Tsuruhashi Fugetsu Namba ★ 4.1
The Namba branch of Osaka's famous okonomiyaki chain, serving thin lacy batter with pork belly or squid at a teppan counter near Dotonbori canal.
Order: ['Classic buta-tama', 'Kimchi okonomiyaki', 'Yakisoba']
History
Tsuruhashi grew up around Osaka's Korean diaspora after the 1923 Kanto earthquake displaced workers and again after 1945. The black-market food stalls under the JR rail line became a permanent Korean-Japanese quarter; yakiniku as a sit-down genre was formalised here in the 1950s. The Tsuruhashi tradition keeps the meat lightly marinated and the offal varieties wider than the Tokyo branches that followed.
Common allergens: Soy, Sesame
Make it at home
Ingredients
- 600g beef short rib, sliced 4mm against the grain
- 300g beef skirt steak (harami), sliced 5mm
- 200g beef tongue, sliced very thin
- 200g large intestine (shiro horumon), cleaned and blanched
- For the marinade: 80ml soy sauce
- 40ml mirin
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic grated
- 1 thumb ginger grated
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- For the dipping sauce: 80ml soy sauce, 2 tablespoons grated daikon, juice of half a lemon, 1 sliced spring onion
- 1 head Romaine or red leaf lettuce, leaves separated, to wrap
- Cooked white rice, kimchi and beer, to serve
Method
- Mix the marinade in a wide dish. Add the short rib and skirt and turn to coat. Rest 30 minutes at room temperature.
- Heat a charcoal grill or a heavy ridged pan until smoking hot. Set the dipping sauce, lettuce, rice and kimchi at the table.
- Start with the tongue, 30 seconds a side over the hottest part of the grill, while the marinated cuts come up to room temperature.
- Lift the short rib and skirt out of the marinade, letting excess drip off. Grill in small batches, 60 to 90 seconds a side, until char-spotted but still pink in the middle.
- Grill the horumon last, 4 to 6 minutes turning often, until the fat is rendering and the surface is crisp.
- Eat as it comes off the grill, dipping each piece in the soy-daikon-lemon sauce and folding into a lettuce leaf with rice and kimchi.
Tip from the editors. Keep the marinade light; if the soy and sugar are too heavy the meat burns before it sears. The Tsuruhashi rooms barely marinate the higher-grade cuts at all.
Where to eat yakiniku (tsuruhashi-style)
Yakiniku (Tsuruhashi-style) in Osaka
Tsuruhashi Korean Back Alleys ★ 4.0
The lanes behind the Tsuruhashi market arcade hold family yakiniku restaurants serving offal over charcoal at ¥150 to ¥300 per skewer from the 1960s.
Why locals love it: The main Tsuruhashi market is visited; the back alleys behind it are not on any tourist map.
Tsuruhashi Koreatown Market ★ 4.4
Japan's largest Korean market surrounds Tsuruhashi station in alleys selling kimchi from stone crocks, Korean BBQ cut to order, japchae, makgeolli wine.
More cities are in research. Want yakiniku (tsuruhashi-style) covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.