Shinsaibashi and Dotombori in Osaka are two neighbouring areas where you can effortlessly spend a whole day losing your sense of time as well as whereabouts within the endless stretch of shops inside Shinsaibashi-suji, Ebisubashi-suji, Mido-suji and Dotombori-dori to name a few of the popular ones. My travelling partner and I did just that.  It’s unbelievable when you juxtapose the bustling shopping streets that open late into the night with the wee hours of the morning when the shutters of the shops are closed and the only sound of activity is the clinking of beer bottles being replenished by delivery trucks.

Choosing a restaurant to eat in this area is difficult because there are so many, you’ll be torn to narrow them down to even a handful of tantalising choices. To remedy this I suggest you first have a firm decision on the type of food that you are after, which is also a feat that will be hard to do if you consider this area has: sukiyaki, yakiniku, the infamous kanidoraku crab, fugu, ramen, yakitori, sushi, steak houses, shabushabu (and that’s just naming Japanese cuisine). I opted for sushi and the place to go is Jinen Sushi, which came highly recommended by culinary enthusiasts and reviews that I perused prior to leaving for Japan.

With respect to Jinen Sushi’s location, it is away from Namba’s main area towards the northern end, but within short walking distance. It seems that every time we ate lunch or dinner during the trip thus far we missed peak hour rush and we have the whole place to ourselves. We actually had to double check and ask the waitress too clarify whether they were open because of the empty restaurant when we went. It’s late in the afternoon and we order the lunch special as well as a couple of pieces of sushi to share.

Here Comes The Food

The Maguro Chirashi Sushi Lunch Special is recommended to us and it comes out first before the sushi.

Four thickly cut of what I can only describe as slabs of maguro (tuna) are served with pickles, ginger, wasabi, shredded fried egg and vinegared rice. We mix it up into a frenzy of colours and feverishly dig into something that is invigorating and generous in portion. Either they pity us as we under ordered (this was the first time I’d under ordered as it was dangerously close to dinner) or wonderfully generous as we received another set of chawanmushi and miso soup. The chawanmushi had a cut of salmon inside the warm silky egg, so delicious that it was quickly eaten and the remaining liquid finished as though we were drinking a shot glass.

Assorted Sushi: Benitoro (Salmon Aburi), Otoro, Chuutoro and Anago (Sea Eel). The blow torched salmon is charred to my satisfaction and has a delectable texture to it. The Otoro and Chuutoro were both disappointing I have to admit (you’ll find out later in my Tokyo posts where I experienced better) as they weren’t on par to the standard quality and marbled texture compared to my previous experiences of maguro in Japan. Regardless of this, the sushi was undeniably fresh and generously sized.

Jinen Sushi
1-12-19 Higashi-shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku
06-6244-3111

Bonus shots from this particular day:

‘Good Morning Osaka’

‘Good Afternoon Osaka’

‘Good Night Osaka’

1. Trisha Says:
   January 24th, 2010 at 10:10 am

   Oohhh! We went there in autumn and the leaves were just so beautiful!!!! And yes, there’s just so many different eating joints in that part of Namba/Dotombori it was hard choosing a place to eat too. But I particularly like the little ramen places tucked away in small streets – they have the best ramen!

2. chinesechic Says:
   January 24th, 2010 at 7:08 pm

   omg,!the leaves in ‘good afternoon osaka’ looked soo splendidly beautiful:-)

3. timmeh Says:
   January 25th, 2010 at 12:29 pm

   lol meh @ the food review, very nice photos of osaka D

4. admin Says:
   January 28th, 2010 at 11:35 am

   Hi Trisha – I absolutely love the colours of autumn and it was a bonus that almost every tree in Osaka is changing colour. I found roughly 5 different ramen places within 2 minutes of each other in Dontomboi…quite the array.

   Hi chinesechic – Thanks! I took soooo many photos of the autumn leaves in Osaka as well as Hiroshima.

   Hi timmeh – thanks man

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