If you’re taking a bullet train out of or into Osaka, you will end up at Shin-Osaka Station. Fortunately, there’s a number of restaurants and places to grab snacks at here. I was at Shin-Osaka Station a couple of times and ate at two of the restaurants there.

Hokkyokusei at Shin-Osaka Station

Hokkyokusei is a restaurant that specializes in omurice. A Western influenced dish, omurice is a very common and popular Japanese dish. The beloved dish traces its history all the way back to the early 1920s. Its origin is a bit hazy, with some believing it started in Osaka, while others claim a restaurant in Tokyo was the first to offer the tasty dish. Regardless of its origin, omurice is now a national dish and another iconic food in Japan.

Omurice includes ketchup fried rice, yes ketchup fried rice, wrapped in a very thin omlette with ketchup drizzled over the egg. The egg is very crepe like, it’s a very thin layer. The ketchup fried rice is generally mixed with chicken and vegetables.

The Omurice

The omurice I got was the traditional chicken fried rice encased in the thin crepe like egg (970 yen, $6.65 USD).

This came loaded up with chicken fried rice. A little sweet, a little savory the pieces were nice and tender as well. The sauce drizzled on the plate was pretty much like a thinner, bitter ketchup. Interesting flavor to it.

Despite the omurice being loaded to the gills with fried rice, this was stll a very light meal. The egg is so light and airy. I really have no idea how they’re able to wrap the rice inside of it like they do. It seems so delicate and easy to rip. This was my first experience eating omurice and it was definitely an enjoyable breakfast. It’s certainly something I’d enjoy trying to make in the future myself. I doubt the presentation will look as good as this though!

Dashi Chazuke En at Shin-Osaka Station

Dashi Chazuke En is a chain restaurant in Japan that is know for serving ochazuke with various toppings over it.

What exactly is ochazuke? It’s a simple Japanese dish that includes a bowl of cooked rice with hot tea or dashi poured over it. You add toppings such as Japanese pickles, nori (seaweed), salted fish, and really any other topping which sounds appealing to you, you can throw in there!

This is something that I’ve eaten with my family after certain Japanese meals, essentially my entire life. We use the rice left over from the meal for it and pour tea over it and eat with pickled vegatables.

I’ve never seen ochazuke in any restaurant in my life before so I was actually quite excited to see there was a restaurant in Shin-Osaka Station whose menu tilted towards serving the dish.

It was definitley helpful that the menu was in English as well. I went with the grilled salmon and sesame kelp option (650 yen, $4.10 USD). This little meal set comes with the bowl of ochazuke a couple of side dishes and some pickled vegetables. You get your own personal teapot and pour the tea in yourself. There’s also a seasoning packet provided that you can pour into the ochazuke to add some additional flavor.

I dumped in all the side dishes and pickles as well. It all combines to make what could be considered a type of stew. With rice, salmon, pickled vegetables, there’s a whole lot of different textures to enjoy with this meal. This is definitley a comfort food for myself and it was great to be able to enjoy it in Japan. This was a perfect breakfast as I waited for my train. Light, yet filling, warm, and comforting, it was a great way to kick off the day and was extremely affordable as well!

A Lot Of Options

These are just two of the restaurants you can eat at. There’s about 10 total restuarants but over 36 total shops / restaurants / cafes within this area in the station. If you don’t want or have time for a sit down restaurant there’s a ton of places with pastries, sandwiches, sweets to choose from within Shin-Osaka Station. I wouldn’t necessarily worry about grabbing a bite to eat prior to heading over to the station, there’s plenty to choose from here!