Kushikatsu Daruma (Shinsekai)

Kushikatsu Daruma is the restaurant that, more than any other, defines a whole Osaka food genre. Founded in 1929 in the working-class Shinsekai district, it is widely credited as the birthplace of kushikatsu - bite-sized morsels of meat, seafood and vegetables threaded onto bamboo skewers, coated in a light panko crumb, and deep-fried to a shattering crisp. What began as cheap, filling fuel for the day labourers of pre-war Osaka has become one of the city's signature dishes, and Daruma remains its spiritual home.

The format is gloriously simple. You order skewers individually or in sets - beef, pork, chicken, prawn, quail egg, lotus root, asparagus, mochi, even cheese - and they arrive hot and golden a few at a time. On each table sits a communal stainless tub of the famous thin, tangy Worcestershire-style dipping sauce, and this is where Osaka's single most important dining rule applies: no double-dipping. Because everyone shares the sauce, you dip each skewer once before your first bite and never return it. A bowl of free raw cabbage sits alongside, both as a palate cleanser and, cleverly, as a scoop for ladling extra sauce onto your skewer without breaking the rule.

Stepping inside is part of the appeal. The interiors are cramped, cheerful and unpretentious - counter stools facing the fryers, walls plastered with the scowling face of Daruma, the brand's cartoon mascot modelled on a fierce-looking chef. It is loud, fast and deeply local, the antithesis of fine dining, and that is exactly the point. A meal here is inexpensive: most skewers cost only a couple of hundred yen, so you can graze through a dozen varieties for the price of a modest lunch.

The setting amplifies the experience. Shinsekai ('New World') was built in 1912 in imitation of Paris and Coney Island, crowned by the Tsutenkaku Tower that still rises above it. The neighbourhood fell on hard times for decades and retains a gritty, gaudy, retro charm - glowing signs, pufferfish restaurant lanterns, pinball parlours and old men playing shogi. Daruma's flagship branch sits right in the thick of it near the tower's base, and eating kushikatsu here with the Showa-era streetscape outside is one of the most authentically Osakan things a visitor can do.

There are now several Daruma branches across the city, including handy ones in Dotonbori and Shin-Osaka, but the Shinsekai original carries the most atmosphere. Come in the evening when the district's neon flickers to life. Getting there is easy: Dobutsuen-mae Station on the Midosuji and Sakaisuji subway lines is a five-minute walk, and JR travellers can use Shin-Imamiya on the Osaka Loop Line. Pair it with a ride up Tsutenkaku Tower or a stroll through the neighbouring Tennoji Zoo and park for a full afternoon in old Osaka.