I was able to cross off many things on my bucket list during this trip to Japan and one of the items was eating my heart out at Dotonburi in Osaka, Japan. E and I spent a good afternoon here eating and wandering in and out of the streets until our tummies couldn’t handle it anymore! Dotonburi is a very popular tourist area in Osaka serving a wide array of different foods. They have endless food stalls, restaurants, trendy shopping stores where you can find many international brands – which are all situated along the Dotonburi canal.
Dotonburi is opened all day and night so if you want to beat the crowds, the best time to come is in the mornings or early afternoons. Evenings is their peak time. However, I did notice that many of the fast food vendors are very efficient regardless the time of the day so even if you see a line at a vendor, you’re not necessarily waiting for a very long time unless you’re in line waiting to dine inside a restaurant. We visited Dotonburi once in the afternoon for lunch and once in the evening to soak in the night life. This area is extremely lively in the evenings.
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Dotonburi is packed with delicious eateries and I’ve included photos of the best nibbles I had during my visit. I forgot the name of the dumplings shop but its hard to miss it because there is a gigantic dumpling sign above the shop.
Following along the same street as the dumpling shop, you’ll find one of my favourite beef vendors selling some darn good short ribs. We came back to Dotonburi a separate time during the same trip just for this.
Besides food, you’ll find a lot of souvenir shops and a shopping street in the same area. Without realizing it, we somehow spent a lot of time at Don Quijote wandering up and down the aisles of souvenirs at a discount price! This is my one stop shop to buy all my souvenirs for friends and family. You can find everything here. I’ve been to a few Don Quijote locations between Osaka and Tokyo and they all have many many floors. There are numerous Don Quijote locations across Japan.
Creo-Ru is known for their takoyaki and okonomyaki. They have a food stall outside their shop and restaurant in the level above. We chose to dine in and ordered a bunch of other items to try via their iPad menu.
Last but not least, we did not know what they hype was about until we decided to follow others into a long line to try one of these popular melon pans from a truck. These were hot and delicious! I would best describe them as a combination of a Chinese pineapple bun mixed with a Chinese coconut bun. I opted for a regular melon pan for my first try. You can add different flavours of ice creams to your melon pan and make it into a sandwcih if you fancy. The best melon pans in my opinion are from Asakusa but these are still good if you just want to try!
Hope you enjoyed my post and let me know in the comments what your favourite food stalls are in Dotonburi! Stay tuned for the many many Japan posts that are coming soon!
