HI-RI-N — Restaurant in Osaka

I found this restaurant while searching Google maps. Saw some pretty photos but didn't really investigate any more than that before choosing to give a try. Getting there was a little tricky and the storefront is completely unassuming... We were a little concerned that we we're going to walk into someone's living room... But bravely tested the door anyway.

We were greeted by the hostess / cook (presumed owner) and she was a real sweetheart. She directed us to the dining space and gave us some English menus.

The space appears to be a repurposed home that was long ago stripped. There's a deconstructionist artistic vibe to the space. It is highly rustic yet still comfortable, and visually intriguing. It's quite small on the inside, if I had to guess I would say it can only serve maybe a dozen people at a time. So to say not for large parties.

We sat down and reviewed the menus and it was at that point I realized, I accidentally chose a vegan restaurant... My company was mildly distressed in that notion, however, we decided to give it a go.

Menu has a few different options, seasonal veggies, seafood veggies, and mushrooms. You then choose the Curry /broth base, and then your add-ons. Standard drinks, beer l, and sake are also available. We chose sake.

For the meal, we chose opposites as to more fully sample of the menu, and selected medium spiciness.

After a reasonable amount of time she came out of the kitchen with two piping hot bowls. The presentation was quite nice and I gave us the opportunity to eat first with our eyes.

We let them come down in temperature a little and dug in... My guest and I traded bites of one another's meals, and both bases were quite delicious. Being foreigners, I can't say exactly what veggies we ate, but there was no shortage of texture and flavor variety... And if you end up here and you're normally a meat eater, don't worry just add mushrooms, they're savory chew is a delightful substitute... That said, two things my company and I agreed upon, this meal was leagues ahead of what we were expecting, and we didn't know vegetables could taste that good.

I have additional company coming to town in the upcoming weeks, and without a doubt I will be taking them...

Let me start from the most important aspect: health.

While this place is vegan, the food in it is not healthy. Almost every single ingredient (even veggies!) is deep-fried before it ends up in curry soup-ramen. As a result instead of having broth + some healthy ingredients, you end up with substance that consists of almost oil.

Keep in mind that eating deep-fried foods has been linked to higher cholesterol levels, obesity, heart attacks, and diabetes. Why not to treat your customers with a healthy food? Why is that the case that when one eats out, they get their body poisoned?

While greasy, deep-fried food is very common in the Japanese restaurants, I am puzzled why the restaurants are not offering healthy alternatives. I'm fine with people who are looking intentionally or unintentionally to damage their health (in the end - it's up to them) but I believe that restaurants can do better than that and offer non-greasy food to their customers.

We can do better as a society and humankind and those $$$ can be also made from healthy alternatives that are great for...

Hidden gem Probly my 2nd to first favorite restorant in osaka, had to write this review because its lacking some and i almost skipped that place for that reason, lets be clear. Its WAY above the other restorants in osaka, wich are already amazing so please give it a go. There is one dish with 3 declinasions, the ingrédients are super high quality and the cooking skills are incredible this should be enough reason to visit this place but wait there is more ! The place is an authentic japanese house with an incredible aura so this also could be a reason by itself to check it out. Last but not least, the owner is a super nice and helpfull person ( beside being an incredible chef). Just so you know, she allows you to "customise" your dish in many ways, including spicyness, plz take care, i choosed lvl 1 ( zéro) out of 5 and it was perfect for me but i can take a bit of Spice and Just been trained 4 month in indonesia so if you Just cant take any Spice mention it so you dont get your expérience ruined it would be so sad.

Points positifs: Everything, Seriously,...