Osake Steak and Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Salida

I have been coming to Salida with my family for close to 13 years now. Classics include Amica's, Boathouse, Moonlight Pizza, etc. My parents recommended this spot to me, my girlfriend, and my brother and were raving about their Pho (soup). So, we decided to stop by on our last night here in town and our experience was possibly the worst restaurant experience I have had all year.

To start out, we walk in and they have a hard time seating us. We ask if we can sit at the bar and the hostess (who I am assuming is the manager) hands us the menus and says "if you're happy I'm happy." The bar was 2 feet away and she could have walked us over and shown us our seats but instead we had to go ask the bartender where he preferred we sit. So ultimately whatever, not a big deal.

The bartender was not in a good mental space. He was all over the place, even forgetting my entree order (which I am honestly happy about). So he takes our drink orders, and gives me my Sapporo after having to ask probably 2-3 times because he was so spaced out. Take two sips, and notice blood coming from my lip. Turns out the glass was chipped and I cut my mouth.

He apologizes frantically, and then walks over with a "winter ale" as a kind of peace offering after replacing my Sapporo, and then offers my brother a Plum Sour (spoiler alert, he rings up the plum sour on our tab after offering it to him because he made "extra"). So here I am with a bleeding lip and what is, ostensibly, the worst bartender I have ever had (seemed like a nice guy, but wasn't there mentally).

Now we order our food, and my brother asks for recommendations. They bartender couldn't recommend a single dish, and ended up saying "you know, there isn't a dish I DISLIKE." Very helpful! So my brother orders Panang Curry, I order Chicken Teriyaki, and my girlfriend orders Pad Thai. We also ordered crab rangoons, edamame, and a shrimp tempura roll.

The food comes out. Crab rangoon is cold and basically only cream cheese (I think we located one piece of crab), and the edamame is probably the worst I have ever had. Then comes the food, and the Pad Thai has a profoundly bad smell. I tried a bite and couldn't stomach it.

DISCLAIMER: The curry and the shrimp tempura roll were the only things worth their money. The sushi was actually very good, and the curry holds up! THIS is the ONLY reason I am giving two stars for this experience.

With all that said, we get the check back and the guy rang up the plum drop on our tab (probably thinking we wouldn't notice). I have worked in the food service industry and can tell you what happened: he thought it was an extra, offered it to us, then got called out because he missed an order and put it on our tab to cover his *. Called him on it and he removed it.

It was $90 for one of the worst dining experiences (on the whole) that I had in 2023. Would not recommend for those visiting, there are much better restaurants out there.

Sushi was fine, curry was good, everything else mediocre to unpleasant - 2/10.

Oh yeah, and he forgot my...

My daughter wanted sushi for lunch, so we decided to try this new location, as we have already visited Sushi Thai (which was amazing!) A call was placed to me a few minutes after placing an online order and at the time I was told no accommodations or changing of rolls can be done online because they aren't able to charge for any extras. Although that is conflicting information as listed on the website it states if any changes are submitted they might incur fee's, which I was completely fine with. Upon, pickup the way I was greeted from a gentleman went exactly like this " if you don't tip on orders then the bar is obligated to tip out to other staff when he didn't receive a tip" First, sentence out of his mouth when I told him who I was picking up. Mind you, as stated above my daughter placed the order for one roll, for herself. Any other pickup order I've been able to sign the receipt and add tip when receiving the food to ensure it's properly made. I walked back to the car to look for cash but I didn't have any on hand, as I also have worked in the service industry & ALWAYS tip. At the same time I noticed only 1 packet of soy sauce & chopsticks ( no napkins) so I also asked for more packet of soy. When we opened the Spicy Tuna roll, not only were we shocked by the tiny portion but also the spicy mayo wasn't on the roll- one of the main toppings my daughter wanted, so it wasn't even made correctly. Nothing, at all was "spicy" with this order. The tuna was so warm, I didn't allow her to finish the rolls as I was concerned for her health. When trying a piece the texture, temperature and taste- everything was completely off and not enjoyable whatsoever! For $19 we received a tiny amount of ill tasting food and terrible customer service. Needless to say we will never be trying this place again, as well as my office staff. On the same street go to Sushi Thai every visit has been amazing! I should've never went elsewhere. You have...

I’m not typically one to go out of my way to leave a poor review, especially since I work as a cook in food service myself, but I was pretty disappointed with my visit here. For starters, as far as the service, the staff seemed nice, we were sat and taken care of quickly but the waitress seemed super out of it and rather unprofessional at times, she was nice enough but it was odd. Where I was most disappointed was specifically in the quality of food that we were served with the prices being what they are. I got the guns and roses roll, this particular roll is made with unagi eel, which normally is delicious but this roll seemed like either it sat under a heat lamp or the eel was maybe kept at room temperature because it was pretty warm, which with uncooked seafood is a concern, the eel still also had a bunch of needle like bones in it, which was also an immediate turn off. For a 25$ roll it was disappointing. I also tried the katsu chicken over Japanese fried rice that my friend ordered and I can’t speak on their behalf but in my opinion the chicken was very dry and the rice was the total opposite, it was very soggy and mushy, altogether just underwhelming. I will say the wonton soup was tasty, but that is all I have to say as a positive. In comparison to literally every other hibachi/sushi place I’ve been to this place has a long way to go in my opinion. Especially with what they’re charging for certain items on the menu and the lack of attention and lack of pride that seems to be paid to the food. I hope it was a fluke, I’d be willing to try it again but not for a while, it wasn’t a great...