Taian — Restaurant in Osaka

I reserved Taian due to its proximity to where I was staying in Osaka and its Michelin 3-star status. When reserving this restaurant I was little apprehensive due to mixed reviews I had read. After my experience I feel I may know why people had mixed feelings about their Michelin 3-star status.

Based on my experience visiting other Michelin star restaurants, I feel they focus on innovation and pushing new culinary limits. People travel to these restaurants to experience something they cannot easily experience anywhere else.

l felt that Taian, respectfully, focused on mastering the handling of their high quality ingredients rather than experimenting with new ideas. Without doubt, a lot of love, care, and skills went into preparing each dish. If what we are used to when it comes to Michelin star restaurants is like "this dish represents the ocean and world peace" (for instance of course) Tain is like "this is perfectly prepared sashimi. This is perfectly grilled eel."

While I respect their values, I do personally believe that Michelin 3-star restaurants should challenge new boundaries. They should provide new experience that we have never had anywhere else. Especially in Japan where there are so many culinary masters, I did feel I could probably experience somrthing similar somewhere else in Japan that is not Taian.

Furthermore, everyone at the restaurant was kind and attentive, but it did take quite a long time for each dish to be prepared. The gaps between some dishes were sometimes painfully long. The server/receptionist was kind, but she was very busy. She was almost running across the room continuously to attend to everything and everyone, which was somewhat distracting. I also recommend they have a form of menu/list of food that are being served, which will make the experience more comprehensive and enjoyable.

Nevertheless, it was still an amazing experience and I really enjoyed their food and service. I would still recommend the restaurant especially if you are...

This place. is. lit.

It’s the platonic ideal of traditional Japanese fine dining: none of the stuffy atmosphere or instagram gimmicks. The food sings.

I’m truly puzzled by some of the negative reviews below, so imma explain a bit:

All your dishes are being meticulously crafted by one guy, so yep, you’re gonna have to wait for it. Fam, if you don’t wanna look at other people eating before you, just book the earliest time slot. It’s that simple: he does them in order.

It’s traditional Japanese food so yes, the flavors are not intense. If you don’t keep that in mind, it’ll be kinda like going to a classical music concert and complaining that the beats don’t go unce unce. (Which is completely fair if that’s how you roll, but you can avoid that sort of thing if you just try anything from the same genre beforehand lol)

The chef’s not rude, he’s not talking to you busy making the food perfect. He’s not unhappy to see you; he’s frowning cuz that’s his focus face. (Bruh.)

If you’ve never had fine dining before, I think you will enjoy it because it is very cool to see this sort of thing up close for the first time.

If you’re on your nth star, I think you’ll also enjoy it because there are no imperfections to this experience. It kinda makes you realize wow, at the core, this is what eating fancy af food is all about!

I think it’s amazing that experiences like this still exist in the world. We live in a time where if you want to hang a beautiful picture on your wall, you can make a copy of anything you want from a printer. But if you want to see how the master grips his paintbrush, this is the place.

Do yourself a favor when you go: Wear something pretty; turn off that phone at the door; you’re gonna have some amazing af dishes, so give it the due ceremony it deserves.

Ok, if you’re reading the reviews, and you’ve made it this far, just stop hesitating:...

Service was so slow and the whole time the chef ignored us. There was no rapport with any of the guests, and we have no idea when the next dish was coming out. Spent two hours sitting around for 8 dishes. I don’t know how this place got one Michelin star, let alone 3. Appetizers: bland. Soup: good meatball, nothing to write home about. Fish dish: fugu and some vegetable balls were ok, but the yellowtail reeks. Meat dish: spareribs in red wine sauce was good. Wife got beef, which they charged 3500 extra for Wagyu. Taro with rice powder coating: bland Soup: crab on top of egg custard, wife says it’s like the steamed egg custard with snow crab at Sushiro. Rice dish with fugu egg - salty and unappetizing. Dessert: great because I was glad the horrible dinner service was over and we can get out of there.

Seriously, save your money. You can get so much better food and service at the stalls along Dotonbori street. We’ve ate at four Michelin star/guide restaurants so far on our trip and this is the first place the Michelin guide had let us down.

The service was awful, they sat us down with guests from other time slots and food came out disorderly for different guests. There was no cohesion, and it felt like we were third rate customers watching other people eat courses ahead of us. Every other place there were set time slots and guests were all served the same thing at the same time.

Nothing about the decor/interior was special enough for three Michelin stars. People just ate in silence, and waited awkwardly in silence for the next dish, which usually takes 10-15 minutes to come out the kitchen.

Oh yeah and when we left, the chef didn’t personally come out to see us off. We saw him greet another elderly couple out before us, but when we got up to leave he just went back...