Kani, sushi, cheese tarts and oh yes, a castle too!

Day 5 (Wed, 27 September 2017)

Time to leave Kyoto! We travelled from Kyoto station to Osaka station via the JR Kyoto Line. Remember to take the special rapid train from platform 4 or 5, as that takes only 29 minutes. No need to buy special tickets, just use your ICOCA card. From Osaka station, we changed to the subway Midosuji Line to Namba station, which is where our hotel is.

I'd searched for a hotel near Namba station as it has direct transport to Kansai Airport and more importantly, it's near Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi, which are the main food and shopping streets in Osaka. In the end, I booked two twin rooms at Red Roof Plus Namba Hotel, which is a 4-minute walk from Dotonbori. Getting to the hotel is very easy. There is an underground walkway lined with shops and restaurants called Namba Walk, that stretches from Namba station to Nipponbashi station. There are exit points throughout Namba Walk and Red Roof Plus is just a few metres away from Exit 26.

The hotel is a no-frills one, and its entrance is small and easily missed. However, it was recently renovated and the rooms are super modern and comfortable, with all the amenities you typically find in higher class hotels. The twin room is a very reasonable size and there's a separate shower stall and toilet. We paid S$135 per room before taxes, a very good price considering the hotel's location.

I had made reservations for lunch at Dotonbori's famous crab restaurant - Kani Doraku. They have three branches along Dotonbori alone and I could only get reservations for the Higashimise (East branch), even though I tried booking more than a week before.

Kani Doraku is popular for its crab multi-course meals. They can be quite pricey but are more affordable during for lunch. We ordered two sets - the Sumire and Kikyo sets, as well as a few ala carte dishes.

What we didn't realise was that the sets were served one dish at a time, which made lunch a drawn-out two hour event. The steamed crab rice in claypots was brought to the table first with a sign that said it would take 40 minutes to cook, and we were not to open the lids. Luckily we had ordered ala carte items that were served early, otherwise we might have started eating the tablecloth in hunger, since we hadn't had breakfast. These were:

Crab croquette

Crab sushi

Crab rice bowl

These were the courses served in the crab sets:

Crab sashimi and boiled snow crab

Crab chawanmushi

Crab tempura

Crab gratin

Broiled crab

Finally, the waitress opened the claypots and tadah - the crab rice! We were supposed to scrape out all the crab meat and mix it with the rice before eating.

This meal was a real eye-opener. I'm a seafood lover in general, and the crabs done in various ways were marvelous. The crab gratin and broiled crab were huge hits. We'd also never tasted crab sashimi before and it was so unbelievably sweet, I'm salivating as I'm writing about it now.

After we polished off everything, the waitress served dessert, which was vanilla ice cream with a green tea sauce that she mixed at the table. A sweet end to a satisfying meal.

After lunch and feeling a little guilty at being such pigs, we decided to walk off some of the calories by going to Osaka Castle. It's huge compared to Nijo-jo Castle in Kyoto and it's quite impressive from the outside, with huge moats and stone walls.

Photos are not allowed within the castle. Andre was a little disappointed that the authentic interior of the castle wasn't preserved. It's now a museum with exhibits of artefacts and information about the history of the castle. There's an observatory on the 8th floor of the castle tower which gives you a panoramic view of Osaka.

The garden is pretty too. Japanese gardens tend to be very picture-book charming, albeit a little manicured.

Osaka castle's grounds are sprawling and by the time we'd completed our visit and made our way out of the castle, I saw on my phone that I'd already walked about 8km that day. No wonder my back was aching.

There was only one cure for tired bodies - more food, of course 😏 Off we went to Endo Sushi! Endo Sushi is lauded as one of the very best sushi joints in Osaka, known especially for otoro (tuna belly). Endo Sushi used to be located only at Osaka Central Fish Market, and my friends would have to wake up at some ungodly hour and brave long queues to have a taste of their otoro. However, Endo Sushi has since opened up another branch at Keihan Mall. It opens from 11am-11pm, which works much better for us.

Keihan Mall is easy to locate - it's directly next to Kyobashi station. Endo Sushi is on the 5th floor. However, since there isn't an English sign, it helps to know what the shopfront looks like.

At Endo Sushi, most people order from their 5-sushi sets.

Each plate of 5 pieces of sushi is Y1,134 (about S$14). You can swap any piece of sushi for the corresponding number in another set. For example, we all decided to order set 1 but three of us swapped out the tai (sea bream) for hotate (scallop) from Set 2. Lesley-Anne swapped out tai for ika (squid) from Set 4.

Even before the sushi came, we were already impressed when we were served REAL wasabi. This is pale green with a mild, delicate flavour, unlike the overpowering bright green horseradish you get in commercial sushi restaurants in Singapore. Instead of pouring soya sauce in a condiment platter, you brush it on so it doesn't drown out your sushi.

Then the sushi arrived.

Our expectations were already sky high since our friends have raved about Endo Sushi, and still, we were blown away. Forgive the clickbait expression, there is no other way to describe the taste. We've eaten a lot of sushi over the years and have never tasted anything like this. It boggles my mind how something that doesn't require any cooking can taste so dramatically different. Fresh doesn't begin to describe it - every piece was sublime. The uni, the otoro, the sweet scallop...sigh. It made me want to live in Osaka just so I could eat there any time I wanted.

We had initially said we would just eat one plate each since we had a big lunch, and would probably snack at Dotonbori later, but each time Andre ate a piece of sushi, his eyes widened further. When Kenneth asked him if he wanted another round, he replied, "I think another 6 platters would make me very happy." 😆 No, he didn't get 6 but we did order another round.

After that, it was back to Dotonbori to catch the night scene. Since this post is already very picture-heavy, I will blog about that experience in a later post. Meanwhile, I'll just share one thing - our dessert at Pablo Cheese Tart. Pablo Cheese Tart has made a name for itself with its oozy cheese tarts. The main branch in Dotonbori is the first with an eat-in cafe.

This is what we ordered:

Original cheese tart with vanilla ice cream

Matcha cheese tart with azuki beans

Cheese soft serve ice cream

We thought the original cheese tart was ok but the green tea one was brilliant. Its slightly savoury custardy centre complements the sweet azuki beans perfectly. Pablo Cheese Tart has since opened a branch in Singapore, but it doesn't have the green tea version, which is a shame because that's the winner for us. As for the ice cream, I thought the cheese flavour was a little odd but my kids loved it.

And that marked the end of another day of culinary adventures. We're so returning to Singapore with excess baggage.