Reminiscing Osaka Chuka Cuisine 中華料理

Following a recent visit to the new Osaka Ohsho restaurant at Nex, hubby and I had an instant recollection of the delicious Chuka cuisine 中華料理 we had in Osaka back in 2008. We mainly patronized two places, one specialized in Chinese Bao, Siew Mai & Gyoza on top of various Chinese set meals, the other does Mapo Tofu rice and Dan Dan noodles best.

551蓬莱 (551 Horai)
They are doing a brisk business selling takeaways Pork Buns (豚まん), Pork and Prawn Siew Mai (焼売) and Gyoza (餃子) over the counter. Turnover is pretty high, so the food are still warm by the time we were back at the hotel.

餃子１０個入：260円

エビ焼売１２個入：600円

The Takeaways - The Gyoza were pretty good, with crispy base and moist pork fillings. Ebi Siew Mai were not too bad as well, but cannot fight with the Cantonese Dim Sum we have in SG.

Dine In - we dined at 551 Horai twice, once at the Shin-Osaka station 新大阪駅 (above photo) and once at Namba station (難波駅) located at Osaka city center. Both times, we had their Chuka (中華) set meals.

Now then I remembered I did had Tenshin rice once before, but it didn't come across as a memorable dish. It probably tasted like ordinary Omurice drenched in a thick gravy. Their Horfun and 生麵 (Crispy noodle in gravy) also tasted different from our usual zichar stalls. They were good but not great.

However, the fried rice and stir-fry beef was outstanding. I tried a bit of hubby's fried rice, it has powerful wok hei and rice grains were individually coated with seasoning, thumbs up. Hubby was very happy with the beef, it was cooked just right, tender and juicy. My set meal with Sweet & Sour pork 咕噜肉, Crispy Battered prawns and Omelette in gravy was very good as well...the 咕噜肉 was extremely well executed and taste pretty much like our zichar version.

Fond memories of these dishes still lingers...


陳麻家 (Chin-ma-ya)
We dined in once at 陳麻家, this tiny eatery is just across the street from our hotel. Most patrons are locals.

This restaurant has two main specialties, 陳麻飯 and 担々麺. Greedy me ordered a set that serves both (half portion each). Hubby had the full portion 陳麻飯 (Mapo Tofu rice). We also ordered a small size appetizer of 小籠包 (Xiao Long Bao) to try.

They executed the Mapo Tofu perfectly, its very spicy and full of Sichuan style flavor, best eaten with plain rice. The spicy 担々麺 was really spicy as well...very unusual of a typical Jap eatery cos Japs can't really take spicy stuffs. Last but not least, their 小籠包 was deliciously authentic.

Hubby couldn't remember most of the restaurant names he had dined in, but he remembers 陳麻!


For shop details and food menu, please visit their official websites at:

551Horai
Chin-ma-ya