Jiyuken Namba Honten

Restaurant · Yoshoku and curry$Namba (Chuo-ku), Osaka

Osaka's first Western-style restaurant, opened in 1910, famous for its pre-mixed curry rice topped with a raw egg, a favourite of writer Sakunosuke Oda.

At a glance

Type: Yoshoku and curry
Area: Namba (Chuo-ku), Osaka, Japan
Price: $ · Budget

Good to know

Historic restaurant
Cash only
Closed Mondays

Why we recommend it

Jiyuken opened in 1910 and describes itself as Osaka's first Western-style restaurant, part of the wave of yoshoku restaurants that introduced Japanese diners to dishes such as curry, cutlets, croquettes and hamburg steak. More than a century later it is still trading on Namba's busy shopping street, and it remains one of the most characterful places for a cheap lunch in Minami.

The dish everyone comes for is the signature curry. Instead of pouring curry over a mound of rice, the kitchen mixes rice and curry roux together in the pan before serving, and the result arrives with a raw egg on top, which you stir in before eating, with an optional dash of Worcestershire sauce. The curry itself is mostly sauce, with onion and fine slivers of beef. The restaurant's story is that the founder mixed the rice and curry so the dish would stay hot in the days before electric rice cookers. The curry was a favourite of Sakunosuke Oda, one of the best-known Osaka writers of the twentieth century, and the restaurant keeps the connection alive.

The rest of the menu follows the yoshoku tradition, with hashed beef rice, omurice, tonkatsu, fried chicken, kushikatsu and potato salad, and prices are low, so it is easy to order the curry and another plate to share. It is the kind of place where people eat promptly and move on, which keeps any queue moving.

The restaurant is closed on Mondays, or the following Tuesday when Monday is a public holiday. It does not take reservations, the dining room is non-smoking, and credit cards are not accepted, so bring cash. Lunchtime is busiest; mid-afternoon is the easiest time to walk straight in. A visit takes 30 to 45 minutes. It suits solo diners, couples and families, and anyone interested in the history of Japanese food. If you dislike raw egg, ask for it to be left off when ordering.

Jiyuken is on Namba's shopping street in the heart of Minami, about two minutes' walk from Exit 11 of Namba Station. It is close to Dotonbori, so it fits easily into an afternoon of sightseeing in the south of the city.