10

Price: ￥￥

Address: 2-2-23 Nagaihigashi, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka, 558-0004 Japan

Closest Metro Station: Nagai

Tel: +81 80 3258-1943

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm daily 

Restaurant ZK 絕景 at Osaka Marriott Miyako (Osaka, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

We don't have a lot on the plate today in Osaka. It's our second last day of the trip and since some of us (like mom) are still trying to catch their breathe after a run of hectic days, I thought a lazy day like this will be a nice change of pace. 

Situated on the 57th floor of Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel, Restaurant ZK (絕景) was supposed to be a "throw-in" to this very busy itinerary of ours. When I said "throw-in", I meant it was designed to eat up some spare time to get us through the afternoon onto our main event tonight, TeamLab Botanical Garden. What I never anticipated was the fact that this meal ended up becoming THE most memorable part of this Kansai tour for everyone. Even little nugget revealed later how much he enjoyed such an exquisite dining experience.

We arrived right on time, something that we rarely do on any trips or even back in Hong Kong. As soon as we got up to the 57th floor via the elevator, we were immediately greeted by a jaw-dropping view of the city. 

After we checked ourselves in at ZK's reception counter, the hostess slowly led us through the main dining room into the teppanyaki area. More of the same stunning view could be seen from the backdrop of the restaurant through the ceiling-to-floor window. From that point on (judging from everyone's facial expression), I knew we were going to have a great time here.

There were 3 set menus available this afternoon. Once we made our choice known, a small nibble was ready to be served up. It was an amuse with a small patch of minced beef and tendon paired with crunchy carrots to start us off.

Next, we had cured salmon matched up brilliantly with delicate taro purée, dashi and chrysanthemum. The (cool) temperature at which the dish was served, was perfect. That was a really refined and refreshing dish to kick things off in style.

While we were enjoying our first starter, our chef was seen going back and forth bringing out top-notch local ingredients like duck, fish, scallops, and finally the prized beef followed by the vegetables.

The Japanese duck breast fillets and cabbages were soon tossed onto the grill.

Looks like they were ready to be served.

For a duck breast lover like me, the slightly pink color was beautiful!

The duck breast was so tender and juicy. The flesh was lean with succulent texture (in a good way) meshing well with the aromatic soy sauce.

The duck breast was followed by grilled sea bream and scallop served with a small salad and tomato. I thought the scallop was really nice but the sea bream a tad dry.

Little one was thrilled to have stolen half a scallop off everyone. He's the big winner here!

One of the highlights of any teppanyaki meal is the crispy garlic chips. Always a fan favorite around here and all of us just couldn't stop eating them even before the main dish arrived.

Now, onto the main event. Our prized kuroge wagyu from Kagoshima.

From left to right, yuzu infused soy, homemade seaweed sauce and sea salt. Those were all we needed for our grilled meat. 

Little nugget's set came with a fillet of local beef sirloin.

Very nice, meaty flavors. Not bad.

Now, time to indulge ourselves with this Kuroge premium wagyu beef from Kagoshima (鹿兒島縣黑毛和牛).

I thought the wagyu worked best with the soy sauce or sea salt. The seaweed sauce was a little too overpowering for the beef. This was just very very delicious. Comparing to little one's sirloin, it was more buttery with an almost sweet aroma, and there were the delicate notes of umami flavors. We were so glad to drop a few more bucks for the kuroge from Kagoshima.

While we were still enjoying our beef, our chef was getting the vegetables ready. 

These were perfect to offset the richness of the beef. Pumpkin and zucchini are always my FAV. I am less in love with onions.

At this point we were already stuffed but there's no way in the world we would pass up the chance to check out their fried rice. 

That's a lot of chopped garlic and mushroom.

This often provides the second climax of a teppanyaki meal, right beyond the beef.

It smells so good. Can't wait to have my first bite.

The rice came with so much crunch and of course, the "wok hei" was incredible. Yes I was stuffed but there was no way I would not finish my fried rice!

Dessert was a scoop of green tea ice-cream with seasonal fruit.

A cup of tea at last. I am a happy camper.

Time to wrap up our memorable 3-hour journey and prepare ourselves for tonight's event.

I got a lot more than I bargained for! This meal was supposed to be there to burn off precious time before our TeamLab event but everything was impeccable, from the view, ambience, service to food. In fact, little one was already asking when we could come back for an encore.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: Osaka Marriott Miyako Hotel 57/F, 1-1-43 Abenosuji, Abeno-ku, Osaka, 545-0052 Japan

Closest Metro Station: Tennoji

Tel: +81 (0)6 6628-6111

Website: www.miyakohotels.ne.jp/osaka-m-miyako/restaurant/zk/

Opening Hours: 11:3apm - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

27Café by Marion Crepes (Osaka, JAPAN) ★☆☆☆☆

Our second last day in Osaka started off slowly with little nugget going back to his office (Pokemon Center) for an early session. That leaves his old man plenty of spare time in the morning wandering around the streets of Shinsaibashi. In order to kill more time off the clock, I decided to swing by 27Café by Marion Crepes for nostalgia's sake.

When I said for nostalgia's sake, I didn't mean that I have been here before. What I was referring to was the brand "Marion Crepes", the Japanese crepe pioneer that started off as a humble food truck back in 1976 and taking the industry by storm. Most Hongkongers should be no stranger to their shop in Harajuku’s Takeshita Street, one of their first locations in Tokyo. For me, I've been a frequent visitor since the early 2000s, mostly to their Shinjuku location.

Marion Crepes are best known for their offering of more than 70+ variety of crepes, both savory and sweet.

Of course, I had to try one of my favorite flavors out. It's been at least four years since I last had one of these.

At last......!

Japanese crepes with tuna and cream – This was so disappointing. I was expecting the warm crepe to be soft and a little flaky at the edges but instead it was hard and chewy. Definitely not what I had in mind.

A lot of the eateries that I used to frequent in Osaka have disappeared on the streets of Osaka after the pandemic (Dalloyau, Luke's Lobster just to name a couple). I hope Marion Crepes won't be the next one to go.

Food Rating: 3.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1-6-1 Shinsaibashisuji, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 542-0085 Japan

Closest Metro Station: Shinsaibashi

Tel: +81 (0)6 6244-0102

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:00pm daily 

Nana's green tea Shijo Muromachi 四条室町店 (Kyoto, JAPAN) ★★☆☆☆

A decade ago, Nana's green tea used to be a pretty big deal in Japan. The modern Japanese cafe specializing in green teas and other traditional Japanese desserts seemed to be everywhere in Tokyo then. It still boasts over 80 locations in Japan but is no longer found in the prime locations that Jelloman and I typically hang out.

But thanks to little nugget's visit to Kyoto's Pokemon Center, we got the chance to re-acquaint with Nana's green tea again as there was a branch inside the ground-floor book store in the same building. Since all of us were too dead tired to endure another long supper, we decided to have a simple meal here instead.

I didn't realize that they have savory food here as well. This was a simple dish with steamed rice, topped by an onsen egg, minced pork and what I thought were diced burdock. 

The set was accompanied by a small miso soup.

Realizing that the rice was a little dry, I decided to pour some of the miso soup in and create a different dish out of it! A soupy rice with white miso flavors. I love this.....

Little nugget had the fried udon noodles with lobster sauce. Yeah, he loves anything with lobster flavors in it.

We managed to finish dinner just before 7pm. It was a cold winter night here in Kyoto, so rather than hanging around the ancient city for a few more hours, we all agreed that it was time to go back home (to Osaka). So, that was the end of our journey in Kyoto.

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: SUINA Muromachi, Kyoto Keizai Center Building, 788 Kankobokocho, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto, 600-8491, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Shijo

Tel: +81 (0)75 352-2266

Website: www.global.nanasgreentea.com

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily