il Centrino (Osaka, JAPAN) ★★★★☆

It was supposed to be a relaxing day in Tennoji (天王寺) followed by an early dinner at Michelin starred il Centrino to finish off the day. Nothing too exciting as we have a pretty action-packed day in Kyoto (京都) tomorrow. But at the end, everyone wanted to inject some excitement into a routine afternoon in Osaka so we decided to squeeze in a quick visit to Osaka Castle just after sunset (more on that later). I thought some of us almost had a heart attack during the process.

Despite the challenging situation, we still managed to arrive in Kawarayamachi (瓦屋町), a quiet residential district in the southern part of the city's town centre near 7pm. 



The 14-seater il Centrino is housed in a small refurbished home, just a 10-minute walk from Matsuyamachi Station (松屋町駅).

Before we could enjoy the warm atmosphere of the ground-floor main dining room, the hostess already signaled us to go up the steep staircase to the first-floor private room.

I reserved this private room via Tabelog a few months ago and that decision looks better by the minute, judging by the amount of noise little nugget generated throughout the meal.

Owner-chef Tomohisa Kitaguchi (北口智久) is a local born and bred in Osaka. After starting his career in Tokyo, he went abroad and spent four years in Italy to hone his culinary skills at restaurants like La Fornace di barbablu in Liguria, il Centro in Piedmont and Locanda San Lorenzo in Venice, before returning to his hometown to launch il Centrino in 2017. His cuisine is best known as minimalist yet highly creative and sophisticated. Not surprisingly, he takes pride in meshing local Japanese ingredients with modern Italian cooking techniques.

Dinner started off with a small bowl of warm potato soup and a homemade grissini on top. The texture of the soup was thicker than a typical potato soup, almost like a purée. This is a pretty nice amuse to kick off the meal, with some warmth and comfort.

A slice of homemade sourdough bread was next.

Little nugget was pretty hyped up tonight. He kept repeating "A toast, everyone!" over and over again while raising his glass. That was so funny!

Yellowtail tuna, red radish, horseradish – Shortly after our sixth toast (lost count!), we were presented with our first starter of the tasting menu. Fresh yellowtail tuna tartare were matched with Japanese red radish ribbons and grated horseradish. There was a touch of what I thought was citrus for a zesty finish.

Despite the extra heat from the horseradish along with the citrus zest, I thought the dish was a little plain without much exciting flavors. 

Cauliflower, crab, chrysanthemum – Delicate Japanese hairy crab meat was served up on a bed of cauliflower cous cous and cauliflower cream, with patches of chrysanthemum delivering a floral, aromatic finish. A dish with very very light, subtle flavors.

Kuroge-wagyu beef, green salad – After two straight starters with seafood, we were bound for some meat. The beef came from a local black cattle and it was so tender and scrumptious. The Arrabbiata sauce was a better match with the wagyu than I expected.

The chef was kind enough to make a special linguine genovese for little one tonight. I could smell the fragrance of the homemade pesto from quite a distance away. This looked like a very delicious pasta dish to me.

Sea whelk, garlic, chrysanthemum – The sea whelks seasoned with chrysanthemum, were pan-fried together almost like a kakiage, the Japanese vegetable and shrimp tempura fritter. This was very tasty and I like the garlicky sauce that helped to tie everything together.

Grouper, lardo, Japanese daikon – The slice of grouper was roasted and served with Japanese radish, bacon and red perilla flowers. There was some real nice smokiness coming from the grouper fillet and its crispy skin.

Tagliolini, rabbit, porcini – One of my favorite dish tonight along with the sea whelk dish.

The eggy tagliolini soaking up that amazing sauce was so irresistible. I like the gamey rabbit meat spicing up the pasta too. A soul-warming dish that's just perfect on a cold winter night like this.

Jerusalem artichoke, anchovies, truffle, egg – Everybody looked a little lost starving at this and wondering what it was. The gratin was made with my favorite Jerusalem artichoke, topped with truffles from Italy and a bit of egg yolk. Very soft and airy but full of flavors. Nice.

Vension, soft cheese, raspberry – The vension fillet, served medium with soft cheese and spinach. The sauce had some pretty nice acidity and sweetness to it, thanks to the raspberry. Not bad.

Chestnut, rosemary, cocoa – Mom and the rest of our crew were happy to see some in-season chestnut purée as dessert. The sweetness of the purée was nicely matched with the woodsy, earthy notes of the rosemary ice-cream and a bit of cocoa meringue underneath. There was also some spicy kick in play, from what I thought was ginger. Not your typical Mont Blanc I told mom but she was only too thrilled to see the chestnut in the middle. Nothing else really matters.

We were offered some tea and coffee while we enjoyed our dessert.

The mignardise was a small semifreddo with rum and raisin ice-cream. A sweet end to what I felt was a very heartwarming dinner tonight. It felt like we were hosted at a friend's house. Very intimate and warm.

Some flashback to our quick visit to Osaka Castle prior to dinner at il Centrino tonight. Jelloman and I do these ad-hoc things all the time but for the moms and little nugget, I know it's quite physically demanding. 

Of course, I had to do a selfie in front of the castle for the social media.

il Centrino has been a rising star in Osaka's fine-dining scene for a couple of years now and I felt blessed to be finally here tonight to witness Chef Kitaguchi's contemporary cuisine myself. Now, it's time to get back to our hotel and sleep early cuz we have a lot of grounds to cover in Kyoto tomorrow.

Food Rating: 7.1/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1-2-2 Kawarayamachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 542-0066 Japan

Closest Metro Station: Matsuyamachi

Tel: +81 (0)6 6762-5901

Website: www.il-centrino.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 10:00pm (Mon - Sat)