Ozora Izakaya Japanese Bar & Tapas — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

Food: Serving izakaya style Japanese food. Everything meets expectations but nothing stands out either. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Agedashi tofu: crispy skin soft tofu with umami daishi broth. Loved the broth; ramen: good portion of noodles and soup but comes with only one piece of chashu pork. Broth is decent flavored.

Grilled skewers: I ordered chicken thigh, scallop, shrimp, and pork belly. They are good but too pricey. You get one for $3-4. Also the dressing is too sweet for those skewers.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Baby bankok ribs plate: too much sauce.

Miso salmon: tenderly roasted salmon. But too much sauce as well.

⭐ ⭐ Seafood okonomiyaki: not too authentic as they didn't use cabbage. However the portion size is okay. I can see some seafood in it. Also, they topped it off with a generous portion of bonito flakes (giving a umami flavor to the dish);

Takoyaki: good portion of bonito flakes.

🛑 Seaweed salad: they served it right after taking it out the fridge. It's too chilled and not fresh at all. Get those at grocery stores instead of paying $6 for it.

Service: limited. They aren't busy and there were only two tables seated when we dined in on a Sunday night. But servers didn't care to check on their customers.

Atmosphere: good, quiet, clean, and I loved their selection of plates used for dish-serving. No reservations needed.

⚠️ No parking. You can leave your car in the parking lot of Whole Foods nearby and expect

Came on Friday night expecting a little wait. However came in about 1.5 hours prior to closing and there was only 1 other guest. Was immediately greeted and seated. Waitress was nice, but took about 10 minutes to come take the drink and appetizer order. Upon placing the orders, the first dish came out after about 10 minutes, but the drinks took about 15 minutes to arrive. The waitress apologized and explained she was the bartender and also was helping in the kitchen.

Being that it's an izakaya, ordered many different dishes to try and share everything. Ordered everything from the gyoza, karaage, baked mussels, yakitori, squid salad, calamari, and shiitake mushrooms. Food arrived as it was made which is typical for an izakaya or tapas restaurant. Although the service was a little slow, the food was pretty good. Of them all, the baked mussels and shiitake mushrooms were my favorite. The squid salad and pork belly yakitori were above average too. The gyoza was average for a Japanese restaurant and the karaage was good, but was lacking the deep crunch of karaage.

I would've ordered more food and drinks, but they made last call 45 minutes prior to closing, which seemed a little early, but I guess it made sense since they seemed short-staffed. Overall, was good food even if the...

This was my second time trying Ozora, and it was good both times. The food is fresh and pretty authentic. The service has been sporadic both times, although I have never felt neglected, but when I've needed a server, they're a few minutes behind, and when I haven't needed them, they're all over the table. That being said, everything in the review up to this point should be worthy of a 4.5 star rating. The big letdown, is they are changing portion sizes to smaller, and not lowering the prices. This scares me! It means they are stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. I realize we are in a tough time economically, but pricing on your menu should be value driven, and as an izakaya, the feel should be a neighborhood/after work hangout with good comfort food/snacks. The okonomiyaki I had the first time was awesome, and just what I remember from my time in Japan. The second time around, it was half the size, very dough heavy, the fillings were skimped on, and the flavor was okay. When we asked the server, we were told they are reworking the menu, which this early in a life of a restaurant is not a good sign. I do want Ozora to survive, but am not willing to go back if they are skimping to save a dime, and am hopeful they will realize their...