Osaka, Japan｜Oban

Talk about service! This place catered for us and our little 1 yr old baby. The waitress was so thoughtful and patient with us. The food was delicious, we ordered different skewers to try, the pork skewers were delish. The beef skewers were so soft and there were two sauces you can order. Both were just as amazing! I couldn’t remember which one was which but the one with the sesame was the best! The liver was not my husbands favourite. If you don’t like the metallic taste. The quail egg was chewy and soft on the inside, it went well with the mustard. The chicken bowl was a winner for my baby! The salmon rice bowl had soup in it, the soup flavour was nice but the chicken bowl def trumped it! And the Japanese hakushu whiskey was only $8 much cheaper than the whiskey bars, the plum wine and apricot wine was $5.50 and $6. Both were exquisite!

We highly recommend eating at Oban! We came across Oban in a Google search and decided to try it. A small cozy restaurant with great service and friendly staff whom also included the owners; a very friendly couple. Kids are welcome and they also have an English menu. Some English spoken with server and owner/chef. It was a little bit of a walk from Shin-Osaka station and was pouring rain when we went but we were so happy we decided to come here. The owners even thanked us for coming to support their restaurant in the pouring rain. Flavours for everything we ate was so delicious! We loved every dish. The seasoning on the chicken wings were so amazing we had to order more. We ordered so much pork belly too. Two members from our travel group loved this restaurant so much they came back the next night and ordered everything else they didn’t try on the menu the night before. A definite must try restaurant!

We have been to this restaurant two days in a row now. It was a bit out of the way from our hotel but we couldn't resist going back a second time (possibly a third before we leave Osaka). We were craving yakitori and other grilled foods and this place seemed to have some pretty good reviews and someone commented saying there was an English menu so we decided to give it a shot and we are so glad we did. The first time we came we were seated immediately and served edamame to start. They were kind enough to ask what language we would like the menu in. Although our two waitresses didn't speak too much English, our experience here was beyond our expectations. When they ran out of our preferred sauce for the beef skirt, they brought over a small bowl of another seasoning for us to try to make sure we would be happy with the replacement. One of the waitresses is humourous and made sure we knew what we were being served, verbally and by actions such as flapping her arms to mimick chicken wings. This made us feel very welcomed despite the language barrier. We were also instructed that the second bowl under the edamame was for the pods in addition to the wooden cup being used for the disposal of used skewers, all by action because of the language barrier. We appreciated their particular attentiveness to us and to show us how to eat like the locals do. The food was stellar! We ordered the grilled chicken skin, chicken wings, pork belly, shishito peppers (please note it comes with Bonito flakes on top), chicken and leek, beef skirt, enoki mushrooms and butter, sweet potato and butter (we ordered the small and it was a big potato), two Sapporo Black, and a green apple chu hai. Everything was grilled to perfection and the green apple chu hai was dangerously good! I couldn't even taste the alcohol. We did a quick round two of our favourites before their last call at 9:30. Second time we were told to wait outside for a bit as they were at capacity. Someone came out to ask us on their mobile device if we were okay to wait 10 minutes. The wait was about 2 minutes and we got edamame to start again. This time we ordered their assortment of skewers which came with chicken and leek, chicken hearts, chicken liver, chicken neck, chicken gjzzards, chicken skin, and chicken meatballs. All were perfectly cooked and seasoned. We also ordered the assorted Japanese pickles which were lovely and a nice palette cleanser. I ordered the salmon ochazuke and it was my first time having it. I am now instantly a fan. It felt like a home made dish filled with love). We reordered the shishito peppers, pork belly, chicken and leek (lots of this as it is my partner's favourite), enoki and butter. We also ordered two Sapporo Black and a grape chu hai. The chu hai was a bit stronger this time around but still delicious. As the guests were thinning down, the staff asked where we were from and made conversation with us using their mobile devices. They were all so personable not just sign us but with other guests and we highly recommend locals and other visitors to Osaka to visit. You won't regret it!