At this New Hotel in Osaka, Michelin-Starred Dining Meets Japanese Hospitality

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The Afar take

Osaka is in the middle of a hotel boom leading up to the World Expo, which takes place between April and October 2025. One of the newest debuts in this Japanese port city is the Four Seasons Hotel Osaka, which opened in August 2024. The 175-room hotel offers Japanese hospitality and service with a Western twist—still a rare offering in Osaka compared to the hotel scene in nearby Kyoto. But on a recent visit from my home base of Tokyo, what impressed me most was the Four Seasons Hotel Osaka’s approach to dining, which reflects the sophisticated palate of Osaka residents while offering the warm hospitality for which this city is famous.

The hotel, located in the One Dojima skyscraper, features references to Japan throughout, with grand lacquerware art pieces like a floating black rock at the entrance, or elevators in dark red lacquer that evoke the torii gates of a shrine. In the lobby at the Cha tearoom, on display are Kaikado tea canisters handmade by shokunin craftspeople in Kyoto.

There are spacious Western rooms on the 29th to 35th floors, while the 28th floor, called Gensui, offers 18 ryokan rooms with tatami straw mats. The Sabo tea lounge, exclusive to guests staying on the Gensui floor, offers Japanese sake and whisky in the evening. It also serves as a club-level concierge desk for Gensui guests, who check in and out here. The two restaurants on the 37th floor are helmed by foreign chefs, both with restaurants that have Michelin stars.

Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Osaka

Who’s it for?

Japanophiles who love the ryokan experience, Michelin-star chasers, and travelers seeking comfortable Western rooms in a central location.

The location

The Four Seasons Hotel Osaka is in the historic Dojima merchant’s district on the north side of the city. The Dojima Rice Exchange, the world’s first commodity futures exchange, started here 300 years ago. The tranquil area has many historic businesses, including Suntory, which was founded in 1899.

The hotel is a short taxi ride from Shin-Osaka Station where the shinkansen bullet train arrives. Osaka Station is next to Umeda Station; the area, a busy transportation hub, is home to notable restaurants and two famous department stores, Hankyu and Hanshin. A short walk from the hotel is also one of Osaka’s famous bakeries, Le Sucre Coeur, which has a cult following for its artisanal breads.

For those not in a rush, the Four Seasons Hotel Osaka is one stop on a local train from Shin-Osaka Station to Osaka Station. The hotel is a 10-minute walk from there, which can be done via a chikagai subterranean shopping plaza where night office workers gather in the evenings to drink and eat. (Craftroom, an acclaimed six-seat cocktail bar, is one of hundreds of drinking spots and restaurants in the chikagai.)

The rooms

The Western-style rooms, in relaxing beige tones, start at about 500 square feet. Floor-to -ceiling windows showcase views of the city below. (At night, I loved watching illuminated trains glide through different parts of Osaka.) Black-out screens roll down to keep early light out of the room, while delicate white screens resembling washi paper screens also can be rolled down for privacy.

The Japanese-style ryokan rooms on the 28th floor called Gensui are a modern take on a traditional inn from the countryside. The entryway and bathrooms are clad in slate black stone. Tatami mats line the main room, and there’s a raised platform for the bed. Everything in the room is made in Japan, including the bedding from 400-year-old Nishikawa in Tokyo for a firm and comfortable sleep. (It’s a departure from the traditional futon bedding that sits directly on the floor in a traditional ryokan.)

Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Osaka

I appreciated the efforts to avoid using plastic in the guest rooms. Toothbrushes, a common room amenity in Japan, are wooden. Toothpaste comes in small paper bags, resembling condiment packs. Water is in a refillable aluminum bottle.

The food and drink

The 37th floor of the hotel is devoted to drinking and dining. The most high-profile restaurant you’ll find here is L’Abysse, where French chef Yannick Alleno has debuted the third outpost of his famous restaurants in Paris and Monte Carlo in partnership with Japanese chef Itaru Yasuda.

The setting is a dramatic wooden counter, which was brought in by a crane before the building was finished because it’s too long to fit into the elevators. There are petite French bites to start, including a poached oyster with rice cream and an artichoke tofu. A waiter from France presented each of the French dishes and spoke of chef Alleno’s philosophy of cooking.

For the main course, Japanese chef Itaru Yasuda serves an omakase menu of seasonal sushi. Chef Yasuda’s unique twists on sushi include searing some of the seafood on binchotan charcoal, adding texture, smoky notes, and drawing out the umami in the seafood. Otoro fatty tuna is wrapped around fried shallots. Also of note: his gari pickled ginger, which includes apples—a recipe he has been using for 20 years. It softens the heat of the rhizome and the quintessential garnish is Westernized, perfect for this French Japanese meal. The meal ends with sweet small bites from chef Alleno, like a miso crème brulee with yuzu and rice puffs. The beige tableware with dark edges was custom-crafted by Kyoto potter Ryosuke Matsuo.

Courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Osaka

The sommelier did a fantastic job pairing my meal with champagne and wines—both French and Japanese, and sake including Iwa made by Richard Geoffroy, the former chef de cave for Dom Pérignon.

It’s worth snagging a table at Jiang Nan Chun, a Cantonese restaurant helmed by chef Raymond Wong, who received a Michelin star at Shang Palace at the Hong Kong Shangri-La. Dim sum is available at lunch, and in the evening a parade of dishes included tarabagani crab, a collagen-rich fish maw soup, and a deep-fried tiger prawn.

Bar Bota, also on the 37th floor, gets its name from botanicals. The handsome space has floor-to-ceiling windows framing the sparkling city below. There are destination-inspired cocktails such as a Negroni made with shiso gin and red sake. The nonalcoholic cocktails are worth exploring, too: The Bears & Bees was a nice play of the traditional Bee’s Knees, here with an intense Kyoho grape juice and wakame sea vegetable.

At Jardin on the first floor, the high ceilinged all-day dining bistro, breakfast is a buffet where diners order a main dish like a poached egg over an avocado croissant or over grilled onigiri rice. Next to Jardin is the artisanal bakery, Farine. I liked watching the bakers in chef toques busy proofing croissants and baking breads behind a glass-walled kitchen. The laminated croissants and pastries are particularly good as is the daily quiche—packed with salmon, onions, and bell peppers.

The hotel serves Japanese breakfasts, but only at the Sabo tea lounge on the Gensui floor for those staying in the ryokan rooms. Presented in a bento box, it is a luxurious start to the day with sea bream sashimi, wagyu beef, and a savory custard topped with uni.

Staff and service

Staff throughout the hotel are friendly and knowledgeable. Personnel come from around the world or have studied abroad, lending an international flair, which is somewhat new to the hospitality industry in Japan. Romanian bar manager Andrei Marcu spoke enthusiastically about Japanese ingredients for craft cocktails. At Jiang Nan Chun we were served by Miyu Katayama, a Japanese staffer who went to college in Malaysia.

In particular the staff at the Sabo tea lounge on the Gensui floor were affable and knowledgeable about Japanese tea. The tea is prepared to order from a list of locally harvested tea, including matcha and a savory gyokuro.

Accessibility

The property is wheelchair accessible, although those with limited mobility might have trouble using the stairs leading to the pool and to the onsen. There are four accessible guest rooms, and the restaurants and bar have wide doors that can accommodate wheelchairs.

Spa and fitness

Located 36 floors in the sky, the 52-foot infinity pool of the Spa and Wellness area looks out on Osaka Castle in the distance. There is a sauna and a large onsen hot springs with two Jacuzzi seats called ofuro. A familiar name for a bathtub in a Japanese home, ofuro it evokes cozy feelings. The wellness area offers massages and a private ofuro bath in a corner room with glass walls facing the city. The 24-hour fitness center is ideal for travelers waking up at odd hours with jet lag.