BATTEN YOKATO AMERIKAMURA — Restaurant in Osaka

Food: 5/5 Good fresh ingredients, awesome seasoning/cooking skills Service: 4/5 Good in general Value: 4/5 Good value Ambiance: 4/5 Narrow bar counter 1st floor, 2nd floor seating. English and Korean menus available by request. (AFAIK I have not seen a menu written in Chinese)

Been a regular of Batten for the past 2 1/2 years or so, I discovered this particular location while exploring the neighborhoods off Mido-Suji Road in West Shinsaibashi (Amemura) in the Fall of 2016.

I was initially intrigued by the menu that was on the side of the street as well as the display of the various uncooked kushiyakis by the window. I inquired about seating, sadly the restaurant was full, and the server apologized and asked for me to come back again. (turned out that it was the chef owner who asked for me to come back again)

I decided to drop by a few days later, a bit earlier in the evening, and the rest is history.

BTW: The standard rule of 1 drink per person is very reasonable, some other Izakaya's have what is called a seating fee just for been able to sit at the location. At Batten Yokatoh a customer is able to order something that they want to drink, instead of paying a fee for practically a very small dish (usually some edamame, small pickles, etc).

The cooking at Batten is done using electric grills, unlike charcoal grilling it takes a lot of skill in coming up with the spices as well as the combination of spices that make up the seasoning. It also takes a lot of experience to determine when to season the kushiyakis that are on the grill as well as how much seasoning to apply and the time that each kushiyaki stays on the grill. Everything happens in real time and it takes a lot of skill and concentration.

With electric grilling, there is no enhancement of flavors of the ingredients that happens due to the charcoal smoke. Instead the combination of spices used as well as the cooking skills of the chef play a huge part in coming up with an appetizing and addicting final product.

I have tried a substantial number of the kushiyakis in the menu as well as some of several seasonal offerings, and everything has been good, no reservations whatsoever.

Unlike other restaurants that might season or dip everything using a generic sauce, every single skewer is seasoned separately, as such you won't find redundant flavors as you progress through the meal when you try different kushiyakis.

For a first time diner, the best value for ordering is to go for either the 5/7/9 kushiyaki set where the chef manning the grill decides on the kushiyakis that make up the set that is to be served to the customer.

The set themselves are well designed, and allows a first time diner to experience a dynamic range of flavors and textures that are representative of the kushiyakis at the restaurant.

The kushiyakis are served in a specific order to enhance the overall dining experience.

The Hakata style of eating kushiyakis is to take a bite of the kushiyaki then proceed by taking a bite of the cabbage, the cabbage serves as a palette cleanser between bites as well as an enhancer for digestion. The ponzu sauce on the cabbage has citric acid to also help with the digestion and to also act like a palette cleanser between bites.

I usually end up ordering a 9 kushiyaki set, then order anywhere from 4 to 7 additional kushiyakis.

To finish the meal either a Tamago Kake Gohan (TKG) a quail egg over steamed rice with kimchi and ground meat, or some of the housemade Soba and Soba-yu (Soba broth) or some Onigiri (rice ball) usually hits the spot.

There is also a sister location in Higashi Shinsaibashi that has a more open seating area, with more elbow room. The owner also opened a restaurant in Seoul last Fall staffed by some of the former employees that used to work at either the Amemura or the Higashi Shinsaibashi locations of Batten Yokatoh.

Highly recommend going early at this location to maximize the chances of been able...

An honest review:

I’ve dined here 3 times already - a testament to how much i love their food. But my supposed 4th time takes the cake for HORRIBLE customer service (or lack thereof). We were in queue at 11pm way before closing time. We can clearly see people leaving and tables getting freed up. But we still had to wait for 1hr and 30mins only to find out they weren’t accepting customers anymore. They can clearly see us waiting but no one bothered to tell us off. Although food is great, i can no longer bring myself to support them because customer service is Always part of the experience.

On our 3rd time also, we listed down our orders but only half came up. We followed up on the rest but it turns out they’re “sold out” already. Again, we waited for nothing. They could’ve just easily told us so we’d stop expecting.

We wonder if these experiences were because we were foreigners. It’s sad...

It’s our last day in Japan, and we decided to have skewers on our last night! Honestly wish we discovered this earlier!!

The dishes I’d recommend are: Tofu with cheese (must get!!!) deep fried corn chicken skin chicken thigh homemade meatball Eringi mushroom Basically everything at this point…. The chef grills them in front of you, and staff are super friendly!

The price is also reasonable!!

When looking at reviews, I saw a few complains about having to order drinks pp at this restaurant, however it is actually really common at most Japanese restaurants!

We also went early like 4:30PM for an early dinner hence there’s no line at all! We will 100% come back to this next time when we are back! Thank you for a...