Restaurant on a Stick in Osaka, Japan

While walking along the canal side of the Dōtonbori one of the many barkers that try to persuade every passerby to come into their establishment caught our attention.

In this case our guy wasn’t exaggerating, there really was quite a spectacle taking place inside.

An entire menu of food on a stick in Osaka, Japan

One whole wall of the narrow basement restaurant was an open kitchen, so the food preparation was also the entertainment.

A seemingly choreographed ballet between about a half dozen chefs was taking place before our eyes while every imaginable meat, seafood, fungus, vegetable, egg, or combination thereof, was being whomped onto the enormous grill with flair and panache.

See more about our night in Dotonbori – we ruined ourselves with food!

Periodically a sort of cheer, rallying cry, or chant type of unison yell would engulf the staff. We were clueless as to the meaning but completely enthralled.

We opened our order with beef kalbi (ribs), chicken wing, and lotus root stuffed with shitaki mushrooms.

beef kalbi (ribs), chicken wing, and lotus root stuffed with shitaki mushrooms on a stick on Osaka Japan

All of these were grilled right in front of us by our own showman / chef and served directly over the counter the moment they were done. Fantastic! We immediately ordered more.

WATCH: Dinner AND a show! Fantastic!

See more about our night in Dotonbori – we ruined ourselves with food!

All food is on a stick at this restaurant in Osaka, Japan!

This time we went for beef neck, asparagus wrapped in pork, duck with scallions, and shrimp bread.

Again, perfection, sizzling hot from grill to plate. By the time we had finished we both agreed that this evening had introduced us to some of the best food we had ever eaten. Kuidaore!

asparagus wrapped in pork and shrimp toast on a stick!

Snow crab wrapped in Kadaif in Osaka, Japan
Snow crab wrapped in kadaif

David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com

See more about our night in Dotonbori – we ruined ourselves with food!

See all of our adventures in Japan!

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9 thoughts on “Restaurant on a Stick in Osaka, Japan”

  1. This reminds me of walking down the street in NYC with my nephew, who is Japanese, and he bought us some street food: fried octopus balls. I ate mine–gingerly. He popped his whole in his mouth and chomped away. 

  2. Awesome! Many years ago there was a restaurant here in Los Angeles that was similar, with everything served on sticks. You’d sit at the bar and order whatever looked or sounded good, one stick at a time. Much of it was deep-fried, but some grilled. Each person had a cup to put their used sticks in and that’s how you were charged: they’d count the sticks and you paid so much per stick. They had photos all over the walls of the champion eaters who had eaten more than 50 sticks. I think 22 was the most I ever consumed and I’m a big guy. That place was so much fun, but sadly is no longer here.

  3. This looks amazing! I want to taste everything! I love the idea of lotus root stuffed with mushrooms! Snow crab wrapped with Kadaif? What is Kadaif? This is awesome! 

    1. I absolutely fell in love with lotus root while traveling all over Asia. So many variations on the preparation. Kadaif is kind of like angel hair pasta, that’s the best description I can give it. ;)

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