Nana's Green Tea - Osaka, Japan

If you follow my blog closely, today you might have a feeling of déja-vu, as if I already blogged about this. You'd be almost right! I discovered this matcha desserts chain in Osaka, Nana's Green Tea, which looks EXACTLY like Hong Kong's Maccha House I previously blogged about. Now, as I mentioned in Maccha House's post, the chef and owner is a Japanese, and I now unveiled his secret! He copied the whole thing from Japan's Nana's Green Tea!!! The store looks the same, the menu is almost identical, the food they serve is one and the same... This time I got you "Mr. Maccha House"!

We ordered an Iced Green Tea Latte with Red Bean, and a summer special consisting of cookie, green tea ice-cream, glutinous rice balls and red bean. It was delicious, BUT, you can really get exactly the same in Hong Kong!!! Living in Hong Kong has this, though, it's such a cosmopolite city with so many great international cuisines available, sometimes you feel you don't really need to go traveling to try new stuff!

Let me know what you think about the resemblance of these two chains by checking out my post on Maccha House.... 

Kanidoraku Honten かに道楽 - Osaka, Japan

This was definitely one of my favorite meals from the whole trip. Kanidoraku Honten, the crab restaurant, is a landmark in Osaka, and the big crab on its top is one of the best well-known signs of Dotonbori, Osaka's food street. This is the first branch of the chain, founded in 1960, and then there's another one on the same street and several others across Japan.

Dotonbori, Osaka's "food street" and one of the most important streets of the city

As I said, Kanidoraku Honten is a crab restaurant, offering several sets, all of them consisting of different kinds of crab food. We ordered two sets, one at ¥3700 (US$37) and the other one at ¥4000 (US$40), and had crab cooked in all the possible ways you can imagine: steamed, boiled, raw, barbecued, crab sushi, crab rice, crab siu mai... Unbelievably delicious!!! Besides, the price of the sets is really good, taking into account that only one crab already costs around US$60 in Hong Kong!

Crab Sashimi

Crab Siu Mai

Below is our waitress preparing the maccha dessert for us, so interesting! Dessert is the only part of the meal without crab, in case you were wondering. All the waitresses wear this kimono by the way, really pretty!

This is the ¥3700 set, and my favorite, because it included a full crab, yummy! 

This is how we sat, I LOVE Japanese tables and "chairs"! Obviously you needed to take your shoes off first.

All in all, a must-try when in Osaka, you won't regret this awesome culinary crab treat!

The best ramen in Osaka - Japan

We came back from Japan on Tuesday after spending four magical days in Osaka. I had been wanting to go back to Japan for a very long time, since my last time was in 2009! J and I planned this trip to be a culinary experience, meaning that all we wanted to do was non-stop eating so that we could try as much yummy food as possible. Japanese cuisine is my favorite in the world, so I did enjoy myself very much! If it were for me, I'd eat Japanese every single day, ramen, sushi, sashimi, Japanese bbq... you name it, I love everything! {Except maybe Shabu - Shabu, since I'm not a big fan of hot pot}

Anyway, all my dreams became true, and the three days we stayed there started great because... we had ramen for breakfast every day! Awesome!

Here are my reviews on the three ramen places we tried, including the best ramen in Osaka:

1. The best ramen in Osaka: 一蘭 Ichiran Ramen

This is the best ramen in Osaka and probably one of the best in all Japan, too! There's only one branch in Osaka, so expect to queue up whenever you go! The good news is the place is open 24 hours a day so you can try to go later at night or earlier in the morning to avoid lining up :)

The first thing you'll need to do when you get here is purchasing your ramen ticket at the vending machine. Most of the ramen places in Osaka function this way, at least the three I'm going to review today do. We bought a ticket for a normal ramen (¥790) and another one for a half-boiled egg (¥100), the typical ramen egg that deliciously melts in your mouth. Then you'll need to fill in a form (this only at Ichiban Ramen, not in the following two places I'll review below) to say how you'd like you ramen (strong or soft noodles, spicy or not, with/without onion, etc.). I'm not sure there's an English form for this so just copy mine if you can't read Japanese/Chinese :D Mine is all regular and non-spicy. For spicy, simply change to 2倍 as circled with photoshop :)

This ramen place is SO special, there's 20 seats in a row and all of them are individual! Luckily two contiguous seats freed so J and I could seat "together". This ramen was exceptional, my favorite one ever together with my Hong Kong's favorite: Green Butao ramen. The broth, the noodles... everything was unbeatable. I highly recommend this ramen and you should definitely try it when in Japan! 

Here you can see which seats are available

Now... I have AWESOME NEWS for you Hong Kongers! Look, look!!!!! Look at the picture below!

Yes, you got it! Ichiran ramen is coming to Hong Kong on July the 11th! Only a week to go! Get ready to queue BIG TIME because this one will cause a stir for sure!

Ichiran 一蘭 Hong Kong location will be:
440 Jaffe Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
香港銅鑼灣謝婓道440號地下

2. Kinryu Ramen 金龍ラーメン (Dragon ramen)

You'll easy identify a Kinryu Ramen branch thanks to the huge dragon on top. There's plenty of branches around the city and most are open 24 hours. Their ramen (¥600) is cheap and good, a must try when visiting Osaka! 

The ticket vending machine and J happy with his ramen

I love sitting like this, and my mom would never let me when I was a kid! I totally should have been born in Japan.

3. Shi-ten-noh - 四天王

J buying the tickets at the vending machine

This local Osaka ramen chain offers 3 different broths for their ramen: Soy Sauce, Salt, and Miso. Both J and I went for the miso one and I deeply regretted it. I didn't like the broth nor the  noodles. Apparently the one to go for is the salt broth, so if you go for it, let me know how it is! I woudn't recommend this ramen place at all though!

Have you been to Osaka and you think I missed out on some good ramen? Please leave a comment and let me know for my next visit :)