KURUMAShinsaibashi

This place was recommended by our hotel - not exactly sure why as there was nothing good about it. They have a focus on chicken yakitori - supposedly all parts of the chicken. That’s great, but then I would expect you to be able to serve all parts of the chicken including chicken breast. We had an a...mazing time at Jomon Roppongi and thought this might be similar - nope. While they have an English menu, no one speaks a lick of English nor knows how to use a translate app (like all the other restaurants we visited). We emphasized that we only wanted chicken breast yakitori and they brought out some rubbery chewy chicken, which was definitely not chicken breast. The mushrooms were watery, the Chinese yam is actually a jicama and not a yam. When we ordered two more leeks, they brought out more jicama, which was not good. At that point we cut our losses, paid our bill and went to Ippudo where we had fantastic ramen.

Visited April 2023

Came here on a Friday night and it was packed!! We made an earlier booking & paid ¥800 for a table of 4 via jpneazy.com Reservation was confirmed after 1 day. Booking was straight forward & easy. Arrived around 8.30pm & was first given an common area table. Table next to us were corporate workers ...whom were enjoying their smokes & drinks. We requested to be moved & the staff was very helpful. Although, it took us a while trying to put through our request with our very limited Japanese. We were ushered to a private room which was super comfortable. Ordering was easy and the food was excellent! The liver ponzu & chicken sashimi was really good. I rather enjoyed the ‘blackened’ chicken and also the ‘tsukene’ meatballs. The hotpot/soup was very heartening and my kids really enjoyed the meal. Do try the hot home made tofu; it takes them 20 minutes to prepare a bowl. Book earlier if you plan to visit. One more thing; you need to take off your shoes before entering the premise. Lockers are provided in the premise

Visited June 2019

We had Kobe beef in Japan and wanted to find out what their best chicken dish was and after watching Mike Chan on Youtube recommending this place, we finally found chicken royalty! They have a few outlets around Osaka and we ate at the one at Shinsaibshi and it was filled with locals and we were th...e only tourist there. Ordering is quite easy as they have an English menu and the place is quite big compared to other Japanese restaurants which meant we did not have to wait. We ordered the recommended set dinner which offers a bit of everything including their specials and it did not disappoint. Standout dishes - chicken sashimi, chargrill chicken, chicken with avocado. Do note that smoking is allowed in this restaurant if you happen to be sensitive to it. Other than that, do give this restaurant a go!

Visited November 2018

After a long day of travel wanted to get some good eats. Had looked for charcoal yakitori places in Osaka before leaving and this was one of the chains noted. Was not disappointed! Firstly, this place is not foreigner-friendly (as in, no English speaking staff nor menu). However that is definite...ly not a minus, but rather a plus in my opinion as that means less tourists would frequent this place and that the taste would be more authentic. Yes I realize the irony of me as a tourist reviewing places that are not tourist-friendly... Anyways, between Google Translate, pictures, and smiles, managed to order up a storm (not all at once but in batches): chicken sashimi/liver/gizzard/heart/butt, leeks, fried chicken, etc. Delicious! The chicken sashimi (torisashi) was worth coming back to Japan for alone haha but I understand it's not for everyone especially from outside of Japan. Service was excellent despite the language barrier and while prices aren't cheap it's not outrageous either. Really enjoyed the visit.

Visited December 2017