KOBEYA SULPHIDE BAKERY

Imagine a well known bakery from Kobe, operating a Spanish style tapas restaurant, in Osaka? Well, it was intriguing enough a story we bought it, and had quite a good casual meal there. This eatery is called Kobeya Sulphide Bakery Restaurant, with Dinga-Bell as the logo but please do not ask me why ... It is located on the 10th floor of the Lucua Building which houses many shopping outlets that appeal to the younger tribe, the ultra cool set. Lucua was the finale of Dora's 10-hour ritualistic inspection tour of the brand new Osaka Station Shopping Complex and we were (at least I was) so exhausted Kobeya was a most welcome stop.

The primary customer base must be no more than their early 20's and for a moment we thought price was a key attraction. We could not be more wrong! What we had was authentic, with a respectable selection of classic tapas fare .... grilled sardines, braised tripes, chorizo sausages, roast duck and for appetizers we had a trio of Iberico ham (not the top cuts but Spanish nonetheless) and a fresh garden salad, regrettably with no olives. Then came the first basket full of bread. WOW! Look at the bread menu, now we know why they call themselves a Bakery Restaurant because 'Bread is Their Winner', sorry for the bad pun attempt. As soon as we finished the 1st basket, orders were taken for the 2nd, and more after that, an offer we simply could not refuse. Just the bakery end of the meal was worth it, and we would be happy with bread, olive oil and a bowl of mixed Spanish olives.

Dinner for two, with one beer, came to HK$200 per head. I know, there was nothing significant to speak of but we still enjoyed every bit of it. BTW back to our gut feel the younger set was there because of price, wrong again. We were the only one watching our wallets, the young couple sitting next to us ordered the whole 9-yards, bubblies to start, and a full bottle of red to wash down the paella. They must feel so sorry for us old folks, on pension probably, who gingerly shared a Suntory draft. All of a sudden we feel old, and so hopelessly out of the loop. Tapas in Osaka? Stop wondering now, it is reality at Kobeya Sulphide, the one and only!