Shrimp Tempura

4/23/2019

I've been to Osaka, both for dine in and take out, several times. It's not while it isn't my favorite sushi in Richmond and it's fairly pricey, but the presentation is nice and the food is generally pretty good.

The restaurant is pretty but small, so I advise making a reservation during peak hours and weekends. The entrance is also very poorly designed so that the host desk and pickup counter is directly in front of the door with no room for people to wait, making it awkward trying to pay for your takeout order while people are pushing past you to be seated.

My favorite items are the spicy tuna roll and the salmon roll. They are consistently fresh and very tasty, although I think the spicy tuna could be improved upon with a bit of crunch or the option of an additional sauce like spicy mayo. The sushi is always beautifully presented, but the construction can be haphazard. Sometimes the rice is not cooked quite properly so that it doesn't stick as it should, or rolls fall apart when you pick them up with chopsticks. For my most recent order I had the shrimp tempura roll, and while it tasted great, it was incredibly difficult to eat. It was at least double, if not nearly triple the circumference and weight of the other rolls I ordered, meaning there was absolutely no way to eat it in one bite as you should be able to do. The seaweed was too chewy to cleanly bite it in half, and of course that caused the fillings to spill out. I resorted to using a knife and fork to tackle that monster, thankful I was in the privacy of my home and not being giggled at by other diners. But again, the shrimp was perfectly crunchy and the rest of the fillings were great, albeit way overstuffed. However, the California roll was boring at best. Very little flavor, and not worth reordering.

Even if this was the best sushi I've ever had, I do feel compelled to mention that every time I've gotten food here I've ended up with an upset stomach a few hours later, which doesn't happen when I order the exact same items at other sushi restaurants. It could certainly be a coincidence, but unfortunately that association is stuck in my mind again after getting take out this past weekend. I might give them one more try, but if it happens again I'll probably have to give up on this restaurant.

7/19/2018

Osaka is a great stop for Asian cuisine. The bento box is really fun, coming out two boxes stacked on top of each other. We also go the spinach fried rice (added veggies which I highly recommend), a shrimp tempura roll with tuna on top and the mt fuji shrimp app. The app was 100p our favorite and a huge portion. My reason for giving this four stars is the service. Our waitress was borderline rude and not attentive. We waited for nearly ten minutes just to get forks. Such a bummer because otherwise a great meal.

12/11/2016

Osaka sushi is the highest quality sushi I have ever had!

They have unconventional sushi options but also classic options. We tried shrimp tempura, dancing dragon roll, and the Victoria roll. The Victoria roll was the best roll I've ever had.

We went in on a Sunday night and were seated right away. It was good service and overall a good meal.

However, if you're not willing to spend a good amount of money I would go to a different sushi place. Our meal was around $50 for an app, and the 3 sushi rolls.