Restaurant Reviews: Osaka, Japan

restaurant reviews: osaka, japan // my bacon-wrapped life

I’m sliding in right before the end of the year for part 2 of our Japan travel recommendations – this time all about our second stop, Osaka! We decided to spend 4 days of our trip in Osaka (with 1 day set aside for a day trip to neighboring Kyoto) because we heard that it has the best food in Japan, and we were certainly not disappointed! Osaka is known as the “nation’s kitchen” and is famous for its incredibly high-caliber street food. I am so glad we spent a few days in Osaka and really got to explore the city because it was just so different from Tokyo – much more casual, a little grittier, and full of new-to-us foods and the friendliest people. In Osaka, we ate much more casually than in Tokyo – more street food and casual gastropubs than fine dining and restaurants – and nearly everything we ate was just so, so good. I highly recommend including a few days in Osaka on any Japan trip. Read on for our eating and drinking highlights!

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Restaurant Reviews: Tokyo, Japan

restaurant reviews: tokyo, japan | my bacon-wrapped life

Long time no talk, friends! I’m popping in today to share our favorite eats and drinks on our recent trip to Tokyo, Japan. I went into this trip with the highest of high food expectations (all of our friends who had visited before claimed it’s hard to have a bad meal!) and I have to say they were completely exceeded. I also loved Japan so much more than I expected – everyone was so nice, friendly, and welcoming and we felt right at home from the get-go, even in a country where our language skills were limited to the most basic of basics. I can’t recommend a trip to Japan enough. Read on for our favorite spots from stop 1 on our trip, Tokyo!

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Restaurant Reviews: Rome, Italy

restaurant reviews: rome, italy // my bacon-wrapped life

Happy Sunday, friends! As nice as it is to be back to real life (and, ya know, exercising and eating vegetables) the vacation nostalgia is still so real. Rome was so special and fun – loud, hectic, and very touristy in parts, yes, but also filled with so many gems that I still can hardly wrap my mind around it all. The sheer quantity of jaw-dropping, epic historical sites and ruins, the quaint and windy cobblestone streets, and the incredible artisan food that balances tradition and modernity so well – it is truly a one-of-a-kind place that I think everyone should visit at some point in their life. I hope you’re not sick of looking at plates of cheesy pasta and creamy burrata yet, because I have so much more where that came from. Read on for my favorite eats in Rome!

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Restaurant Reviews: Florence, Italy

restaurant reviews: florence, italy // my bacon-wrapped life

Well, we’re officially back home after **literally** the trip of a lifetime to Italy. I can’t even begin to describe how well we ate – it was 2 weeks full of the best meals I’ve ever had, back to back to back. We ate pasta every night and sampled the most amazing bread, cheese, prosciutto, pizza, and gelato during the day – all interspersed with lots of Italian wine, of course! It was beautiful, insanely delicious, and everything I could have ever wanted. And now I can’t wait to relive it all over again with you!

It was a very tough choice, but we decided our overall favorite food city was Florence – the truffles! The prosciutto! The quaint wine bars! OK, I’ll stop. But it really was something special – the opportunity to spend a few days strolling around this gorgeous city filled with so much art and history, eating amazing food, and drinking incredible (cheap!) wine all day was truly an experience I’ll never forget.

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