In a Studio Ghibli’s famous Spirited Away bathhouse-ish retro Japanese teahouse (茶屋) is Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten (Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Main Shop / 北極星 心斎橋本店) known as a trailblazing Japanese omurice (オムライス) speciality restaurant for yoshoku (洋食) lovers in Japan.
The storefront of Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten.
Omurice (オムライス) – one the most popular dishes of Japanese yoshoku (洋食: Western food) like hamburger in the US – in one sentence would be “a meticulously executed Japanese omelet on rice”.
Founded in 1922 in Osaka, Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten (Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Main Shop / 北極星 心斎橋本店) is considered the trailblazing yoshoku restaurant in Japan mainly because of its founder Shigeo Kitahashi (北橋茂男) who was considered as the inventor of omurice.
So eating omurice at Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten is like making a pilgrimage for omurice/yoshoku lovers who basically are all the Japanese.
The entrance of Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten. A noren (暖簾) curtain says “Western cuisine (西洋御料理)”.
Walking through the hallway…
To the very Japanese dining room.
In a Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away bathhouse-ish retro Japanese teahouse (茶屋) is Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten. Customers are required to put shoes in a locker at the entrance like at a Japanese sento (銭湯) bathhouse.
A Japanese bathhouse-style wooden key for a shoe locker at Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten.
At Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten, instead of a sulfur-like sento odor, the smell of expensive dinner was wafting through the air while classical music BGM was playing. This experience could be interpreted as chic to Japanese boomers and kids who are raised by them: basically all the Japanese.
Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten’s menu.
Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten’s quadrilingual menu shows a repertoire of Japanese yoshoku in addition to seven regular omurice dishes, special omurice dishes, seasonal omurice dishes, and combos of the omurice dishes. It took me a while to say: Chicken Omu-rice (チキンオムライス), Crab cream croquette with salad (カニクリームコロッケ サラダ付), and Vichyssoise (夏季限定ひんやりビシソワーズ – 冷製スープ).
Vichyssoise (夏季限定ひんやりビシソワーズ – 冷製スープ). 500 yen ($3.80).
“Vichyssoise, is a soup made of cooked and puréed leeks, potatoes, onions and cream.” according to Wikipedia. Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten’s vichyssoise was probably the best ¥500/$3.80 potato soup I’ve had.
Crab cream croquette with salad (カニクリームコロッケ サラダ付). 920 yen ($7).
Crab cream croquette a.k.a. kani/カニ (crab) kurimu/クリーム (cream) korokke/コロッケ (croquette) is a classic Japanese yoshoku dish. Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten’s Crab cream croquette came with a demi-glace sauce hinted with ketchup. It came with a side of yoshoku-style salad which consisted of cucumber, tomato, cabbage, and Japanese potato salad.
Chicken Omu-rice (チキンオムライス). 920 yen ($7).
Chicken Omu-rice is Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten’s most popular item according to the the menu. The beef bouillon-flavored fried rice was swaddled in the ethereal layer of the hotel breakfast omelet-level omelet. The ketchup-y demi-glace sauce was poured like an ocean against the yellow mountain. On the other side of the mountain was a tiny mound of gari / beni shoga (紅生姜: ginger pickles) like the one often served at a Japanese sushi restaurant. I could dig in my omurice with my bare hands if there wasn’t a spoon as a yoshoku restaurant should be.
A signboard says “味に輝く 北極星 – Aji ni kagayaku Hokkyokusei / The North Star that shines in taste (translated by Google)”.
Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Honten (Hokkyokusei Shinsaibashi Main Shop / 北極星 心斎橋本店) | 2-7-27 Nishishinsaibashi, Chuo Ward, Osaka, 〒542-0086, Japan
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