osaka ramen and sushi — Restaurant in Norfolk

SAVE YOUR MONEY. (And keep reading my blatantly honest review for quality and validated recommendations)

As a sushi enthusiast, this is the worst, most stingy sushi I’ve ever had. When I saw the expensive rolls I ordered from Uber Eats, I was genuinely concerned as to whether Osaka has enough fish on hand today to run a sushi restaurant.

I spent over $60 on Uber Eats (granted, yes- I understand the inevitable fees) for Karrage Bao Buns, veggie ramen, oolong tea, and 3 rolls. I basically forced down my food with regret and disappointment.

If there’s one pet peeve that I have when it comes to restaurants, it is being misled by menus and a lack of attention to detail.

1. The only correct thing about my order was the bao buns (the meat was suspect) and the oolong tea.

2. The $15 ramen: The broth was definitely basic in terms of flavor. It might sound silly, but one thing I look forward to when it comes to ramen is the boiled egg (which-surprise, surprise) was in the item description on Uber. Yet, my bowl was egg-less. Ramen guy —— You had one job! If you want real ramen + a generous portion, go to KAPPO NARA RAMEN.

3. The $8 eel roll: Basically, there may have been a SLIVER of eel in my roll. Was comprised of mostly avocado.

4. The $14 “Tim’s Roll”: Supposedly made with tuna, cucumber, and crab inside with eel and avocado on top. If you frequent sushi adventures, you know that any roll considered as a ‘special’ or ‘chef’s roll’ is typically larger than your standard house rolls. This was a skinny little log basically comprised once again of avocado, and maybe two slivers of eel on top. Might even have been a guacamole roll for all I know.

5)The $15 “Hott Lady” roll. What I ordered: Grilled salmon and white fish inside with spicy tuna and avocado on top. What I got: Another skinny little log of unenthusiastic sushi, filled with 90% of that crunchy panko stuff (not even sure there was any fish chopped up in the mix), and mostly—YOU NAME IT—avocado on top, with maybe two or 3 pieces including a thin, almost non-existent layer of spicy tuna.

The rolls were nothing special by any means. And for what I paid, I would hope to actually enjoy some fish. I wanted to give this place a try, but know better now to stick to what I know.

If you want real sushi, you can find a variety of generous and flavorful portions at: Daiwa Sushi, Volcano, Katana, Hokkaido, and Fuji Hana....

My boyfriend and I go to this restaurant occasionally and every time the food is great and so is the service. But today we went and a waitress named Missy ‘helped’ us out. She waited 10-15 minutes to confirm what I had ordered so in total we waited for our food for over 30 minutes. This would have been okay if she had not only gotten my order wrong but also dropped my boyfriend’s order and spilled it all over the table and his shirt. She then does not clean it up and offers a 10% discount on the sushi alone. I ask for a higher discount because at this point my boyfriend still had not gotten his order. She refuses at first but then offers to pay after she made it clear her boss would not be happy with this situation. She then talks to her manager and tells us that we can have a 50% discount and we think that is okay. But when we look at the check, only 20% was taken off. It clearly said 20% off the total on the receipt but for whatever reason she said it was 50% off only the order that was dropped. I would’ve been able to see if she had actually given us a 50% discount on the sushi only but at this point we were tired and wanted to leave. I don’t know why she wanted to play in my face after all the problems she caused and how poor her customer service and speed was. I usually love this place, but Missy really left a bad taste in our mouths and we won’t be eating here...

I ordered their chicken fried rice with a side of Miso soup am order of egg rolls and a sweet tea. The egg rolls were actually little spring rolls that were pretty salty and came with a sweet and tangy dip that was not very flavorful in my opinion.. The miso soup was so salty I made my "whoa this is salty" face, ha. The chicken fried rice portion was huge and it wasn't greasy at all. The sweet tea was just ok. I guess I shouldn't expect a lot out of a sushi restaurant as far as sweet tea goes. My wife ordered the fried rice as well along with a side salad. The lettuce was not chopped up. It looked like they served her a quarter head of lettuce with a couple chunks of tomato and cucumber with a ton of dressing in the salad. She was not overly enthusiastic about her meal either. My daughter only ordered a portion of white rice, which was maybe a cup of rice. Overall we paid $40.37 for our meal not including the tip. My wife left her salad there because it made her sick and we brought home half of a to-go container of fried rice.

The service was very subpar. None of the staff knew what a smile was and we waited for menus for approximately 10 minutes after being seated. We got our drinks before our menus. We found that odd and irritating. They won't see us again most likely.

I did like the level of the music that was being played over the speakers and the restaurant...