Ozuri Izakaya — Restaurant in Duluth

After hearing many mixed reviews about this place, I decided to try it for my own.

Food We ordered the Kai course. The 3 of us worked diligently to finish, but we didn't finish everything, although we were really close to.

Starters: 3 stars its alright.. fried squid, tamago, takowasabi, salad, raisin cream cheese, etc. The highlights of this part was definitely the salad which was refreshing and light and a nice beginning to the meal. The next surprising thing was the raisin cream cheese, which we were not expecting to be good. (At first, I was like what... why...) but it was amazing. The fried squid was just.. similar to what you'd find anywhere else. Tonpeiyaki was skippable.. good but not something to write home about. The chicken nanban was good.

Sushi/Sashimi: 4 stars It seemed and tasted fresh and the temp on the fish was good. Note: they seem to use a better wasabi, not that green-colored horseradish sold in grocery stores.. I also liked that they didn't use a whole bunch of wasabi on the sushi, perfect amount. Overall, enjoyable presentation and tasted good!

Eel/Yakitori: 2 stars The yakitori seemed a little lackluster.. Meatballs were kinda dry and boring.. The chicken wing was the best one.. the veggie options were just... okay.. The eel was a little mushy? for the lack of a better word.. but flavor was there, and tasted like eel.. so.. meh.

Soup: 5 stars This was the highlight. The Nagasaki seafood soup was goood. The people I went with said it was a little too spicy and too much squid, not enough other seafood choices aka clams and stuff. But I love squid and I enjoyed the fact that they didn't skimp on this last portion. It was a perfect level of spicy for me and if I were to drink, this would wake me up from my hangover instantly. It would be amazing with some noodles for sure.

Overall Thoughts It definitely did not disappoint. I enjoyed a large portion of the meal and so I will be coming back. If they had 1 thing to focus on food wise, it would definitely be the yakitori and eel portion of the meal. The fact that this place opens until 4am is kind of crazy. I would imagine this place is BUMPING after 2am on weekends when all the bars and restaurants close.. Definitely would come here to sober up and have a "drunchies" meal. The only thing that was taking stars away was the service. Now, as someone who worked in the service industry for 10+ years now, I understand checking up on table is important. But having a server come up 3 times before we even order and we having to keep telling them that we will wait until the 3rd arrives to order is a little too excessive, especially considering it was not even busy when we went. Maybe don't push tables to order.. Near the end, when we were asked if we wanted the soup now, we said yes. A couple minutes later, we were asked again by a different server the same question.. Maybe I'm nitpicking but.. if there is no communication between servers, might not bode well..

If I could, it would be like a 3.5 star rating, but I nudged it up to a 4..

Note: From what I saw, they do tip %'s based off of the taxed amount, so if that bugs...

I visited during their soft opening and had a great experience overall! We tried the okonomiyaki, which was fantastic, and the grilled mackerel, which ended up being the highlight of the night—absolutely delicious. The salmon tataki was good too, though I felt it needed something extra if eaten on its own. The dumplings were underwhelming and lacked flavor. For dessert, I highly recommend the panna cotta—especially if you enjoy red bean and soybean flavors. Service was great during this visit; the staff was attentive, likely due to fewer guests at the time.

On our second visit, we were excited to order the mackerel again, but they were unfortunately out of it. For context, this was on a Friday night at 9 PM (they close at 12). The server recommended the grilled silver cod with miso instead. We also ordered the tonkotsu ramen and four negima (grilled chicken skewers). Partway through, we were moved to another table due to an issue, but the server explained everything clearly, so it wasn’t a problem.

The silver cod was sweet and savory, and I liked the flavor, but the portion felt small for $15, and the bones made it a bit hard to enjoy. The tonkotsu ramen was a disappointment—the broth was watery and lacked depth, the noodles were too soft, and there was a strange, off-putting seafood smell. The only good parts were the egg and pork, which I ended up picking out and eating on their own.

We initially received only two skewers and assumed the order was misheard, but the remaining two came out about 10 minutes later. Service was noticeably slower this time, with fewer check-ins despite the restaurant only being moderately busy—we even saw a few staff members standing around at times. After waiting a while, we asked for okonomiyaki, only to be told it would take five minutes. Apparently, the server thought we had already ordered it, which led to a bit of confusion. Soon after, another server brought us the check without asking if we were finished—even though the okonomiyaki hadn’t been served yet, and I still wanted to order the panna cotta. It felt like we were being rushed out. Fortunately, everything was sorted in the end, but we again had to wait for someone to notice we were ready to pay. I suspect the table we were moved to was just out of the staff’s usual path.

In conclusion, while the prices initially seemed reasonable, some dishes are definitely hit or miss. I highly recommend the grilled mackerel and panna cotta. I’d skip the tonkotsu ramen and dumplings. Service also felt less attentive this time, even though there were more staff members. I wish each table had a designated server to avoid the frequent miscommunications we...

I’ve been a server before for about 3 years and I understand how tough it is. However, that does not mean you get to be incompetent. Me and a group of friends sat down at 9 PM and had about 3 people come up and ask if we’ve had our drink orders taken yet- it took 20 minutes for us to even get water, and that came after a beer, which came 18 minutes after we ordered drinks.

It didn’t seem like the servers were coordinated with each other at all, and the one server we had that helped us get our orders kept making excuses about the other staff forgetting to make a drink, or not getting our food orders. They also just left midway through the night and never gave the table off to anybody else.

To top it off, the food was so-so. I’m not expecting amazing, but when you give me chicken breast for yakitori and have it be dry and tough, you can’t make the claim that you strive to be authentic. Their only saving grace is the bingsoo, but again, not typically an izakaya item.

When we finished, we were looking to get a check and flagged someone down. We got our checks but ended up waiting 30 minutes to get them taken- ended up taking it to a server that was just lounging and chatting, and he still somehow charged a card to the wrong check (got resolved but still, cherry on top). The restaurant was not busy, there was no excuse to not be on top of things, and it speaks only to the quality of the restaurant if the staff is not trained on even the most basic of items like: water upkeep, serving ramen with a soup spoon, and checking in on tables routinely.

Overall, just go somewhere else. There are better options...