Houzenji Sanpei: Okonomiyaki in Dotonbori, Osaka

Aside from takoyaki (octopus balls 🐙), one of the foods I needed to eat during my time in Osaka was okonomiyaki!

Okonomiyaki is like a savoury pancake usually cooked on a Japanese teppanyaki (aka hibachi). Usually, the ingredients in the pancake include things like cabbage, meat, seafood, bonito flakes, mayo and okonomiyaki sauce.

Okonomiyaki is one of the many foods Osaka is famous for and needless to say, there are a lot of options you can choose from. During our Japan honeymoon trip, we had a small okonomiyaki dinner at a restaurant called Hozenji Sanpei, located in the busy Dotonbori area but hidden along a small alley. Here is how our experience went as 2 foreigners with limited Japanese.

Hozenji Sanpei
1 Chome-7-10 Dotonbori, Chuo Ward, Osaka, 542-0071, Japan

The vibe

We chose to go to Hozenji Sanpei because the google reviews were good and it was within walking distance from our hotel, but once we arrived at the “hidden” alley, we did see a short-ish line at 5:40pm. I say short-ish because it wasn’t that long, but we waited there for at least 30 minutes, which was longer than we expected because the line was so short.

Once inside, we realized the restaurant is truly quite small. They have maybe 4 bar seats and then 4 dining tables and each table has a flat griddle built in.

You order from the menu and the cooks/chef will basically cook it on their main griddle at the bar seating, and then they transport it to your griddle for you to eat.

Food review

We actually planned to check out 2 different spots for dinner that day so we didn’t order too much.

Prices are in yen and converted to the nearest CAD for simplicity.

Yakisoba with seafood (1,210 yen/$11)

Yakisoba is a Japanese noodle stir-fried dish. You can find yakisoba at your local sushi joint, but I do find it tastes better when it’s cooked on a griddle because it has some of that heat.

The cheapest yakisobia on the menu is with pork and squid and it’s only 880 yen ($8) 😳. But since we also ordered an okonomiyaki with pork, we opted for the seafood yakisoba instead for some variety in protein.

The yakisoba portion was decent for 2 people but I don’t think you can share it with more people. The noodles were nicely coated with the sauce and had squid, octopus, shrimp, cabbage, bonito flakes and a side of pickled veggies. It was quite good!

Okonomiyaki (660yen+ / $6+)

We decided to build our own okonomiyaki and choose our toppings instead of selecting a pre-decided combination of toppings.

The pricing for choosing your own okonomiyaki starts at 660 yen and that covers the basics like cabbage, flour and egg. After that, each additional topping will cost a few extra dollars:

• + 110 yen: egg, corn, konyaku
• + 220 yen: pork, squid, mochi, shiso, soba noodles, asparagus, kimchi, bacon, cheese, rice, potato, mushrooms
• + 330 yen: pizza toppings, tuna, octopus, green onion, chicken
• + 440 yen: beef tenderloin
• + 550 yen: fish roe, scallop, shrimp, oyster (winter only)

We decided to add egg, pork, scallop, and green onion, making our okonomiyaki around 1,870 yen or $17.

They placed it on our griddle and then we squirted a bunch of mayo and okonomiyaki sauce over it, before cutting it up and dividing chunks of this pancake with our small little griddle flipper.

It was definitely yummy and served quite hot since it was on our griddle also. Some bites were soft and other times it had some crunch from the cabbage. The portion was again good to share between 2 people, but I was hoping they would’ve added more scallop for 550 yen.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

We had a yummy and pretty cheap dinner at Hozenji Sanpei – both the yakisoba and okonomiyaki met my expectations and I found the prices to be very reasonable 👍.

Out of the 2, I did like the okonomiyaki a little more but that may be because I was craving okonomiyaki that day. I was glad they had a build your own okonomiyaki version because some of their pre-made combinations were kind of non-traditional (ex. may be targeted for foreigners with things like bacon and cheese, or kimchi and pork), and almost all of them had one ingredient which we didn’t want included.

The only thing on my mind is that I don’t think it’s worth a 30 min wait 😕. There are a lot of okonomiyaki spots in Osaka and maybe they all have a wait but I personally would not come here again if there is a 30 minute wait.

Aside from that, I think this is a pretty well-run little okonomiyaki restaurant with good food and good prices.

Sincerely, Loewe