Osa Izakaya ( Japanese cuisine) — Restaurant in Dallas

It's been about 2 weeks since we made our first trek to this place. We wanted to give it a whirl due to the fairly good reviews. Formerly known as Zizi's. The exterior is not really visible at night. Interior fairly basic, walls were painted purple with a smattering of anime themed wall scrolls/posters. For a small space it feels really open.

Service was a bit underwhelming and the hostess/waitress was not versed in the food she was selling. She constantly had to go to the back to ask if they had a requested item and about prices. I will discuss more of this in the food section, but overall just getting a drink refill took too long with a bit of snarkiness. To be clear, we only had 1 refill. After we received our food, she vanished until the end of the meal.

The food - we only ordered ramen, 1 Tonkotsu and 1 Chicken Katsu. The Katsu was brought out on a small plate drizzled with "Katsu" sauce and garnished with green onion. This is to keep the breading crispy, until you're ready to add it in the ramen. Portion of chicken was super thin and size was similar to a pattie on a small sandwich, tasted pleasant. Also ordered to it was the garlic oil, chili oil, kimchi, and kaedama(extra noodle). The bowl stock comes with corn, the meat you choose, noodles, boiled egg, and bamboo. The boiled egg was served hard, opposed to the standard for ramen which is yolk runny. The bamboo had a horrible sulfurous preserved flavor, and was still cold from a can. Very off putting both flavor and texture wise. Perhaps they might consider at least rinsing the bamboo in the future, if not par boiling it. Overall with the additions I ordered, the flavor was edible. The Tonkotsu was served the same way stock, but opted to substitute the corn for bokchoy. Was still charged for "substitution" as though it was an extra topping. The broth was the biggest let down. I couldn't believe in any way that this was being called bone broth, and hardly that there was chicken in it at all. Tonkotsu broth is supposed to be savory, creamy, and rich. What we got was watery, saltless, and devoid of any flavor. We then had to ask one of the cooks; who was the only personnel in sight; for soy sauce and chili/garlic oil to make it taste remotely appealing. The chashu pork was actually quite good, 4 square shaped cuts which were a decent thickness. The bowl size was also quite large and though we both ordered extra noodles, I would have done well without them. The ratio of noodle to broth was also appropriate.

Theres potential here, but some things need to be worked out. They do not offer benishoga(salty pickled red ginger) or Togarashi/ichimi powder(red pepper/sesame seed multi spice), 2 very common staples of ramen. We asked, and were given puzzling looks. Not sure if this was due to the waitresses lack of knowledge or the restaurant itself not stocking them. Prices online also need to be updated to reflect instore costs. They charge twice the price for nigiri as Kura, at time of visit was 2...

Osa Izakaya: The Most Authentic Japanese Experience I had so far in DFW

Let’s be real—DFW has no shortage of sushi spots claiming to be “authentic.” You know the type: places where the chef might throw a jalapeño on your roll and call it a day. But Osa Izakaya? This place isn’t playing around. Chef Nicholas and his team are bringing the real deal, and they know it.

From the moment we sat down, it was clear that Osa Izakaya was something special. We started with tempura-fried goodness that was crispy, flavorful, and somehow made us feel like we were making good life choices. The ramen was rich, deeply satisfying, and the kind of broth that makes you forget your problems for a little while. And while we didn’t order the nigiri, we did witness it being prepared—each slice of fish so expertly cut, so beautifully arranged, that we almost regretted our life choices. (Almost. That ramen was worth it.)

But the real showstopper of the night? Chef Nicholas casually crafting an intricate bear out of an orange. Let me repeat: a bear. Out of an orange. At that moment, we realized two things: (1) This man is a culinary wizard, and (2) We will never cut fruit the same way again. The bear was so well-cut and cleaned that it somehow enhanced the flavor—which, frankly, should be scientifically impossible, but here we are.

And because no truly authentic Japanese experience in DFW is complete without a proper drink, we sipped on a Shirakiku carbonated beverage, which was delightfully crisp, bubbly, and made us feel briefly superior to anyone drinking plain water.

But wait, it gets better—Osa Izakaya is about to get its liquor license. That means real Japanese alcohol is coming soon, so you can sip sake and pretend you’re in a Tokyo izakaya (instead of, you know, a DFW shopping center). Oh, and did I mention there’s a free pool table in the enclosed party area? Because nothing says “authentic Japanese experience” like sushi, sake, and absolutely embarrassing yourself at billiards.

Bottom line? Chef Nicholas and his team are delivering something special. Osa Izakaya isn’t just another sushi spot—it’s an experience, a passion project, and a much-needed wake-up call for anyone still eating grocery store sushi. DFW, you have been blessed.

And next time? We’re...

I kid you not, I paid $13.75 for the orange chicken with steamed rice. I barely got any orange chicken and the rice wasn't that much. I mean I could easily count how much chicken I was given. Definitely not worth $13.75. I was not happy. Then I had ordered the $6.50 mango smoothie that was in a small cup with boba and the boba was super soft almost like it was old or something. I'm used to soft, but chewy hardness. Overall probably won't be ordering from here again.

Same day update: Don't bother ordering a smoothie. It's mostly just watered down slush. It barely tasted like mango and I thought because of the price I would be getting cup of a smoothie with real mango blended in it. The chicken wasn't bad tasting but like I said above they don't give you a lot of it.

Update with Owner's response: "Miss Veronica, we are sorry about your experience. We see that mostly you are unhappy with the prices. And by your description, it looks like you ordered from a third party delivery platforms. Prices on these platforms are higher than our regular prices because it includes payment to the company that delivers the food to you. Also, depends on how long the company takes to deliver the smoothie to you, it might have become watered down as the ice melts. Please visit us in person next time to dine in or take out and enjoy the full experience with lower prices. Thank you for your understanding."

Even if I paid $9 for the chicken and rice that would have been too much to pay. My problem was with the amount of the food compared to the price. I understand that delivery services charge a bit more for their deliveries, but I received barely anything. Also, I have ordered drinks with boba that had about the same distance from the store to my location and the boba was still nice and chewy. Same with the taste of the drinks. This just seems like the company doesn't really put much in their smoothies such as real fruit.The owner did not actually address any of...