Kushi-katsu is a famous food in Osaka and is easy to enjoy even for travelers on a budget. It’s essentially all sorts of things deep-fried on a skewer - how can you go wrong? In truth, there is only one way to go wrong - DON’T DOUBLE DIP! There’s usually a communal tin of dipping sauce that is shared among all the customers that are, have and will use your table! So it's a bit gross to dip your food back into the sauce tin once you’ve taken a bite, so please avoid that traumatic faux-pa. ;)
Popular kushi-katsu ingredients include meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc), seafood (fish, clams, shrimps, cuttlefish etc), vegetables (bamboo sprouts, asparagus, sweet green pepper, potato, sweet potato, etc), and other things (tofu, cheese, red picked ginger, sausages, chorizo, mochi, etc).
The dipping sauce is made from a combination of Japanese worcestershire sauce and tonkatsu sauce. Each skewer will cost about 100 or 200 yen, meaning you can easily order and eat just as much as you want.
Price per person:
¥800 ~ ¥1500
- Where can I eat it? -
Kushikatsu restaurants are a common sight all over Osaka, but it's particularly famous in a part of Southern Osaka called "Shinsekai". It's a colorful, old, low-rent district that houses "Tsutenkaku" (Osaka tower), Spa-World and a whole host of cheap, gaudy and fun kushikatsu restaurants. There's also one that we recommend near Namba, that you can find in our handy restaurant guide. Click the link below to access it directly.
