Adventure #122: Kani Doraku (Osaka)

There is a crab specialty shop in the Donburi area.  The facade of the shop is extremely touristy with a giant moving crab as its logo and we are sure we have passed this shop before on our last trip here 16 years ago.  But the guide book said lunch (up to 4pm) is relative good value and the food has a big thumbs up, so we decied to give it a try.

We were seated on the 4th floor with a window view overlooking the canal that runs through the heart of the Shinsaibashi/Dontonbori shopping area.  Non-smoking.  Shoes off.  Very comfortable.

As the little one is not a crab fan, we ordered a combo of 3 set menus to share amongst the 4 of us.

花鼓 Hanatsuzumi



花霞 Hanakasumi

The first dish was cold crab legs.  The crabs were pretty tasty and even the little one joined in (probably because of the savoury soy dip).  The crab and steamed egg was also pretty good.


Cold crab legs

Crab and steamed egg

The crab croquettes were disappointing as it didn't taste of crab and had too much cream sauce in it.  The rest of us didn't think much of the crab gratin either but the older one loved the mac and cheese bit.

Crab croquettes

Crab gratin over macaroni cheese

The grilled crab was pretty average and most of us preferred the cold version, save for the little one.  The crab sushi was definitely not a strong suite of the whole course but helped to fill us up.

Grilled crab

Crab sushi

Overall, an interesting joint to visit and it was a welcomed break from days of standard Japanese fare of ramen, udon, tempura rice etc.  Nevertheless, if we had to go for crab, we prefer the Malaysian/Singaporean giant meaty crabs in chilli, marmite, salty egg etc sauce or even simple steamed dungeness crab dipped in melted butter from the US North-West coast.