Osaka Hibachi, Ramen, and Sushi — Restaurant in Indiana

Well they can’t all be great. We’ve had several great meals at Osaka Newburgh. Unfortunately, tonight was not one of them. It wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t great. We were excited to try their new menu item, okonomiyaki. We ordered one to share and also ordered lumpia and batagor (chicken dumplings with peanut sauce). The lumpia came out first. The taste was good, but unfortunately the inside filling was ice cold. Had they been the right temperature throughout, it probably would have been our favorite of the night. Next came the batagor. What we got didn’t look anywhere near as good as the photo on the menu. It was basically a chicken nugget with peanut butter on top. The “dumpling” was at least warm throughout. The peanut sauce was thick and pasty - not in a good way (peanut sludge basically). Finally came what we’d been waiting for - okonomiyaki. I will say it was beautiful when it arrived. And it’s a pretty decent-sized portion. But it was a fairly thin pancake and it was drowning in sauce and Japanese mayonnaise on top. While the liberal saucing seems to be typical of the dish, it just wasn’t to our taste. The sauce and mayo completely overwhelmed the dish such that that’s all we could taste. We were also surprised at the texture of the pancake. We both had expected it to be crispy - at least on the surface. It was actually very soft and there was no crunch to it at all except for a very slight crunch from the cabbage inside. Had it been crispier, I think the sauce/mayo wouldn’t have seemed so cloying. We didn’t eat even half of the dish between the two of us. We thought we’d salvage the meal by ordering sushi. We got tuna nigiri and a rainbow roll. The sushi was fine but a bit … meh. Overall it just felt like the restaurant was totally off their game tonight. Every other time we’ve been there and loved it, the owner was there. She didn’t seem to be there tonight, and we wondered if that’s why the quality wasn’t what...

We tried Osaka for the first time last night, and it did not disappoint. I ordered our food for pickup, and the employee answering the phone & taking orders was very polite, friendly, and professional.

We both selected the Hibachi Shrimp Dinner, and were pleasantly surprised by how quickly it was ready. In under 15 minutes from ordering to paying, and then heading home with it.

Our Hibachi Shrimp Dinner included hibachi grilled shrimp, hibachi grilled vegetables, fried rice, hibachi soup, and salad w/ sesame dressing; it was ALL absolutely fabulous, and very nicely priced.

The fried rice may actually be the best that I've ever eaten (my hubby raved about it also), and all of the hibachi grilled foods were excellently cooked w/ the hint of butter, lemon, and soy while letting the natural flavors shine as well. Both appetizers, sesame dressed salad & hibachi soup, were equally delicious and well flavored. I can honestly say it's hands-down the best hibachi I've eaten since Nagasaki closed, and it's MUCH cheaper.

Overall, the entire experience from ordering to enjoying our order was fabulous, and possibly created the best date night in, ever!!!!! Osaka was professional, friendly, quick, very reasonably priced, and served us high quality food that was excellently prepared.

I'm highly recommending Osaka and for only $40.00 for TWO Hibachi Shrimp Dinners that included everything Japanese food lovers would expect from a hibachi dinner, it's definitely where I'll order from...

I rarely do reviews anymore unless I am genuine strong reaction good or bad. With that said; I went to Osaka for dinner last night and was excited to see that they had traditional ramen, definitely one of my personal favorites. I'll be honest, I had pretty low expectations. But holy crap that was the BEST ramen I've had since I lived in LA! Also, this may not be a big deal to most, but the marinated eggs were on point! They weren't rubbery at all like most places out here, and were absolutely delicious!

Also, I got an order of chicken lo mein to go, and I just had it cold for breakfast. It's so good that I had to stop what I was doing and write this review!

Bravo!! 👏👏👏 I cannot wait...