Hanagatami (Ritz-Carlton Osaka)

Ritz-Carlton hotels all over the world play host to some of the finest restaurants in their respective countries' culinary scenes, and the Ritz-Carlton Osaka is no exception. In fact, it has done better than most of its contemporaries: two of its restaurants have been mentioned in the Michelin Guide. While La Baie wows guests from all over the world with its French cuisine, it's Hanagatami on the fifth floor that people go to for a taste of Japanese cuisine. The 125-seat restaurant has several different counters spanning the gamut of Japanese cuisine, from teppanyaki, to tempura, to sushi, to kaiseki. Of these, it was the tempura section that first garnered it a Michelin star in the Michelin Guide Osaka 2018. According to the Michelin Guide, the restaurant reduces gluten in the batter by first freezing it to sub-zero temperatures, which positively affects its texture. It's then fried in a special blend of sesame and safflower oil, in one of the two huge half dome-shaped tempura fryers at the 10-seat counter (their elegant shapes aren't just aesthetic, they're shaped as such to stop any oil from accidentally splashing onto guests). Omakase tempura at a counter — especially at a Michelin-starred one — is an unmissable experience. The expert chefs at Hanagatami's tempura counter have experience frying every piece to crispy perfection. Ingredients are luxurious, with unorthodox culinary combinations like wagyu beef and truffle salt, or sea urchin and nori seaweed. Of course, that doesn't mean that Hanagatami's non-tempura options should be overlooked. All of them, from sushi to kaiseki to traditional irori-yaki charcoal grilling, use fine ingredients like kuroge wagyu black beef, and display the finest mastery of culinary skill. Michelin Guide: 2018 - 1 Michelin Star 2024 - Michelin Selected