Osaka Kitchen — Restaurant in Surrey

Just a word of caution about the five-star reviews on this restaurant, we were offered a free dessert in exchange for a five-star review. I refused this offer so that I could write an honest review.

First of all this is a korean-owned and run Japanese restaurant once again so there is a lot of fusion here and not true Japanese style food. I'll get into this. The menu is nice it's not too large and they do offer a couple of unique things that are not available at every other carbon copy Japanese restaurant in the area. Overall quality is good to better than normal and prices are average is slightly higher but when getting the good quality and decent size portion, the pricing isn't too bad.

I have been here three times now to try the various menu items. Now the food. The first time I decided to try the Japanese curry and rice. Size was okay could be slightly larger. More serious issues with this dish is that there is actually a lack of curry or sauce and you run out of it too quick and you're left with just rice this should be a 50/50 combination. Now, authentic Japanese curry should only ever have potatoes and carrots and meat in it. Nothing else. Unfortunately they decided to put corn and broccoli in this curry which is absolutely disgusting and absolutely a no-no in Japanese curry because it ruins the taste of the curry. This is an easy error to fix and if they do they will have a perfect dish. The second visit I tried there miso ramen. Again not bad in size but the soup was watered down, the miso was too thin. The second biggest problem was that they put bean sprouts in the ramen. This is another big no-no you never put beans sprouts in ramen because they water it down and it's overbearing on the umami taste of the ramen so in other words it ruins the true taste. Take these out these should be replaced with bamboo shoots like true ramen has. Also once again there should be no corn in ramen. Although you can find corn in ramen from Hokkaido in Northern Japan this is typically not normal unless made around the soup base Hokkaido style. Remove these things and again you'll have a winner. The sliced pork was very nice though the way they had cooked it and it was thinly sliced tasted really excellent in the soup. I also tried the sunomono salad and was pleased that this was prepared the correct way without any foolish additives like broccoli or cabbage like some other Korean Japanese restaurants try to do. On my last visit I ordered a number of things such as sashimi, sushi nigiri, gyoza, And chicken karage. The chicken was well prepared proper sized and deep fried perfectly. The only issue here is that they serve it with mayonnaise which is Korean style, for true Japanese style this should be served with lemon and a dash of Japanese salt and pepper on the karage. All the fish was exceptionally fresh and seemed of high quality and was very pleasing. The gyoza was Korean style I believe but was good. I also tried their tempura which was lightly battered and not overly greasy and prepared well this was very nice. I also tried chicken yakitori and this was prepared well, although they should use Japanese barbecue sauce to make this more authentic.

I need to return to try several more items and we'll review them as well.

One major disappointment in the atmosphere of this restaurant is that they're seating is made up of one side of chairs and one side of a bench and unfortunately on the bench side they have no cushions or pillowing which makes it extremely uncomfortable to sit on not only does it hurt your bottom but your back as well so for any older people or seniors or anybody with any kind of issue sitting on a solid wood or concrete this is a major issue they should have cushioning built into their bench or at least movable cushions or tatami mats to help it be a little bit more comfortable while sitting there.

If they can address the issues I pointed out above and make the food more authentic then this place could be one of the best not only in Surrey but in the whole...

Gone fishing…

I decided to give this place a try after seeing the ratings being so high, I am a bit intrigued. (As you know I am always a bit skepticL about high rating cause some ppl give 5 stars just cause the chopsticks have a smiley emoji on it… :rolleyes).

This place is located at the new Save on Food plaza on 104th avenue. Inside the restaurant is quite clean with a casual atmosphere and setting.

There were about 3 tables of customers when I was greeted and seated. So it wasn’t busy BUT waited over 15 minutes before I got some tea and water and another 10mins before the waitress came and took my order (throughout the time the waitress was just cleaning here and there… :palmface)

Anyways, let’s check out on how accurate the reviews are for their food. Here were the food I ordered;

Appetizer tempura. Nice light fluffy crunch. Not bad Teriyaki beef (comes with miso soup and rice). The miso soup was basic but hot (that’s good), rice was cold and a bit on the mushy side, teriyaki sauce was pretty good but the beef was tough and chewy. (After a few bites, gave up on this dish). Assorted sashimi. All the fishes were fresh and of generous proportion. However the price is slightly more compared to nearby places with similar dish. Salmon, toro, ikura, tamago nigiris. Everything was decently fresh but too much rice and the rice needed a bit more seasoning. Kingdom roll (lobster roll). It was okay, kingdom may sound a bit too dramatic when it’s almost on the fence of being a typical lobster roll. (I had better ones)

Overall, the sashimi and sushi were pretty fresh, just that the sushi rice was a bit lacking in seasoning. (Remember! Good sushi rice is the heart to good sushi so need some improvement in this department). As for the beef teriyaki, the beef was quite dry and chewy (95% of the restaurants cook this dish wrong so you are not alone). I think it’s safe to say within 5 minute driving distance, there are a handful of better sushi places and a bit lower in prices too.

The service failed during the beginning and only gotten a bit better toward the end after a shift change (seriously, courtesy water or tea should be given within 5 mins after a customer is seated). However just like I said, it did got a bit better toward the end after the next shift of servers arrived.

In conclusion, the food was pretty basic and needed some improvements. The service… gone fishing… so I say a 3 star would be fair...

This sushi place just opened close to home and after seeing the reviews I wanted to give it a try and love it, but that was definitely not the case. I was very disappointed and spending $160+ for take out I mean, common, something had to be good right?

This place is overpriced for what I received.

There was a bone in our salmon sashimi.. I have never ever had that happened in my life.

I love salmon oshi so we ordered 2, and both orders were terrible. For the price it should’ve been much better. Ours did not come looking like the photos posted online. The mayo on top was next to none and that was supposed to be the whole point to that dish with the mayo and salmon torched so it melts in your mouth but ours was salmon on rice basically with a small dash of mayo and lightly torched. I wish I had taken a photo to show how night and day it really is compared to what they have online.

The beef yakisoba we got was flavourless and just pure salt.

The service was questionable too even for take out. Why is the guy staff on the phone so rude? And the girl staff who gave our order literally told us we only had 1 bag and we asked over and over that we think there should be a second bag for our order and she told us no it was for another customer but in the end it was indeed ours.

I’m so disappointed and really wanted to love this place. We had so much leftover due to the fact no one enjoyed the food and had to toss it out because my family said the mall sushi was better.. and that’s saying a lot because who even eats...