Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — A cuisine as starkly straightforward as Japanese has long had loyal patrons in the Philippines. The presence and influence of Japanese culture here is well established, and it’s what sustains the ever-expanding circle of restaurants serving traditional favorites — sushi, ramen, katsudon, and gyoza, among others — in old and new ways, all readily accessible and relatable to the Filipino diner, who suffers no lack of options when it comes to Japanese dining.

In such a dining milieu, how does one keep up with competition? The international franchise Osaka Ohsho — known for its freshly-cooked gyoza — has come up with a new menu, with around 20 newly-conceptualized items in rotation, in time for its third anniversary in the Philippines.

“We’re way past establishing Osaka Ohsho, that we serve the best gyoza in the country. We want to introduce more items,” says Angelo Hongo, marketing manager of the Relish Group of restaurants. “We wanted to touch the younger market. We felt the people coming in were office people, families, so we’re okay na with that, but wanted to touch a bigger base.”

The catalyst for reworking the menu, Hongo says, was the bacon and cheese gyoza that people loved. From then on, local chefs worked to create new menu items that were “young, hip, and sexy,” according to Hongo.

The items are available only in the Philippines, and includes dishes that mix the best of Japanese with elements of Spanish and American cuisine, among others. A noticeable change is the use of truffle — whether oil or the mushroom itself — in the menu, specifically in the truffle gyoza (with mushroom bits and a touch of oil) and the chicken truffle yaki (grilled chicken stuffed with Japanese rice cooked in truffle oil).

The same kind of thinking is evident in other dishes, such as the nori nachos, which is Hongo’s personal favorite. The dish is essentially deep fried nori sheets, topped with gyoza meat, bonito flakes, furikake, and Japanese mayo, with a bit of pickles and black vinegar sauce. It’s a good appetizer for what’s to come: maybe the ebi thermidor tempura, whose warm cream filling greets you as you bite into it; or maybe the matcha butter tonkatsu, filled with matcha cream that surprisingly complements the meat. For those craving for salmon, the salmon cheese aburi (salmon blowtorched with Parmesan cheese on top, balanced with a splash of teriyaki sauce) may satisfy

In most of the new dishes, there is a joyful attempt to play around with flavor and fuse cuisines with one another, while still using Japanese ingredients to keep to tradition. The Japanese paella, for example, is cooked with miso instead of saffron. The chori gyoza is mixed with Spanish chorizo along with Japanese gyoza meat.

It’s a fun and exciting casual dining experience, to say the least, to be constantly discovering how food can still look and taste good, while seeing how the best and most popular elements of each distinctive cuisine — whether Japanese, Spanish, or American — can be fused into a single plate.

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Osaka Ohsho has branches on the 3rd floor of Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall, and at Food Circuit on the ground floor of The Block, SM North EDSA.