Great value places to eat and sleep in Osaka

Asia & Middle East

Aug 15

Written By Miquel

Since my recent posts about the Expo 2025 in Osaka, and my reviews about the best pavilions to visit, have proven to be wildly popular and garnered quite a lot of interest from readers all over the world, I thought it would be useful to supplement them with some practical tips about where to stay and where to eat while in Osaka.

Now, my stay in Osaka was rather short and for most of its duration I was actually within the grounds of the Expo, so don’t expect a long post here.

However, my guess is that, if you travel to Osaka for the Expo 2025, you may as well spend one or two days in town and wander around a bit downtown.

So here are a couple of proposals that I hope can bring something of value. For the record, I checked a few other places to eat, but I am highlighting only the one I liked the most.

Great value accommodation in Osaka within easy reach of the Expo

Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Osaka Kitahama

1 Chome-7-17 Imabashi, Chuo Ward, Osaka, 541-0042

Ok, this is not the most glamourous of hotels. It is not even a traditional Japanese ryokan.

But this branch of the global Best Western chain offers a modern, functional option to stay in central Osaka for a price of around $100 per night.

The rooms are small, as is the norm in Japan, but clean and neat, as is also the norm in Japan! But perhaps the best attribute of this hotel is its extremely central location and its great public transportation links.

There is a metro station literally just around the corner that takes you either to the area close to Namba central station direct in around 15min or to the Osaka 2025 Expo in about 25min (with either with just one change of line or, if you walk 10min to the closest Green Line station, direct to Yumeshima Station, which serves the Expo).

A couple of notes: breakfast is not great and you don’t miss much if you skip it and go grab something at one of the eating places or convenience stores nearby.

There is another “Best Western Fino” hotel in Central Osaka, so make sure you get the right one!

Great place to eat Japanese food in Central Osaka

Haneda Ichiba, Super Fast Fresh Fish Sushi, Umeda

This restaurant is located at the 9th floor of the Hanshin Umeda Department Store, which is right next to Osaka’s Umeda station, one of the largest in the city.

The restaurant is located in a sort of food court area, with several restaurants (although each has its own dedicated, enclosed space) and has great views of the surrounding business district.

We got there quite late in the evening, actually, and without a previous booking (something that often proved to be quite an issue in Japan), but they welcomed us very nicely. Also unusual in Japan, the manager was fluent in English (he lived in the US for quite a few years) and very kind throughout. He even advised us on the different types of sake and offered us a bootle on the house!

This is a sushi place which manages to combine coziness with an elegant, yet unpretentious setup, and offers also a rather good selection of entrants at rather reasonable prices. We decided to go on tasting mode and get a broad selection of what was in the menu, which you can see here.

And then, there is the sushi, of course, of which we got a couple of nice platters, all freshly prepared and served in generous portions.

A walk through Kuromon market and the Dotonbori area

Another place in Osaka where you can sample quite a few different culinary options is Kuromon Market, which is located near Namba station and the Dotombori riverside (another of the city’s highlights).

I don’t have a specific recommendation for this area, just walk around and check the different seafood stalls, many of which will prepare you som dish on the spot. You are likely to find something that looks tasty if you are into this sort of casual eating.

Also, I would like to add that we visited the area quite early in the morning, just as the shops were opening and the streets were rather quiet and deserted. So, we managed to get a rather postcard-like view of the area, with not too many people in the frame.

By all means, add a visit to this area to your Osaka schedule!