Kani Doraku is another popular restaurant to go to if you love crab. You can’t miss it! Look for the huge crab sign:
Kani Doraku crab sign
They have 3 locations just along Dotonbori street but the main store is Dotonbori Honten, which is closest to the Glico sign.
As soon as you walk in, there’s a reception area that greets you and asks how many are in your party. Then you take an elevator to go up to the other floors where the dining areas are. There’s actually 7 floors and some private rooms available as well! As you get to the dining area, you’re asked to remove your shoes and the workers actually store them in cubbies. Everything was so clean in here. Even the washrooms! It’s a very traditional Japanese feel and the servers are mostly all older women dressed in kimonos. I was able to get a picture with one of them hehe.
There’s lots of choices on the menu but the 4 of us each went for a different lunch set since they’re good value and you get to try a whole bunch of stuff. We had the Ai (¥2100), Akane (¥2600), Moegi (¥3600), and Wakana (¥4200) lunch specials and just shared everything. There’s slight variations to each set and some are larger than others but they’re basically all crab dishes cooked different ways and they each come with the boiled crab and chawanmushi (steamed egg custard) with crab.
Crab galore!
Everything was presented nicely and looked so yummy… But the taste was even better! Honestly, everything was so delicious and cooked well. I even used my hands so I could get all the crab meat and I don’t normally like to get my hands dirty haha.
The highlights for us were the crab tempura, the crab rice, and the crab sashimi if you can get past the sliminess (I had never eaten raw crab before but this was so fresh and a unique experience– eat it with wasabi though!)
We had a such a fun time dining here and the servers were all lovely (limited English but we got the gist of it). It felt luxurious but cozy at the same time. I highly recommend that you go here for the lunch specials since it’s a lot cheaper compared to dinner and you still get to try many different crab dishes. Of course, it’s still pricier than eating out elsewhere, but it was worth it. Kani Doraku was one of the most memorable parts of our trip to Osaka and I’d love to go back! 😀 Make sure to stop by here if you’re in the area!
Hungry Coco Vancouver Food Blog 