Osaka: Ramen & Pablo Cheese Tart

Osaka...the tourist hub of Japan. I think most people who have visited Japan would be most familiar with Osaka as it is one of the more easier accessible locations from abroad. This post begins our 5-day stay in Osaka, which included various day trips to nearby places. 

I didn't take many photos in Osaka for a few reasons - it's my third time there and I spent most of my time there shopping (or tagging along to someone who was shopping). For this stay, we booked the Candeo Hotels near Dotonbori, ensuring that we were close to all the attractions and food. The hotel was quite new and boasted of a rooftop spa which was quite nice. However, this hotel is constantly buzzing with tourists coming in and out (expected of Osaka). My parents were quite annoyed as there were constantly people knocking on the wrong door at the crack of dawn. Rooms are decently sized, at the very least we could open both our suitcases without having to perform acrobatics.

It started raining as we arrived in Osaka and we had to trek through the rain to reach the hotel. So once we settled in to our rooms, we headed downstairs for dinner. Rainy weather calls for....RAMEN!

Not wanting to line up at all the popular places down the main street of Dotonbori, we stopped at the first place we saw. The place was called Kibunya Dotonbori - Google Maps gives it a 4 star rating so in we go!

I ordered tsukemen and it looked amazing. Serving sizes aren't as big as it seems in the photo as there is a rack under the noodles, so it's only about half a bowl. Another thing was that the dipping sauce/soup wasn't hot enough so it wasn't that satisfying.

Dad went for the Abura-soba which I had never heard of before that day. It is very similar to the the stir-fried noodles we commonly find in Chinese food. The thick noodles and the strong flavours make this my favourite dish of the night. 10/10 will recommend.

Mum and Jellybao went for the classic ramen which was still very nice but I personally prefer the thick noodles in the tsukemen and abura-soba over the thin ramen noodles.

The other highlight of the night was this karaage chicken! The salt and pepper mixed with the Kewpie mayonnaise was the perfect match for the fresh out of the fryer chicken. The chicken was so good that we even ordered seconds.

After such a satisfying dinner we went off to explore Dotonbori!

And that's when I randomly saw Pablo. I wasn't even looking out for it like I normally do with these sort of things. Pablo recently came to Australia, but the classic tart costs about $20!!!! I still haven't had it in Australia because it's such a rip - I went in to find that the class tart only costs approx ¥800! :O

And there was no queue! Funny story with the sales assistant lady was that she was extremely smiley to the extent it was awkward and I couldn't concentrate on what she was saying and just ended up nodding awkwardly. She's the exact type that should be working at Disneyland waving their hands at you when you jet off on a rollercoaster.

The glorious Pablo tart. Despite it's photogenic appearance, this tart is actually quite faint in its cheese taste. Instead, it feels more like an egg tart - kind of reminds me of a giant Portuguese tart from the Macau bakeries. 

I don't think I'll be going to buy another $20 anytime soon. Maybe I'll give the other variations a try when I'm back in Japan again!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post!