We went deep into the tiny streets behind the street food main areas.

We tried a lot of different food from the stalls in the main area. But we had heard about okonomiyaki, which is a pancake-like dish popular in various styles across Japan. In Osaka they use shredded cabbage and a whole range of other ingredients such as squid, prawn, octopus or meat are mixed into a flour based batter and cooked before eaten with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, green laver and dried bonito.

It is not possible to get in the normal street food stalls, you have to find a restaurant that serves this. We went into the tiniest of “streets” and found Yaki Zen. In this restaurant, the okonomiyaki was prepared by ourselves on a hot plate at our table. It was SO good. Such a strange dish, but so tasty and like nothing else we ever tried.

If you go to Osaka to eat, you should definitely not miss out on this special dish.