Osaka Bogotá — Restaurant in Bogota, Capital District

Unfortunately, we had a horrible experience at your restaurant on 12 January 2022 and we are not in a position to recommend it. This is a shame because as tourists to Bogota we had heard that this restaurant was one of the best in Colombia. Our Colombian friends who dined with us were so embarrassed. Upon arrival for our 8pm reservation at 8pm we were told that our table would be ready shortly. After 20 minutes we enquired about how much longer we would have to wait to be seated. The host said she would check and did not return with an update. After multiple protests from our party of 6 about the delay with various staff members we were finally seated at 8.50pm on a Wednesday. A 50 minute delay. We complained that this was not good enough and that we had nearly walked out. The host informed us that we would be certainly looked after and it would be our best dining experience ever. The dinner progressed smoothly and our pisco cocktails were great. The food was good, however a majority of the menu is only small bites and nigiri sushi with not many choices for more substantial portion sizes or options besides sushi. We were expecting to receive some sort of discount, voucher or acknowledgment for waiting 50 minutes for our table. However, when we received the bill nothing was removed from the bill. We explained this to the waiter at length who could only offer to remove the cheapest menu item from our bill. This is certainly not good enough. We were asked to pay over 2 million pesos in circumstances where each person had only one cocktail and we shared a bottle of white wine. We explained our poor experience and the fact that we were promised something for our patience. The small discount of around 100,000 pesos discount was offensive. We could not accept this and unfortunately had to remove the voluntary gratuity of 10% from our bill. Other customers around our table looked on had to sit and watch us explain this to the staff at length with the only response being that they had no authority to do anything else. When dining at a restaurant of this level and status one would expect that staff with the appropriate level of seniority, remuneration and authority would be working at all hours to justify such...

In my opinion, Osaka is the most popular restaurant in Bogota right now- and it does not disappoint. I recommend making a reservation 4 weeks in advance if you're looking for a 7:00 - 9:00 pm dinner on Thursday - Saturday. Tatiana at reception really went above and beyond to help me with my reservation. If you're a vegetarian or just not into seafood, then there are several options for you such as the Nigiri Avocado Brasa. If you click on "order to go" then Rappi has a menu with pictures of each dish, which is really helpful. The service is really impeccable without crossing over into being overbearing. I really appreciated the warm towel they brought for me right when I sat down at the table. I have 2 pieces of feedback for Osaka for how to improve:

The servers were 100% men. Out of 10 cooks, I counted 2 women, so the cooks were 80% men. The manager was a man. I didn't see the bartenders. I've only ever seen women as hostesses at reception. I asked an employee why the servers are all men and they said "it's a hard job." I think the real answer is that it is a well-paid job that Osaka is allowing men to dominate. I was told that out of all employees, there was 1 server who is a woman. Osaka, I think you need to take a look at your gender equality and do a better job of hiring, training, and supporting women.

Sometimes, the employees forgot or did not care that I was seated towards the back of the restaurant. Employees going to the bathroom or standing by the service counter would sometimes joke with each other and talk. Approximately 6 times throughout my dinner, employees threw something at one another, yelled a joke, playfully hit one another etc. Every single person who did this was a man. Osaka, I think you might need to remind your employees that guests see and hear everything that goes on. If they are in the staircase going to the bathroom, their yells can be heard throughout the restaurant. It kills the vibe and it's unprofessional. I think this is something that happens when you have 100% men working together...

In conclusion, I think Osaka is a great restaurant. I recommend going. The food, music, ambience, service, and experience is...

Honestly im a bit disappointed overall. All of the dishes we got were mediocre at best, especially for the price point. The only thing id truly recommend are the mocktails and the Carpassion. Me and my partner are sushi fanatics and we have eaten sushi all over the world. There are amazing reviews for this place and it was recommended to us by family, so we went with high hopes. For almost all the dishes you could barely even taste the freshness of the fish as the other flavors were too overpowering. I even took out a piece of the salmon to try from the Nori Furai to see if maybe we just did not like the dish itself - and it tasted bland no flavor whatsoever. The Carpassion- the salmon did have good flavor and it was a unique pairing it was the only dish we were satisfied with! The mocktails were unique as well and tasty. We got the Horchata and Match drinks. We were going to get the omakase but thank god we did not, it is expensive and we probably would not have liked much.

As for service, the waiters were literally taking our plates as we were chewing and taking our last bites they did not even ask if we were finished. I had to tell them to please leave the plate, although it seemed pretty empty to them we wanted to take advantage or the left overs and sauces to really taste the profile on each dish. Usually at a high end restaurant like this they always ask to take away any plates. The manager also never acknowledged us and instead stood there only taking care of the table across from us. I have been told the service was bad here but that the food made it worth coming but I have to disagree. Our waiter himself and the front reception woman were very kind and for them I had no complaints. We made a reservation and they honored it and were easy to communicate with! For that we were impressed. Each dish was about $60,000 on average even if it was only two bites. Overall it was a mixed experience with feelings of disappointment mainly, would not come back or recommend to my...