Okawa Sushi & Ramen — Restaurant in Santa Clarita

UPDATE: Bad idea to order from this under-staffed restaurant on Valentine's Day. They grossly underestimated how long it would take to process our (small) order. Phoned at 5:20 and was told it would be half an hour. After waiting at the restaurant about an hour we finally got the order in hand at 6:45. Wow, that was fun. My boyfriend went in initially and they said the order was in progress. After a long time I went in to see what the hold up was. Other people have been waiting as well and ended up leaving cuz it was taking so long. The wait staff knew we were waiting but they were too busy and never checked in on us. I had to flag them down a couple of times to ask about our order. After an hour and a half after placing the order over the phone, finally, our order came out. They gave us two ice cream sandwiches for the inconvenience and apologized, but, sorry that just pretty much put a damper on the evening. And when we got home we saw they had forgotten to add the eel sauce to our unagi roll as well as the topping on our special roll. And the tempura was cold and soggy. It's such a bummer because we have had good experiences prior to this one. I don't feel like coming back here now after this bad one.

Original review with photos: We've tried many of the local favorites (Kinza, Achita, etc.) but we wanted to try someplace new. Okawa showed up in the search and the reviews were quite positive. And for a good reason. The sushi was very well presented. Sushi rice tasted great and the fish was fresh. We tried the super white tuna and the hamachi sushi. Both were excellent especially the super white tuna. They had a very good selection of special rolls as well as traditional roles all quite reasonably priced. We had the dragon roll and the fancy hot roll. Both were delicious. We also had the vegetable tempura which was outstanding. Big portions and very light and crispy. Not greasy at all. Also, our server was very friendly and attentive. We're definitely returning to try...

Decided to try this place again after a negative experience since it is under new management. However, I’m sad to say I’m still extremely unimpressed. I waited over 35 minutes for ramen that came out cold as if it had been sitting on a counter for awhile, and 45 minutes for simple sushi rolls that only came out after I asked about them and it seems that part of our order was forgotten about by the kitchen. I am empathetic to dinner rushes but there is a difference between being backed up with orders and multiple tables asking where their orders only for the orders to be forgotten about entirely. We witness multiple diners asking where parts of their meals was only for apologies about it being forgotten over and over again to be given. From drinks to beers, to sushi rolls, and ramen in person were clearly not prioritized or remembered.

Unfortunately, compared to sushi and ramen you can get throughout California it was not worth the wait or price. There are plenty of amazing ramen/sushi restaurants that can give you better service for less cost and wait. There’s also plenty of ramen/ sushi restaurants that may be a long wait but the food comes out wonderfully and at the bare minimum the ramen is piping hot. It took another 20 minutes to get the check because we were forgotten about twice. For clarity we were a party of two. We did not have a large order. All we ordered was two ramen bowls and two rolls.

If you want to DoorDash or Uber eats sushi I’d recommend this as a good take out spot since they prioritize delivery sushi orders over dine in customers, constantly sending out DoorDash sushi orders but forgetting to put in/start dine in orders at all. Ive ordered take out from here and had no complaints or problems.

I can’t recommend this as a dine in spot at all but I wish them the best in restructuring because something is clearly...

Their ramen is legit.

Big caveat: I ordered for delivery via a popular delivery service, so there are variables with how hot the food is, potential mistakes that can't be quickly corrected, etc.

I was impressed. Order included:

Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen (with extra chashu/pork belly) Yellowtail sushi (2 pieces) Spicy tuna roll (cut-up)

I ordered bc said delivery service rated them 5.0 stars, and I've gone through a dozen sushi/ramen joints in the 661. Okawa was a little outside the delivery area (so additional fees) but their rating and my desire for ramen conquered all. Like love.

And I have to say, that of all the ramen places that I've loved in SCV, Okawa's ramen is hands-down the best I've had. Here's why (taking into account the long delivery window):

Their ramen noodles had just enough bite and chew to remind me of the best noodle tents and make me smile. I was worried their broth wouldn't be flavor forward, suffering from the same lackadaisical focus like other ramen shops -- but not so, this Tonkotsu broth was incredibly rich, and the inhale prior to bite is magical. Wood mushrooms, soft boiled egg, bean sprouts, etc are all expected and Okawa was fine, on par with other restaurants. I do the "time test" where I let a few remaining bites and liquid just sit until it cools down considerably so that I can inhale the remainder into one incomprehensibly disgusting swallow. Yeah, this lived up to the occasion.

The yellowtail sushi and spicy tuna roll? Not that amazing compared to other quality sushi/ramen places (again, keeping expectations low) but try out Okawa for the ramen. It does...