Yaekatsu 八重勝 (Osaka, JAPAN) ★★★★★

I'm starting to get more and more excited about Osaka's food scene on every trip. Yes, I know it doesn't have all these fancy fine-dining places like Tokyo does nor does it have the upscale restaurants with skyscraping views of the city. But what it possesses is a unique culinary culture that gives rise to specialty shops like kushikatsu, okonomiyaki and takoyaki just to name a few.



Yaekatsu (八重勝) has been one of my favorite restaurants in Osaka for years. A stalwart located in Shinsekai (新世界) who's been in business for over 50 years, they are highly specialized in kushikatsu (串揚げ), a Japanese-style deep-fried skewered meat and vegetables.



It's around 4PM local time but you won't know it judging by the packed house. Is everyone having a late lunch or early dinner, I wonder?



Everyone just sits around the counter seats and watch the chefs go to work.



Let's see what's fresh today. The tiger prawns look seriously nice, so are the scallops.



The most expensive items here are the prawns (450 yen) and oyster (400 yen) with the rest sitting between 100 to 200 yen a piece.



Orders placed and we now turned our attention to the chefs working behind the scene, while we enjoyed our cold beer.



It didn't take long before the first batch of our orders including shiitake mushroom, sweet green peppers and eggplant arrived.



The golden rule when you're having kushikatsu - never dip your skewer into the sauce more than once!



The green pepper was really nice and sweet, and the batter was perfect.



The squid was not bad but it paled in comparison with our Chinese deep-fried squid with salt and pepper.



Two of my favorite skewers (not surprisingly the most expensive ones) - The prawn was seriously tasty. Very nice bouncy texture.



But the star of the meal belonged to the deep-fried oyster. So creamy and flavorful (thanks to the soy sauce). And again the batter, so crispy and light, so good!



Needless to say, I had to order two more of these to ease my craving.



I have not tried this one before, mugwort rice cake...



This was surprisingly delicious. Its texture reminded me a little of Korean glutinous rice cake flavored with green herbs. Pretty aromatic with some earthy notes. 



Mission completed!



After this very enjoyable afternoon snack session, we checked out Shinsekai a bit.



A trip here is not complete without visiting Tsutenkaku (通天閣) and the iconic Tsutenkaku Tower of course.







Food Rating: 7/10
Price: ￥￥
Address: 3-4-13 Ebisu Higashi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka, Japan
Closest Metro Station: Dobutsuen-Mae
Tel: +81 (0)6-6643-6332