Ishii Okonomiyaki — Restaurant in Amstelveen

Recommends this place because of the food and the service.

Good to know: it's busy, call to reserve in advance. Staff don't speak Dutch (Nederlands) but they will do their best to accommodate you. Menu is in English and Japanese. They have an impressive manga collection in the restaurant which I think is mostly in Japanese. Parking can be easily done around the restaurant, fees apply. Okonomiyaki is only served at dinner and takes at least 30 minutes to make.

Why did I give this rating: Of course we did not book in advance but with a stroke of luck, we were able to be seated and have a quick dinner. The lady who helped us was very kind. Stepping in this restaurant feels like stepping in a different country. Lots of Japanese expats eat here, Japanese MTV is on the restaurant television and the impressive manga collection is really something different to see. We wanted to try Okonomiyaki and this restaurant makes them fresh. The menu features different kinds with different topics. We settled for a basic one with pork and spring onions and one with noodles, meat and seafood. We also had some sake with dinner. Our dinner here was an absolute delight and we will certainly come back soon to try the Ramen they offer. Wanna have a Izakaya experience with good food, go...

I've been here several times. I come here for the okonomiyaki of course. The okonomiyaki is best. (I choose the one with everything in it: beef pork seafood and topped with an egg) The takoyaki was good too, the gyzoa is gyoza. And the cha shu is a hit or miss. One time it was really good, one time it was burnt, and one it had hardly any marinade flavour. The worst part is the waiting time though. Once I came with a really big group and one of us never got his order. Now for the okonomiyaki you habe to wait longer than other dishes. About 45 min is okay but last time we (only a group of 3 this time) waited for 1,5 hour - seeing other tables around us who arrived later getting their okonomiyaki served before us. Oh and my cha shu was forgotten this time so I also had to wait for that. Waiting a bit longer or being forgotten can happen, no problem. But here in comparison to other restaurants it happen often - at least to me. The waiting staff has been enriched with non Japanese people so also taking orders in Dutch since a while now. For the food I definitely recommend it and I will still visit when I want okonomiyaki. But be prepared for long...

We ordered a portion of gyoza, ishii sauce yaki soba and a pork okonomiyaki with noodles. The gyoza was OK, the soba dish was tasty with very yummy noodles (chewy). Unfortunately for the toppings the veggies were too far done and they used pink (small) shrimps instead of the regular sized scampi's. Also, the portion was a bit small considering the price. The okonomiyaki dish was fine and adding noodles was a nice touch but there was too much sauce on top so it overpowered the dish a bit. We also thought bacon would have been a better choice instead of pieces of pork. We rated our experience 4 stars for the above reasons but also because of the appearance of the restaurant. The bookcases stuffed with Manga books were very cool. And the wall decorations were nice too. But the tables and seats definitely need some maintenance. The couch where we were seated had chunks of surface missing and the table was unstable.

All in all, it's a good place to eat japanese comfort food and we would come back and try out other dishes on...