かしや

Creamy soups are all the rage in Osaka these days. At Kashiya, in the Tamade area of Southern Osaka, you can choose to go creamy or choose to go light. The creamy “cappuccino” style tonkotsu ramen is the signature dish.

The weather was fantastic, so I took a boat out for the day. Osaka is and always has been a major port city, with waterways hosting all sorts of industry.

By the way, if you or your friends are coming to Japan and want me to take you out on a boat ride, just let me know! I have a Meetup.com group for rides around the Tokyo area, but if you can get a crew together I’m happy to take the helm if I have free time that day. It is really something special! Just DM me @ramenadventures and I’ll set something up!

Back to the ramen. In 2022 I spent a total of 40 days crushing ramen in Osaka. I made it a mission to eat at every shop on Tabelog’s Top 100 list. There are around 70 shops on the East Japan list, so I had my work cut out for me. That said, hotels were dead cheap during the pandemic, and a 10-day stay at a cool boutique hotel was cheaper than the train ticket to get out there. Crush ramen, drive boats, and drink craft beer. It was a nice time in my life.

Kashiya serves foamy tonkotsu ramen. An already creamy soup is frothed up with a hand mixer to aerate it even more. This style seems to be a hit in Osaka, though most shops are doing it with creamy chicken soup. Awakei (泡系) means bubble style. The whole thing is accented with niboshi and katsuo dried fish.

Homemade medium-thick noodles for the tonkotsu ramen are a point of pride at Kashiya. The master often makes slight changes to the recipe, but you can expect a nice match with the soup style. The thin noodles for other ramen styles are ordered from noodle factory.

Master Kashiwabara (柏原さん) worked at a Chinese restaurant for a year after graduating high school before joining his family’s interior design business for the next dozen or so years. At the age of 33 he returned to noodle making as a side job at Watamen (綿麺) before going independent in 2010. He kept the secret of working at a famous shop to himself, but word of mouth spread and his shop was featured on television and magazines.

Official Instagram here.

Ramen Adventures

Ramen Shop Reviews from Japan and Abroad

かしや (Kashiya in Osaka)

らーめん颯人 (Hayato in Osaka)

麺元素 (Mengenso in Osaka)

五代目けいすけ (Keisuke #5 in Shinjuku)

かしや (Kashiya in Osaka)

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らーめん颯人 (Hayato in Osaka)

麺元素 (Mengenso in Osaka)

五代目けいすけ (Keisuke #5 in Shinjuku)