MEIDI-YA Osaka Namba Store — Local services in Osaka

This is a large grocery store in the basement of a big department store. They have a great selection of Japanese and some international groceries and are a little higher priced compared to other grocery stores in the city. I personally love their fish and meat counters. If you're an international customer, don't be scared - although not everyone speaks English, they are very helpful and you can communicate a bit with a translator app. I'm an allergic and found some gluten free bread and buckwheat soba noodles here.

At the first visit, I found the place a bit confusing, since there are many different serviced counters and self-service shelves. I wasn't sure what should be paid directly at the counter and which checkout registers belongs to what part...

Good supermarket filled with lots of fresh fruits and veggies. During strawberry season from Jan to Mar, they also have Amaou strawberries!

If you love strawberries, you absolutely MUST try the Amaou variants from Fukuoka. They aren't called King of Strawberries for nothing.

And because the best specimens are reserved for the domestic market, it only makes sense to pay and eat at local prices when you are in Japan instead of paying a double or triple premium to eat the airfreighted not-so-good ones outside of Japan.

I gorged every week on Amaou and Sagahonoka (king and queen) from Meidi-Ya and other grocery stores while on Kyushu-Osaka holiday in Feb and Mar and still...

Large supermarket at the basement of Takashimaya shopping mall. You get a variety of fresh produce including seafood, vegetsbles and fruits to bottled and canned dried goods to serve your needs. The atmosphere within this floor is always amazing, especially with the vendors pushing their products innovatively while shoppers indulge in the selections on offer. Pricing is a little on the higher side if you compare with their competitors, but one thing for sure is most of their produce are of...