Osaka Ramen&Hibachi — Restaurant in Alexandria

After finding out about a new Ramen shop opening up in Cenla I was very excited. As someone who has studied in Japan and is a lover of Japanese cuisine I was looking forward to eating here and I must say it's a decent start. Initially walking in the establishment offers a great impression; the interior is well executed and reminiscent of actual Japanese Ramen shops. For it newly opening it was very clean and the layout relatively staying the same from the last establishment in the same building, Fatburger. One thing I will note is that the paintings on the wall look AI generated, which is off-putting but maybe they were placeholders for actual art. If not then I advise they take them down and put authentic pieces on the wall.

After walking in my food partner and I were greeted with smiles and immediately were seated and began to be served. Our waitress was a young lady who was extremely attentive and seemed to give almost professional service with a very comforting and friendly vibe. I can already say that I was very pleased with the service without having even ordered my food yet, which I'll be getting into now.

The menu is a lengthy one to my surprise, and offered a large variety of dishes that are authentic to Japanese like Gyudon, Takoyaki, Udon and etc. The menu offers a plethora of Ramen to choose from, all with a standard pork based broth. [I will mention though, do not come here broke, every entree is extremely costly and one meal will cost around $20.] My initial nitpick was that it was too many choices offered which can cause issue for consistency but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since I haven't tried every bowl and appetizer. A note I'll add before I get into my order is that they have a really good selection of extras to add to your meal for $1.95-$3.50 which was a good call. Lastly, for speciality drinks they serve different types of tea you most likely see at other Asian-American food establishments like boba tea or something, which is fine. Didn't get to try these though since I ordered a water.

For the appetizer my partner and I ordered chicken karaage and gyoza. I was pleased to see these on the menu but was immediately disappointed when it was brought to our table. The chicken karaage was a humongous let-down and I was shocked at the small, almost comical portion that was given to us. It was 5 or 6 very small pieces and looked like they were rationing or something. Chicken karaage is supposed to be these big huge lumps of fried juicy chicken that have a light but incredibly crispy fry to it. These were sad, dull, overcooked chicks that died for nothing. The gyoza was slightly more tolerable but tasted exactly like the store bought ones you get in the large bags in the frozen section. Our appetizers were ultimately a dud, and I can only imagine how quality the other appetizers are considering our 2 appetizers were Japanese staples. But let's stop being harsh for just a second and get to the main thing here. I ordered the Tonkotsu ramen which is supposed to be a creamy pork ramen with a shoyu base and an extra bowl of rice. My partner ordered the chashu miso ramen, which is known for a very flavorful broth hence the miso. When our bowls came out it looked promising and really high quality. The noodles were spongy and offered a nice chew, being cooked relatively well. The broth, despite lacking flavor, was very hearty and complimented everything in the bowl. There was corn, black fungu, fish cake, seaweed, bamboo, egg, and pork. I'm not a picky person but I don't usually find myself enjoying these items even when I was in Japan but they all just worked together so well here and were extremely quality. I personally don't favor ramen all that much and even in Japan never really finished my bowls but I absolutely tore this one down. After being leftover with only broth I finished it completely after dumping my rice into the bowl. This is something commonly done at ramen shops like Ichiran ramen and I recommend everyone to do this. Overall shaky start but the ramen won me over....

SERVICE - They fixed the service! Awesome service

FOOD- here's where it shines!

Pricing - Excellent - The food price was very good for a ramen shop. I see a lot of the comments on here stating that it is expensive for 'soup' or 'ramen' seem to be comparing the ramen prices to the little Maruchan packets you get in the grocery store. I've eaten at multiple ramen shops around Louisiana and these prices are actually on the cheaper end.

Takoyaki (chopped octopus in a creamy batter ball)- Quality: amazing! - Pricing: Fantastic - My only concern on the Takoyaki is that there were very little bonito flakes put on top to give it the 'dancing' visual that most Takoyaki has. Other than that, the flavor was delicious, and I highly, HIGHLY recommend this appetizer. 6/5 (seriously these were beyond amazing)

Osaka cold Ramen - I am so glad that they have a cold ramen option. The taste of this ramen is almost like a breakfast ramen to me with it having a sweet flavor that in my mind associates with syrup on pancakes. It is also a refreshing ramen to have if you do not want to have something hot on a scorching evening, but still want to enjoy a nice bowl of ramen. 5/5

Chashu Miso Ramen - The flavor of the broth was delightful. I especially liked the black garlic oil. I feel like that really complimented the dish. The corn was okay on it, but I feel as if they added too much corn to the dish. At the end, it ended up tasting more like a corn soup than a ramen. Other than that, I was a little disappointed that the 'chashu' was only pork tenderloin and not the tender 'chashu', but I am giving the benefit of the doubt that they ran out of real chashu due to the hurricane affecting their supplies 4/5

Mochi ice cream - Delicious and they cut it into 4 sections, which I greatly appreciated. This allows people with sensitive teeth, like myself, to eat it at leisure and enjoy it, rather than immediately get tooth pain. Strawberry and Green tea are the way to go! 5/5

Drinks: Water - I am weird about water, but the water here was very refreshing. It didn't have the chemical taste that most restaurants around Alexandria have. 5/5

Dr. Pepper - It was bubbly and CO2 and syrup were well ratioed. 5/5

Dishes I would recommend trying for the new Ramen goer: Chashu Miso Ramen (they have spicy if you like spice) Takoyaki Shumai Chashu pork Bun Mochi Harumaki

Atmosphere:

Seating - They need more seating or at least need to take reservations. One or the other. There wasn't enough seating and I watched 5 groups of 4+ people leave due to wait times and several other 2 person groups leave.

Ambiance - They didn't have music playing, which for me was nice, but I saw another person say that there was music playing in their review. Might be a day-by-day thing.

Decor - Loved the decor on the walls and thought the fans and hanging umbrellas were a nice touch!

All in all, I do think that everyone should at least try this spot, but it will take some time for them to get into the...

Seems like the place is going through some growing pains. They were extremely busy when we went (Friday evening) so I’d like to be understanding of that. We had to wait about 30 minuets to be seated.

Had to grab a waitress to serve us after waiting about 15 minuets without anybody speaking to us to ask for our drinks. She was very nice but forgot one of our drinks and our appetizer. Didn’t get checked on as often as we should have. If she had checked on us more we could have let her know we were missing things. I can understand a little since they just opened and were very busy, but still worth noting. She also brought me water as a refill instead of a sprite.

Atmosphere was a bit weird. Music was way too loud and they were playing obnoxious pop music. Feel like they should have played something calmer and more in-theme with a ramen place. Made the place feel chaotic. Inside temp was a bit too hot like other reviews say.

Food was okay. We’re pretty certain that one of us got the wrong ramen bowl. Fiancée said that the boba balls were solid and “not chewy enough”. By no means was the food bad though. I got the seafood plate (pictured) and it was alright. We spent roughly $55 for my plate, her ramen, soda, boba tea, and appetizer. Tip made it $60.

Waitress also didn’t make it clear to us if we paid at the counter or if she would come collect. We only knew to go to the front because some people sitting next to us waited for maybe 15-20 minuets and eventually just walked up to the front and paid.

Overall lots of potential with the place and they just need to get a few more things right with their processes and atmosphere. Almost felt like they were just winging it. Might go back after a while and update...