Roza Monteroza Morinomiya (Osaka, Japan)
One of the best activities you can try in Japan is going in a karaoke, nothing can be more Japanese than singing in a restaurant while having some Kirin and Shabu Shabu, while its still under debate whether Karaoke is invented in Japan or in the Philippines let’s leave it for another discussion. What we do know is that these two countries love karaoke and drinking beer at the same time.
This is one of the things we did in Osaka when we were there and it was a good experience, while I tried going into those small bars in Golden Gai in Tokyo where middle aged businessmen sing their heart out together with 8 to 10 different strangers, here in Osaka the ones we tired was a private room karaoke so we will not annoy anyone if your voices are not as par as those you see in X-Factor or the Voice.
We came here quite late night after a long day in the city, our accommodation was near Morinomiya station and this was the perfect place to have a dinner before heading back home. We never knew this place was a karaoke bar until we were seated, this was just a good accident as all we need that night is a place to eat. Initially we were asked to seat on a smoking area but it was too smelly so we asked the staff to move us in a non-smoking part of the restaurant, luckily there was an unused private room and we were moved in there.
It was a big room which is quite surprising for Japanese standards, it can seat 10 people and there is a big space for kids to play with complete with Playskool/Little Tikes slides, toys and colourful foam walls and floors. Seating in this place is traditional where tables are set low, but it is foreigner friendly as you can stretch your legs underneath as well. One thing to note as well is that you also need to leave your shoes on a locker near the lobby, so you dine in either barefoot or in your socks.
Menu was quite huge and they offer quite a range of items from ramen, donburis, yakitoris, hot pot, karaage, etc. They even have pizza and nice desserts. Right directly after ordering we were given the karaoke controls but it was in Japanese so it’s quite hard to control but you can ask the staff to explain it to you and load the English songs
There was a flat screen TV complete with sound system, display was not hugr but it was sufficient, the sound system was also good. Figuring out how to operate the thing was a challenge, it was quite a task we even forgot that our orders were taking some time before it gets delivered to us.
Like most restaurant, the drinks first arrived and I got some Kirin
and came really cold
then appetizers then came next
together with all the utensils. One thing I noticed though is that the wrapping on the chopsticks have the instruction on making some origami which I find really cool and a good time killer especially when you are waiting for your order or waiting for your turn to sing.
After making my first origami our orders start to arrive, first with this Carbonara Pizza (¥548.00) that really tastes like Carbonara in a pizza form. The toppings were surprisingly nice but don’t expect for the dough to be similar to its Italian counterparts.
We also ordered a couple of hot pots first was this Nabe Hot Pot with Satsuma Yamauchi Free Range Chicken Tsukune Meatballs (¥698.00)
and this Uotami Yosenabe Seafood Hot Pot (¥798.00). They were both good and tasty but we were surprised with the size of it when it came, it was nowhere near the photo on the menu so if you are hungry I suggest order two of these per person plus some rice.
We also had some Beef Sukiyaki in Stone Pan (¥628.00) this too was great, definitely something you want to order again on next visits.
We liked the place, we loved the private room they placed us but most importantly the flavour of the food. The only downside is that the sizes are the normal Japanese portions which was quite small for my preference. So if you visit Osaka in the future try going to this place especially when you love to sing, it’s a nice cosy place to dine in a have a quiet dinner. For the place name since I am not Japanese I am not really sure what the name was but with the help of Google Maps and Japanese friends they told me the last photo reads as “Tamiuo”, in Google Maps it points to their website called Roza Monteroza which is quite accurate as the menu is similar and the photos of the place looks familiar hence I used that as its name. Feel free to correct me if you think I made a mistake.
Roza Monteroza Morinomiya
Address: Yubinbango 540-0003 Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Morinomiyachuo 1-2-24 Vieira Morinomiya, Japan
Phone: +816 6942 9788
Website: http://www.roza.monteroza.co.jp/
