Osaka Teppanyaki Rovaniemi — Restaurant in Rovaniemi sub-region

I have lived in Rovaniemi for over 30 years and am pretty jaded about how fast restaurants here come and go, especially since "ethnic" food started to hit here 10-15 years ago. Most of them are pretty bad and so rarely last. The lunchtime restaurant scene here is cutthroat and places either sink or swim in less than a year. We have had three "Chinese" restaurants here for many years and I am quite done with them as they range from tolerable to absolutely awful. I don't know how they survive. The first time I visited Osaka Teppanyaki after the mad Christmas rush had calmed down a bit, I did not even notice the choose-your-own-stirfry option. I went just to try the pre-cooked lunch buffet, which was quite standard. I mean, there is no such thing as adventurous "Asian" lunch buffet in Finland. It is all dumbed down and bland. During my second visit, I noticed and tried the stir-fry option, which is not self evident. It was around noon and I was in a hurry to get to an appointment, so the wait line was long. I was just beginning to panic when my buzzer lit up and my food was ready. The raw shrimp had looked fresh so I took a chance. The other choices included some white fish filets, chicken, pork and beef. NOTE: raw buffets can be RISKY, and other reviews here have noted how they got sick eating the seafood buffet later in the day/evening. However, all the veggies/noodles and the shrimp I sampled were really were fresh and I was impressed enough to come back the next week for lunch, when I ventured to try the raw beef and veggies/noodles. That was also excellent. Last week I went a third time and found they had added raw lamb to meat options, so I tried that. This was the best yet. It must be noted that the spice selection here is really a cut above the other "Asian" places in town, and the raw veggie selection real good. The black pepper sauce, the red pepper sauce (i.e. Sambal olek) at the buffet itself and powdered white pepper in a shaker available at the stir fry counter as you pick up your ready plate, were all seriously good and spicy. My mouth was burning but I still tasted all the ingredients, as one should. Rovaniemi has been missing a place a like this and I recommend to try it with a couple of caveats. First, during the now seemingly endless winter tourist season it can get busy by noon or so. As myself and other reviewers have commented, this means long waits for the stir fry during the peak lunch hour. I recommend to get there early for lunch. Second, the other reason to arrive right at 11:00 am or so as I did for my last visit is that everything is absolutely FRESH. So, likely no risk of food poisoning. As others pointed out, the sushi selection is pretty standard and bland. Not much adventure there. Even at 11 am, it tasted the same as sushi sitting on the shelf in its plastic to-go tray all day at some supermarket anywhere in Finland. There's lots of other stuff in the buffet, but to me the only thing new and worthwhile here is the stir-fry, if you can get it while it is still fresh. The staff were mostly pretty harried when I was there and long-time Rovaniemi residents will know that this is the old Comico Tex-Mex restaurant. You don't go for either the ambience or the service! Its a mall, so what do...

Went to have a lunch buffet with my family and had a great experience at Osaka today. There were so many options to try. It was worth the price. Food was really yummy, especially the seafood stir-fry selections. First we were confused about the stir-fry selections, but a Bangladeshi staff member of this restaurant explained everything to us patiently. Thanks a lot to him. We just had to select our likes and sauces and give to a staff to stir-fry them. Service and environment were really good. Will love...

A great restaurant with plenty of vegan options. They offer several types of vegan sushi, including avocado, cucumber, and seaweed rolls. They also cook fresh vegetables in a wok right in front of you. There are various salad options (with ingredients like tomato, olives, and more), fries, tofu, and you can create your own ramen with vegetable broth, adding tofu and veggies. For dessert, they have vegan options like canned peaches and melon. They also serve coffee with oat milk for a perfect finish...