551 Horai

Go Go Ichi Horai

This is a Kansai (Mostly Osaka) Chinese takeout chain. Specifically they sell meat buns, gyoza, and shumai. Some locations seasonally sell ice candy or even have seating or serve beer. Check their website for locations and services. https://www.551horai.co.jp/ I had seen this place in the basement between Senrichuo Station and Hankyu Department store and also the one in Itami Airport, with long lines usually. The time to try it out finally came. I'm not a pork person with the exception of ramen, pork buns and gyoza. So Chinese cuisine. I'm a fan of meat buns and usually get them in convenience stores or the frozen ones in grocery stores. Both are seasonal as meat buns make nice hand warmers when it's cold out. 551 Horoi's available year round pork buns were on another level. The pork buns were a lot different from what I've eaten before. The dough is a lot firmer without losing some softness. The filling is dense and genuinely almost all meat. It took me a solid five minutes to get through one bun. I also noticed right away that they were oily on the outside. I'm gonna attempt eating them with chopsticks next time. I ordered a set of four pork buns for 840 yen and 12 shrimp shumai for 660 yen. I was given a lot of mustard packets and I'm afraid I really don't care for the slightly spicy Chinese mustard. I think I will going back for pork buns and trying the gyoza and maybe the regular shumai as well.