Tosara

The story

Tosara Osaka: Contemporary Italian Counter Dining in Kita-ku, Nishitemma

Tosara, at 2-7-26 Nishitemma, Kita-ku, Osaka, is a contemporary Italian restaurant that earned a Gault&Millau score of 14.5 in 2026. Owner-chef Jun Mano serves a set of ten dishes that joins Japanese cooking with an Italian sensibility, built around vegetables and rice from his family home on Awaji Island.

Chef and cooking style

Mano spent about 13 years as head chef at Sfida, an Italian restaurant in Tenma, and roughly two years at Kushiage Kuchikatsu in Kitashinchi. He opened Tosara in November 2018. The menu changes monthly and draws on Awaji produce alongside ingredients from across Japan and the world. Each cut is studied on its own terms, and skin and flesh are both used.

Counter and room

The restaurant has eight counter seats and a private room for four or five guests. The counter is made of washi paper by a craftsman from Kuroya, and the walls use Awaji clay and reclaimed old timber. The kitchen is open, and there is no background music, so the sound of cutting and searing is part of the meal. The rice pot is a custom donabe, nicknamed the witch pot, made for slow, even heat.