Osaka: Kani Doraku Crab Restaurant

02 March 2009 20:30 (Monday)

You've travelled 4940km from Singapore to Osaka... you've spent the earlier part of the day exhausting all your energy in a Universal Studios where the super heroes speak Japanese... You are suffering from the unfamiliar cold of close to 0 degrees... You are tired and hungry... you see this large crab above a restaurant which is suppose to be the iconic restaurant of Osaka... what do you do? We know what we did..... we smiled, walked in and asked for a table for 2... non smoking section please :)

Kani Doraku is one of the most famous crab restaurants in Osaka. The six and a half meter crab at the front of the restaurant is mechanized which means its arms and eyestalks move! Built in 1960, this mechanical billboard soon spawned imitations, including a squid that puffs steam and oni (demons) that light up at night. We were soon to find out why it's so famous..... food was Marvelicious!!!


Cute Crab Chopstick Rest.


So many things to order on the menu so we decided to go with one of the sets. Started off with this cold crab starter along with some jelly thingy and a bowl of prawn and brocolli in some yummy sauce...


Crab Jelly + Prawn & Brocolli...


Cold Crab Starter...


More Cold Crab with an option of 3 different sauces...


Crab Sashimi! Now, that's something you don't get here in Singapore everyday!!! Texture was a little strange cos it was soft yet chewy. But the meat was so sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!


Crab Chawamushi... check out the little bowl they serve it in, so nice... like a peach!


Crab, potato and cheese in a sizzling hot plate...


More Crab... this one cooked in some sauce...


Ok, this was interesting. What you have is a bowl of rice served over a burning stove. The waitress told us to leave the rice cooking for about 15 mins. Once it's cooked, you are suppose to place the crab into the rice and then you see that little tea pot? It contains some sort of soup base which u are suppose to mix into the rice and the crab... How strange...


Crab mixed into the rice after 15 mins...


Soup based mixed into the rice and the crab..... stirred for a few minutes and scooped up on a plate. The taste of the whole dish was refreshingly nice!


And finally, we finished off our dinner with Macha Ice Cream. But here's the twist... instead of serving us a Green Tea Ice cream, it was a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream with concentrated Green Tea sauce distributed over it. That had gotta be the most awesome Macha Ice Cream we have ever had!!

Kani Doraku isn't the cheapest of restaurants, heck i wouldn't even consider it to be in the mid range pricing. It's rather expensive and u will find yourself down by a couple of hundreds if you go ala-carte. The Set Menus were rather comprehensive and it certainly helps manage the dinner cost. If you have been to a crab restaurant in Hokkaido then my recommendation would be to give this a miss cos while it is very good, it ain't as good as those in Hokkaido. But if you haven't been to Hokkaido and don't plan to go there for awhile, then you are going to have the best crab meal of your life here :)


Kani Doraku Crab Restaurant
1-6-18 Dotonbori, Osaka
Tel: 06-6211-8975