Kougaryu Takoyaki in Osaka, Japan

I never realized until today that Michelin has given Bib Gourmand designations to takoyaki shops, and this 50 year old store was one of them. Yep, they had a nice skin on the outside while staying piping hot and mildly savory on the inside. Those two flavors above were dressed nicely with ponzu on the left and salt and pepper on the right, with neither being excessive nor sweet.

In case you were wondering, those were mini-sized balls above, as this was actually a half-and-half taster plate from their outlet at the Osaka Takoyaki Market at the HEP FIVE building in Umeda. It's one of those food museum/stadium-like concepts where multiple competing shops are aggregated into the same venue to facilitate comparisons. I didn't have time to try another shop though.