Osaka Experience!

No not Osaka, Japan... its Osaka Japanese Restaurant in Al Sha'ab Al Bahry! Well, it started like that..... my friend renewed her Flex (the gym) membership and received a discount voucher for Osaka Restaurant and asked me to join her... "Brilliant!" I said! Since I LOVE Japanese food...

As we walked in... my friend said, "wow I love the interiors" and I totally agreed... very high ceiling, two differently designed seating areas both of which were nice and modern, BIG windows that allowed the sun light in... and one original Tatami (their private room, which you would really sit on the floor the Japanese way!). At the entrance, there are two glass walls with some Japanese Calligraphy -with their English translation) some traditional clothes, such as a kimono, hanged on the walls in a piece of art kinda thing, and lots of artifacts and eating utensils on the squared shelves that divides the two seating areas.

We chose to sit by the windows were there was more sun light in... The staff greeted us just fine, and guided us to our table. The menu resembles that of Wasabi, so it was clear and with thorough description... the waitress was also helpful suggesting food items for us to try.

For appetizers we picked four items... Edamami, Crab Salad with Osaka Apple Sauce, Ebi Shitake Tempura, and Osaka Crackers! The first two were good, but the crackers were something new to me.. since I did not try anything similar to it in any Japanese restaurant here in Kuwait. They are made of deep fried battered shrimp roasted on rice cracker with teriyaki sauce. Absolutely fabulous! I loved it the most! I asked the waitress to keep the extra apple sauce and the teriyaki sauce for later.. since we like to experiment with different sauce. The Ebi Shitake Tempura was also good, and I tried it with all the different sauces available (it originally comes with light tempura sauce)... I liked it best with the sticky teriyaki sauce.

For sushi we ordered:
*Godzilla (Tuna, crab, salmon, crispy, wrapped in avocado)
*Big Ben (crab, shrimp, mango, smoked salmon wrap)... the smoke salmon wrap was AMAZING! And with the mango it was tickling my taste buds! Loved it!!
*Crazy Avocado (crazy crab wrapped in crispy)
*Ebi Tempura Ura (fried shrimp and sesame seed wrap with tartar sauce) my favorite out of the four sushi items we ordered!

My disappointment was in Chicken Vs. Beef dish. It came with three different sauces and mixed veggies. The chicken tasted like nothing, I did not like it at all... beef was better, but a bit dry. Beef won against chicken but it wasnt impressive at all! I would've loved if they asked how we wanted it cooked... I would've chose medium! The veggies were not bad, so I ended up eating the zucchinis hehehehe.

Price? All this was around KWD26 something... but our bill came out to be KWD20 with the Flex discount voucher! Not bad!

Overall experience was amazing... would I go back? Yes! Without a doubt, and will order new items (but will make sure to include those amazing crackers). Service was prompt and satisfying :-) I would give it 4 out of 5!

If you feel like having Japanese this week, then try Osaka ;-) The place is located in Al Sha'ab Al Bahry on Ben Al Khateeb st. and their contact numbers are 263-7331 and 263-7332