Osaka Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Hot Springs

BEST SUSHI AND HIBACHI EXPERIENCE IN HOT SPRINGS! Look no more and just do yourself a favor and go here. This place has such a beautiful ambiance and atmosphere and it feels truly authentic walking in. The lighting is dim and the place is really big, clean and cozy. There is the basic tables you can sit at or you can have an awesome seating experience at the tatami tables where you remove your shoes, walk up some lovely wooden steps and sit at a table where the cushions are on the “floor” but the table is low in the floor so it just seems like your sitting on the floor. It’s lovely and really private feeling. I love this for romantic dinners or just wanting to feel close and cozy. There’s also some seating at the bar with lots of drink options and sake, the sushi bar where you can watch the master at work, and then the action seating at the hibachi tables where they cook in front of you. No matter where you sit in this place, it’s a wonderful experience and they offer the best, most savory and delicious Japanese cuisine hot springs has to offer. This is definitely the go to spot for date nights and any time you want to WOW someone. I highly recommend the GEISHA roll- it’s not fried but it’s covered in four delicious sauces and WOW it’s heavenly I swear. Back in the day I was obsessed with the fried rolls and if that’s your jam, the OH MY GOD roll is where it’s at. This used to be a staple but now my tastes want all the fresh it can take so the geisha is my home now. Next, whether you are getting hibachi or not, make sure to get the ginger dressing on a side salad. It’s the best dressing I’ve ever had that I buy a large container for the house now every couple of months. This dressing is so good I drink the last bits left in the bowl without any shame. The house soup with the clear broth is also another simple favorite of mine and it’s also very drinkable 😂 as far as entrees go, man, it’s tough bc I love so much they have to offer. I love the lunch bento boxes with the teriyaki… the hibachi is great for an impressive show and dinner with strangers…. But the udon soup and yakisoba noodle dishes are hard to pass up too. Sometimes I have to get an entire other entree to go for later bc it’s too hard to have just one entree here since everything is so dang tasty. This place really is a landmark in this town and has been for a long time. The owners are wonderful people who treat you like family and they love to help you decide when it comes to the menu. When going with a fun group it’s fun to try wild new things from the sushi and sashimi menu like baby octopus and quail egg shooters. I personally don’t recommend the baby octopus bc we tried that once and for one the texture isn’t my jam and second, it feels weird having an entire infant animal on a plate with a bunch of others. But it’s definitely a conversation piece to say the least! All in all, no matter how many hibachi sushi spots pop up in Hot Springs, this is the ring...

Okay, so if you are going to get sushi while in Hot Springs this is going to be the best place to go. HOWEVER, here are some things you need to know:

First and foremost the food is fantastic 90% of the time, however if something goes wrong with a part of your meal, it will not get comped no matter how bad it is. For example, a couple years ago I went in and got a sushi roll that had a literal roach in it (I'm guessing it crawled in while it was waiting to be picked up, it was a small little dude but still ew), so I talked with the owner about getting it comped, and she refused. When I said that I refuse to pay for food when it was literally inedible, but I was willing to pay the rest of the ticket bc the rest of the food was good, she threatened to call the cops. I invited her to, and she escalated and started full out yelling 😅 honestly at that point I paid and left. And didn't go back for a while. The reason why I'm leaving this review today is because although I've gone back plenty of times over the past couple years, today I had a sushi roll that had spoiled fish. The fish was literally gray and tasted rotten. The owner wasn't present but the supervisor was, and again it was refused to be comped and was super rude about it. Now that's only twice in like a 7-year time span, but I feel like it should be known, especially with how bad things are economically right now, that if this restaurant messes anything up about your food you will be expected to pay for it whether it's edible or not, and most likely will be treated in a condescending manner on top of that 😅

The other thing you should know about this restaurant is that the owner steals the waiters' tips. Not in a covert way, but in the way of if you give money to your waitress or waiter, at the end of the night the owner makes that individual give them a percentage of their tips. No matter how little or how much they make that night. They also force that individual to divide the tips up amongst the cooking staff, the bartending staff, and the sushi chefs. All of whom are paid an above average hourly wage while the individual is paid the minimum wage for tipped individuals, which is currently like $2.63 an hour. So just be mindful of that as well when you are at the end of your meal and tipping your waiter/waitress - because they're not going to be going home...

I am a regular at Osaka. I have always had exceptional service and food. I always have my birthday dinner there (6 years now) and this year will probably have been my last. I called a week and a half in advance to reserve the party table for my 15-20 guests for my birthday dinner. I gave a date, a time, and the head count. They said okay, wrote me down. Day comes, it’s Friday and they’re busy which is no big deal, but I’m not seated until almost 7:20 when my reservation was 7:00, and finally, me and my guests are seated at TWO different hibachi tables, not the party table I requested that they previously said “okay” on. So as my party of 14 (that’s all who showed up), 10 sitting at one table and 4 at the other, I requested to sit at the party table to my waiter since it was pretty dumb for only 4 people to sit alone. He looked at me and says “well did you reserve?” And I said um yeah I did over a week ago. And he went to ask around to see if I can get it. He came back and didn’t say anything but “ummmm so.. no. You can’t have it.” No apology. Super short. Not impressed!! So I said why? He said someone else reserved it and specifically said they needed that table. So at this point I’m irritated while he tried to explain there’s no difference in the two hibachi tables compared to the party one. I gave up and went on with my birthday.

My four guests sitting at the other hibachi table had to wait to get their food after my table got ours. Even though they were a part of my party??? Didn’t make sense. So my guests who had to wait were mad and said forget it we are going somewhere else and left after our food was done.

I’m so disappointed because I’ve loved Osaka for years, but that ruined my night. So I won’t be returning, and if I do, it is not for...