Next Shikaku Osaka is a pretty eye-catching restaurant located along the crowded
Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street (千日前道具屋筋商店街, Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shotengai), the shop features a beautifully minimalist exterior with a bright light-show-covered interior that really feels like a cross between a digital art exhibition and a restaurant. Oyster-broth ramen is pretty uncommon overseas and so it's a rather unique dish for foreigners to try, and something different from the usual ramen fare.
While Next Shikaku makes bold claims about how much oyster taste they infuse into their ramen, we're not quite sure that the dish itself achieves that lofty claim. In particular, one of our favourite ramen shops is
Kuramu (貝出汁中華そば くらむ, Kai Dashi Chūka Soba Kuramu) in
Tokyo (東京, Tōkyō), which is also an oyster broth ramen shop, and so when we compare the two, there is really no fight between them. We tried the Ikasu ramen and felt like the taste was a bit too light on the palate for us. It's not a bad bowl of oyster ramen, we've just really had way better at Kuramu, and so it fell short for us.
In general, Next Shikaku Osaka serves up a pretty decent bowl of oyster ramen and we can easily recommend it to foreigners who are in Osaka and looking for a unique bowl of ramen to try. In fact it might be the Best Oyster Ramen in Osaka, and definitely maybe the Koeru that uses the triple-soup base, or even the unique Asobu tsukemen might have made a bigger impact on us. For now, though, it's not really a shop that we would go back to, but we highly recommend going at least once to try it out and experience the digital art and dining experience that they offer.
In terms of crowdedness, it's also one of the less crowded options in Namba, which is typically filled with tourists as it's tucked away in the
Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shopping Street (千日前道具屋筋商店街, Sennichimae Doguyasuji Shotengai), which is quieter at night as well. So it's a pretty good option if you're looking for a less-crowded ramen option in the heart of Namba.
Bonus Tip: You should really give their Aburi Niku Sushi a try if you've not tried any wagyu (和牛, Wagyū, Japanese cattle) sushi before. The meat is nice and fatty, giving it a creamy texture, and the juices mix well with the sushi rice (酢飯, Su-Meshi, Vinegared Rice), making for a very satisfying side dish.
