Wataru — Restaurant in Osaka

A local restaurant serving local (mainly seafood) food to local clients. Our hotel concierge recommend and booked table for us when we asked for a "local" sashimi place. It's located in the end of an alley, even Google Maps missed Its entrance. It has 8 sushi counter stools and several tables, all waitresses are courteous and patient since we have to use translator app on our phones to communicate. We sat at the counter. Menu banners and menus on walls are in Japanese. A lot of guessing game when comes to ordering, a lot of finger pointing (on phone pictures and translation). One thing I was sure is ordering my sake by pointing at the bottles kept in the fridge beside us). We ended up ordering oysters, sea urchin, fatty tuna, grilled cod ....... All are fresh, well presented, just the way we like and enjoy. We have a great time and contented tummy. Definitely the best meal so far in this Osaka trip. Hope we can come back...

Overall, this place made my favourite dining experience during my trip to Japan. We randomly ended up here on the restaurant's first anniversary, so they offered us a nice glass of Champagne. The sushi is simply amazing and comes in many forms: raw, cooked, steamed. Everything is tasty and the environment is warm, kind, funny and informal. The price is good given the outstanding quality (5 sushi pieces are ¥1,000 - ¥2,000, depending on the type of fish). It's not trivial to find it, you'll have to cross a bike parking station and go on the left. Absolutely...

I spoke broken Japanese, they spoke broken English, we had the best sushi experience from a "local joint" in Osaka. The staff there made our night. We almost missed this great place but so glad we found it. They were able to get us a multiple sushi course and great sake pair. At the end of the night we were fast friends with the staff. They showed that great Japanese hospitality and if ever back, this is one of our first stops. Don't miss this gem of a place, close to...