BOTEJYU Flagship Store Dotonbori — Restaurant in Osaka

Located on the main Dotonbori mall, which at night is a crowded neon-lit carnival, Botejyu is a quiet clean haven, located on the second floor of the Comrade Doton Building, in air-conditioned comfort (perfect after walking the streets on a hot summer's night). For the uninitiated you need to make a reservation on the automated entrance machine, which was relatively easy when you have Japanese speaking guide with you. Once we made our reservation, we were escorted quickly inside to a comfortable booth not too far away from the teppan (a flat stainless-steel griddle), so we got a great view of the chefs preparing various dishes.

The menu and ordering are accessed on your smartphone via a QR code, which proved more difficult than we anticipated. We ended up getting our Japanese guide to place our orders with the waitstaff directly.

The restaurant has been around since 1946, and its speciality is Okonomiyaki (Osaka-style). Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients (such as shredded cabbage, meat and eggs) cooked on a teppan. Botejyu has been making Okonomiyaki since it opened, which in my humble opinion they have perfected. It is similar but different in construction to the Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki.

Watching the skill and dexterity of the chefs as they whisked up dish after dish was impressive. Our Okonomiyaki which didn't take long to arrive was place on the hot plate in the middle of the table, which meant it never got cold. The chilled beer in the icy glass was a perfect accompaniment.

The food here was delicious and at the risk of offending our Hiroshima guide was better than the Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. It is definitely worth searching out and having...

Okay, I’m shocked this place only has 3.8 stars as I type this. Sure, the service was okay, but the food blew me out of the park. I got the garlic shrimp, Matcha alcoholic drink, Kobe beef Yakisoba noodles, and some spicy/non-spicy gyozas with a glass of coke. All food was flavorful and AMAZING!! My taste buds bowed. I even returned during my stay only to find an extremely long line so I am forever thankful the rain did something the night we went because we got sat within 20 minutes. Osaka’s over-all food IS delicious. I already intend to visit this beautiful country again, and will need to revisit Osaka for the...

Poor quality of service, saw 3 tables of 2 ppl seated at tables for 4, yet me and my family had to sit at the bar like a bunch of drunk businessmen. Waited 2 hrs to get inside and still was seated at bar- service at this place is a joke- if I could give less then 1 star I would. I don’t recommend to any tourists or locals- this place has been around since 1946, you’d think they would have learned to run a professional business since then. Hire some More ppl, buy some more tables and put a f@&$@ing time limit so grandmas don’t sit here nursing one Namba beer for 1.5...