Osakaya Restaurant — Restaurant in San Francisco

Osakaya is located in the West end of Japan Center. There are quite a few restaurants here, including Benihana - and there were a ton of people crowded outside of each one when we got here.

My dad wanted to try a more authentic Japanese restaurant - hey, we were in Japantown right? - so we decided to try Osakaya. Their lunch sets were also the most intriguing after looking at the other restaurants' menus, but - after eating there - I definitely can say that I've had better experiences eating sushi at more "Americanized" places than at Osakaya.

Chirashi bowl: I felt like calling this a chirashi bowl was kind of a joke. I understand that because it's part of a lunch set, you don't want to go all out, but there was basically five slivers of fish on top of a bed of rice (and not sushi rice!) with some egg mixed throughout. The fish was relatively fresh, but I've had better at other places. I would say the salmon was the best.

Fried pork cutlet: The chirashi bowl came in a set with the pork cutlet along with a cucumber salad and miso soup. The pork cutlet was probably the best thing out of the lunch set. You can't really go wrong when you fry food, and I thought there was good flavor and a good amount of slices to the cutlet. The sauce that came with it had a spicy flavor, which went well with the cutlet. I would recommend this.

Beef donburi: The beef is essentially beef teriyaki on top of a bed of rice with broccoli and corn. There was good flavor to the beef (the sauce really helped give it more flavor), but there was a lot more rice in comparison. After eating all the beef, we still had a lot of rice leftover.

Mixed tempura: This was in a set with another chirashi bowl, soup, and salad. There were two shrimp pieces and four other vegetables. The tempura was fried nicely and had a good crisp to it. I thought it could do with a bit more batter, but overall I liked the tempura.

Sashimi combination: I thought this was the most disappointing dish. Most sashimi combinations are pricey at other restaurants, but they contain a good amount of fish and rolls that will eventually lead to a full stomach. But this: 2-3 pieces of salmon and tuna, four nigri sushi, and 6 pieces of California rolls - this was pretty sad. My dad ate it all within a few bites and was still quite hungry. The fish was okay, but nothing too special. I would definitely avoid ordering this combination.

Tuna roll: The tuna roll here tasted very similar to the ones my sister likes back in LA. Very simple - just seaweed wrapped around rice and whole chunks of tuna. The tuna tasted fresh and was overall a good roll.

Service: The waitresses weren't really efficient when it came to taking our orders and giving us refills on water. But they suddenly came alive when it came to giving us our bill.

tl; dr - Maybe we should have stuck to ordering ramen. Overall, not a really fancy place to eat at. I feel like the food isn't that amazing, the restaurant isn't that awesome, and the service is just decent - it's really not worth a...

Koji ("Internaitonal") Osakaya used to be my favorite lunch spot in Japantown (where I still drop by seeing friends having lunch or doing grocery) only until sometime after the COVID lockdown it got so crowded as Japantown rebounded, and its waiting list can be long especially on the weekend. Moreover, the qualify of food has declined, for example, stop using Japanese sticky rice instead of Thai broken rice. Otherwise, my favorite dish used to be combo #7 (Yakitori chicken and unagi served with miso soup, salad and rice) and occasionally I would order cold sake: Hakushika (very nice junmaiju). Now, the menu has been changed my favorite dish has been modified so that I only go there occasionally. (Note: It is unpleasant when yakitori chicken is not well done or semi raw. See pictures shown how to tell well done yakitori versus slightly raw.😉) The place is crowded with tables are literally next to each other so you will feel quite strange or irritated if your neighbors like to chit chat while eating. I have never tried curry as it can get tricky but nabe is not bad. Its sashimi is rather thinly cut under the circumstances which is not appealing to my gusto (Nijiya on the corner of Post and Webster would be your best bet or my go place to pick up and make my own sashimi.) The cooking crew at Koji appear to be Yucatecos but owners and waitresses are actually Thai and they are pretty friendly or laidback in general. To be honest, Japantown has only a handful of native Japanese owned restaurants left according to my friend Ishikawa sen who just turned 82 and he had owned and operated Goemon, what a beautifully decorated classic Japanese restaurant on Irving Street (between 16th and 17th) in Sunset for more than two decades and sold it to a Chinese couple. Times have changed for the good and bad or maybe...

My friends and I came to this restaurant because the other restaurants were too busy. The wait for our food was not too long but it wasn't the greatest. When we received our check it was one bill altogether, but please keep in mind that we did not mention to split the check four-ways. I understand that at restaurants, if you want to split the bill, then you should ask in the beginning. We asked our waitress to split it and she said to do it ourselves. It was close to closing time for them so I guess that's probably why she couldn't do it? We all went up to her, told her what we ordered, paid our portion, then left. Everytime someone paid their bill she asked them, "Are you going to leave the tip on the table? Or give it to me?" Is this a trend in San Francisco where every waiter/waitress asks you for their tip? No one in our group of friends left a tip. If she's the owner of this restaurant, then she should at least think about her restaurant first. She could've thought that her restaurant made profit out of the four of us individually instead of one check. I was the last one to pay and she tells me, "You all should've gone to McDonald's. They never ask for a tip." Okay, we will go to McDonald's. She's right, they won't ask for a tip, but their service will definitely be better. If I could tip McDonald's, then I would because at least they know to not ask for their tip. We will never come back here and I hope she's happy that she'll never see us again. I also hope she does not come across a customer or the wrong person that will go off on her about her tip comment. If your group of friends debate on eating here or another place, then find another restaurant. My...