Osaka Japanese Restaurant in Houston, TX: A Review

Osaka Japanese Restaurant in Houston, TX received a plethora of rave reviews so when my husband and I were looking for a place to eat over the weekend we decided to try Osaka. The restaurant was clean, bright and airy, and the staff was very friendly and attentive. They even had samples of their special sushi rolls up front so customers could see what they look like. We were given a free appetizer which was fried shrimp but it was no ordinary shrimp; instead, they sliced it in half, placed a lettuce leaf over it and deep fried it so the appetizer was in the shape of a circle. This unfortunately was the best part of the meal.

I ordered the chicken teriyaki lunch special which came with a sushi sample, miso soup and a salad. The miso soup was okay but there was a lot of seaweed in it. The salad was just torn iceberg lettuce with creamy ginger dressing. The chicken looked like it would be savoury, but sadly it was not. The chicken tasted like it was boiled and covered with teriyaki sauce out of a bottle. It was dry, bland, and not edible in my book.

I thought I could get past the chicken teriyaki as long as the sushi was tasty but it was probably the worse sushi I have ever eaten and I wondered who on earth wrote all of the positive reviews for Osaka Japanese restaurant in Houston, TX. The sushi sampler came with salmon, tuna, whitefish and shrimp. I gave the shrimp to my husband and I had the rest. The salmon tasted very fishy which was an obvious sign that the fish was not fresh. Both the tuna and whitefish were like rubber. So neither my cooked meal nor my sushi was very good at Osaka Japanese restaurant in Houston, TX.

My husband had the udon soup which was saturated with seaweed. We have never had udon soup with seaweed before let alone having it as a main ingredient that overpowered everything else. My husband spent half the time fishing the seaweed out; and it wasn't tasty seaweed either (like you'd find in a seaweed salad). No, it was fishy and salty and quite frankly it ruined his soup.

So overall we found the food at Osaka Japanese restaurant in Houston, TX to be sub-par. The staff and atmosphere, however, were fantastic.

Osaka Japanese restaurant is located at 515 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77006.