Craft Beer Base Leaf: Umeda Craft Beer Base Leaf Umeda: Beer bar Leaf is a bottle shop, taproom and restaurant run by the Craft Beer Base group to showcase their beers. Ten of their fifteen taps are devoted to CBB’s innovative series of Osaka-brewed beers, with the…
This outlet of Shizuoka’s highly regarded West Coast Brewery is equipped with six taps dispensing their beers, plus a couple of fridges filled with canned and bottled product. The brewery is known for their innovative, high-quality seasonal beers, so there’s plenty to explore. There’s standing room at the front of…
This Yokohama roastery branch of the popular Naka-Meguro cafe offers both filter and espresso coffees and a nice selection of donuts. You can choose from six different single-origin beans for your hot or iced pour-over coffee, with one decaf option. The espresso side of the menu includes flavored lattes, long…
Run by the highly regarded Ise Kadoya brewery in Mie Prefecture, this Marunouchi izakaya serves regional cuisine and craft sake from Mie as well as their own craft beers. Ten varieties of Ise Kadoya beer are available on tap. As with any good izakaya, the the food menu is designed…
Located on a quiet back street between Jimbocho and Kanda, this Australian-style cafe is bright and airy, with double-height windows letting in plenty of light. They serve a typical assortment of hot and iced espresso drinks (lattes, long blacks) and filter coffee. The latter comes in your choice of three…
With its innovative juxtapositions of contrasting flavors and spices borrowed from different culinary cultures, Osaka-style “spice curry” pushes the boundaries of Japanese curry cuisine. Kyu Yamu Tetsudo embraces this tradition – their creative recipes make a strong impression, especially when experienced in multi-curry plates. They prepare four curries on any…
This charming neighborhood cafe and roastery has a stylishly casual second-floor dining space where you can stretch out a bit while enjoying your coffee and pastry. Filter coffee comes in your choice of hand-drip, Aeropress or French press, while espresso drinks include cortados, cappucinos, americanos (hot or iced) and ginger…
German wine bar Riesling offers very affordable wines and good, solid German food. The wine list features eighteen wines by the bottle, most of them in the Y4,500-6,000 range, and seven or eight by the glass. Erdinger weissbier is their draft beer. Among the wine-friendly snacks here, the zwiebelkuchen –…
The smash burgers are good and meaty here, topped with a tangy cheese sauce and served with crunchy waffle fries and optional jalapenos. The menu also features a few different burritos (Baja fish, “smash beef”, pulled pork corn), quesadillas, and Cobb and Caesar salads. Shakes come in vanilla, banana, berry,…
The City Donuts and Coffee serves good coffee and photogenic glazed donuts in many flavors and colors. There are more than a dozen to choose from at any given time, in tempting varieties like Banana Island (covered with banana slices), Cookies and Cream (topped with cream-cheese icing and crumbled Oreos),…
Have a coffee adventure at the tastefully minimalist Ogawa Coffee Laboratory, where you can select any of 19 different single-origin beans and blends. The theme of the shop is “Experience-based Bean Salon,” so go ahead, give the beans a sniff! You can choose from pour-over (hot only), espresso variations (hot…
This standing bar inside a regional antenna shop showcases sake from Toyama, Ishikawa and Fukui Prefectures – collectively known as the Hokuriku region. Between the selection behind the bar and the self-service sake dispensers, they boast the largest collection of Hokuriku sake in Kansai. When you order at the bar,…
A pioneer of Osaka’s thriving spice curry scene, Kyuyamutei produces complex original curries with a diverse mix of ingredients, flavors, textures and colors. Recipes change every month, and the three-curry plate (“zengake”) is recommended to maximize your curry experience. A tiny cruet of broth is provided to pour over your…
Twenty-two different hamburgers are served at this American-themed burger joint, with some unusual variations like Cream of Spinach Mushroom Burger, Guacamole Cream-Cheese Burger, and the Niagara Burger – a cheese-lover’s treat with toppings of Parmesan, Mozzarella, Gorgonzola and Boursin. The Special Smoked Bacon Burger showcases the shop’s excellent home-smoked bacon,…
Loiseau de France serves excellent French regional cuisine in a casual setting. They are part of the Bernard Loiseau group, which runs a handful of luxury hotels and bistrots in Burgundy. This Tokyo outpost opened in the summer of 2024 in a modern new building (by architect Sou Fujimoto) on…
Kansai-style spice curry is the specialty at Rojiura Kitchen Yonemon, and the beautifully presented three-curry combo is highly recommended. Everything we tried was very good, but one dish that especially impressed us was the Korean-style seafood curry, made with mackerel, clams, dried shrimp, and changja (spicy cod stomach). Intensely fishy…
Korosue Shoten: Motomachi Korosue Shoten Motomachi: Liquor shop This well-stocked liquor shop offers some fairly premium whiskies for tasting, with servings starting at 10ml. They’ve also got two fridges full of mostly canned craft beers, one for domestic breweries and one for imports. You can pay an…
Blue Bottle’s central-Kobe branch, designed by Tokyo’s Schemata Architects, is a gorgeous spot in which to enjoy a coffee break. It’s got a chicly minimalist concrete-and-wood decor, high ceilings, and lots and lots of space. The soundtrack is upbeat and modern without being intrusive. The coffee is reliably good. They…
