Osaka eats first and asks questions later. Three days of konamon (flour foods), Tenma standing bars, a 1585 tea-house sweet shop and the wholesale market where the city's chefs shop — beyond the neon of Dotonbori.
The city's working fish market at Noda, handling roughly 1,500 tonnes of seafood daily since 1931. Outer restaurants like Endo Sushi open 05:00 and serve breakfast sets of five nigiri for around ¥1,300 to traders coming off the auction floor.
Birthplace of kitsune udon, invented here in 1893 by folding sweet-simmered abura-age over soft Osaka noodles in a kombu-and-usukuchi broth. A bowl runs about ¥750; the wooden shop near Nipponbashi has served it essentially unchanged for four generations.
Osaka's Zainichi Korean quarter around Tsuruhashi Station: Miyuki-dori arcade packs some 800 shops selling hand-cut kimchi by weight, chijimi pancakes, tteok and grilled offal. Kimchi sold from open tubs costs roughly ¥400-600 per 100g.
Founded 1929 by a Shinsekai day-labourer's cook, this is where kushikatsu began: panko-crusted skewers of beef, quail egg, lotus root and asparagus fried to order, ¥140-300 each. The communal sauce vat carries the famous no-double-dipping rule.
At 2.6km this is Japan's longest shopping arcade, running north from Tenma. The middle blocks are all food: Nakatani-tei taiyaki, Ukiyo-tei's ¥100 croquettes, dashi and kombu specialists, and cheap kaiten sushi counters open from 11:00.
Operating since 1841 and credited with formalising hakozushi — Osaka's pressed box sushi, cut into squares of conger eel, sea bream and shrimp layered over vinegared rice. A box set is about ¥2,600; the lunch bento sells out by early afternoon.
The Kitahama riverfront mixes Meiji-era banking halls with wagashi counters and Kitahama Retro, a 1912 brick building serving English tea. Seasonal namagashi run ¥350-600 apiece, matcha sets around ¥1,200 with a Nakanoshima river view.
A postwar neighbourhood griddle where the modan-yaki — okonomiyaki with a nest of yakisoba pressed inside — costs around ¥900 and is cooked on the counter teppan in front of you. Cash only, seating for barely twenty, queues from opening.
Twenty minutes north of Umeda lies Itami, where clear-sake brewing was perfected in 1600. The Konishi and Onagawa storehouses run tastings and the Itami Museum explains the kudari-zake barrels shipped to Edo. Tasting flights from ¥500.
Since 1910 this narrow shop has served meiji-style dry curry: rice fried through with curry roux and topped with a raw egg you stir in yourself, about ¥900. Worcestershire sauce on the table is the expected finishing move.
Two stone-paved alleys behind the moss-covered Hozenji temple, 80 metres long and lined with kappo counters, tempura bars and shot bars in wooden machiya. Set kappo lunches from ¥3,000; the lanes date to the Edo temple market.
The densest cluster of tachinomi in Japan sits around JR Tenma station: dozens of standing bars where a beer runs ¥300-400 and skewers or sashimi plates ¥150-500. Turnover is fast and most drinkers do three or four bars a night.