Class or Food Tour?

They cost about the same and take about the same time, and they do completely different things.

A food tour shows you the city

Twelve to seventeen dishes, two or three districts, a guide picking doorways you would not have found. You end the evening having eaten more of Osaka in three hours than you would manage in two days alone — and having seen Dotonbori, Shinsekai or Kuromon with someone explaining them.

Choose this if it is your first time in Osaka, you want the city as much as the food, or you are travelling with people who would rather eat than work.

A class gives you something to keep

One dish, learned properly, in a studio, with a chef correcting your hands. You end the evening having eaten one meal — the one you made — and being able to make it again in your own kitchen.

Choose this if you already know Osaka, you cook at home, or you want a souvenir that is not an object.

The tiebreakers

• Weather. A tour is outdoors and involves walking between districts. A class is indoors and indifferent to rain.
• Booking. Classes are small and fill days ahead. Tours usually have a place somewhere. If you are deciding tonight, that often settles it.
• Children. Takoyaki classes are excellent with kids. Long walking tours in the evening are not.
• Appetite. A tour is a lot of food. A class is one meal.

The honest answer for most first visits

Food tour first, class on a second trip. Osaka rewards being shown around, and the districts are genuinely hard to navigate blind. But if you cook — properly cook, at home, regularly — reverse that. The class is the thing you will still have in a year.