Osaka is definitely good, but I think it's a little over-hyped.
I've done hibachi and sushi, both worthy of a trip. That being said, I think both are slightly overpriced ($30+ for hibachi alone). You can get the same experience and food for about $5 less per person at other establishments in town. Not enough to be a dealbreaker though.
Biggest negative for me is the amount of waiting I've done. Long waits for tables on weekends. Long waits for sushi to arrive at the table. Long waits for hibachi dinner to begin.
Interesting infused vodkas, good Bloody Mary.
Nice as an "every once in a while" place.
Their sushi is pressed fish, not whole fish pieces, which is gross. Â Not only that, but the service is horrendous. Â They have a dining room area with about 20 tables, and usually only have 1-2 waiters. Â Sorry, but the food is marginal, and the service is virtually non-existent. Â The hibachi is fun.
Review Source:Osaka gets two stars, simply for operating in Springfield, IL, where there's not much Asian food to choose from. It's nice to have an alternative to horseshoes, pizza, wings and other staples endemic to non-metropolitan areas of the US.
That said, the sushi has absolutely no flavor. I guess that makes sense considering that the nearest ocean from here is probably in Mobile, Alabama, but Chicago and St. Louis restaurants seem to be doing a much better job at keeping their fish preserved and fresh.
In short, West/East Coast prices+vastly inferior quality=you might as well go get that horseshoe.
Food = okay. Â The flavors are missing, but then I guess that's why they hand out hand-over-fist amounts of their sauce....
Service = blah. Touch and go. Â Servers = nice. Â The person who was making our hibachi...zero personality, not informative, and definitely did not make this an enjoyable experience.
Drinks = okay. Â They tend to make 'em strong. Â ;-) Â But they're delicious! Â I had the XXX cocktail--it had a glow stick in it. lol
Prices = moderate.
First, the restaurant is quite lovely and the atmosphere is nice. Â Not too loud, which hibachi places can sometimes be, and you can sit either in the hibachi room or the sushi room. Â Note, the hibachi room does serve sushi, but the sushi room does not have live hibachi, obviously.....
Being from Chicago I was skeptical about trying the sushi here. Â I was right to be skeptical. Â Not good, not even fair. Â Ordered a roll with crab, and the crab was dried out and had nothing eatable on the inside of the batter. Â It was really icky. Â The eel was fine, not great, but not horrible. Â The salmon was disappointing. Â I would not recommend going here for sushi. Â It did not taste fresh at all. Â
That being said, my husband and son had hibachi, shrimp and steak. Â The meals come with a salad which was good, the dressing was nice. Â the soup had no taste, was super bland. Â The shrimp was fine, steak was fine, neither was great. Â The noodles they serve are really good, and fried rice was really good. Â Veggies were disappointing, over cooked and came after everyone finished everything else which is understandable because everything is cooked in layers, but typically when I have been to hibachi they do the veggies first-better to fill up on veggies than rice and noodles....
Service was attentive. Â Good place to bring kids because of the show that goes along with the cooking on the grill. Â The chefs seem to have fun with it which the kids like to see.
Sooo delicious. I come here as often as possible, the hibachi grill is amazing. everything  you get with the dinners on the grill is delicious. and soo much food. soup, salad, rice, noodles, veggies & your choice of meat, fish, etc.. I leave full and with leftovers everytime. you definitely get what you pay for and it's so yummy! the noodles are my favorite, ever. i've had the steak (no a1 needed, so good!), the teryaki chicken, my favorite. and the scallops, which are also amazing. can't go wrong here. they also have the best sushi i've found in springfield. so overall, this is the place to eat! :)
Review Source:I tried Hibachi, Katsu, and Sushi here. Overall, Osaka was alright, but nothing out of this world.
Hibachi- The Hibachi was incredibly salty...for someone who loves salty food. I thought my hibachi chef was a little generous with the salt at first, but the guy sitting next to me said the same thing about his (and he had a different chef). The Hibachi was a fun experience, though.
Katsu- I was so disappointed with the Chicken Katsu I ordered to-go. I received an ENORMOUS pile of breaded fried chicken over rice (yum yum!) but couldn't find the katsu sauce anywhere. Either they didn't put it in my bag or this restaurant does not do katsu sauce. What is katsu without the katsu sauce?! As a result, I essentially ate fried chicken with rice. Bleh.
The sushi here is hit or miss. There are some fun combinations, some more successful than others. I enjoyed the Red Dragon Roll the most!
Over rated. The 'miso soup' is literally hot water with some scallions thrown on top. No flavor, barely even salted. I seriously thought the waiter was playing a joke on us at the hibachi table. I cant overstate how the soup is just plain water. The hibachi food is sub par. No seasoning at all. Just some soy sauce squirted on. No other seasoning at all. Bland food. I have also eaten on the sushi/thai side and the food is even worse there. Do not order off the thai menu. Its plain bad.
Review Source:There are actually quite a few places serving sushi in Springfield considering the size of this small town, but Osaka is by far the best. The 4 star rating I give may be a bit overrated if Osaka were in any other large town, but the seafood is freshest compared to the competition and tastes pretty freaking good. Atmosphere is nice, menu is decently priced and the chefs are very friendly.
Review Source:Yikes. Sushi is not good here. I don't think it was was made fresh. It tasted like it was all made in he morning and just sat around for a while... either that or the ingredients weren't good to start with. The lack of quality was compounded, because it still came with good sushi prices.
The place looks nice enough when you walk in, so maybe if you stick to just drinks and edamame it might be an ok time. I don't know all the other sushi places in Springfield, but Hunan is just down the road and have better sushi and is all you can eat for the same price.
There was a LOT of hype behind this place from different people, so I was sad to see it fall so short.
Food was good. Â Not great. Â The egg noodles served with my hibachi meal were interesting. Â Never seen that before. Â But the steak was prepared to order, just seemed like they didn't use as many spices/sauces when cooking. Â Food wasn't as flavorful as I've had in other Japanese restaurants. Â I did notice a "Thai" label in their name on outside of the restaurant, perhaps that's the difference.
Decor is very cool & modern. Â Nice lobby w/ water fountain. Â Cool lighting. Â Seats & hibachi tables are nice & modern (not to mention CLEAN).
Our chef was friendly. Â Even though the table consisted of myself & 1 other (Monday night is dead), he chatted it up with us through his entire presentation. Â He was good.
As with most hibachi restaurants, this place was expensive! Â 2 hibachi meals, 2 orders of fried rice (fried rice costs you $2 extra each, otherwise you get steamed white rice), 3 alcoholic drinks and we left for just under $73! Â Eesh...
We were visiting from Chicago and my in-laws were all a-twitter about this place, so we gave it a go because it had something for everyone.
Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed. Our service was terrible. Sure, it was a Friday night, but that still doesn't excuse the terrible.
The noise level was insane. I get that it was a Friday night, so everyone was out celebrating something, but yikes. This was crazy loud and I had trouble hearing the person across from me.
Our food was pretty decent. I ordered Thai Crazy Noodles and those were good. The miso soup wasn't half bad, but it tasted pretty...generic. Our sushi also wasn't half-bad, but the rice was extremely dry for my tastes. My husband ordered Mongolian beef (or something similar) and it arrived on a sizzling hot plate, and even the people next to us were impressed!
I give it 3 stars because for Springfield, it's a great place. For someone from a bigger city, this is probably more a two. Probably would have been a 3 or 4 if the service wasn't so crappy.
I know that "Steakhouse" is the first item in the name, but I went for sushi. Just a quick mention though, there were tons of Teppan grills and they were all filled.
I was in the mood for sushi though. So for the sushi, I ordered one of the specialties rolls first, then I would order some more if I was still hungry. Well after that roll, hungry I was. The roll was very small and quite pricey at $13. So I ordered a Philly roll, and a spicy salmon roll. Still hungry... So I ordered another spicy salmon roll and a spicy tuna roll. They were all very tasty just so very small!
For drinks, I ordered an Asahi which isn't very exciting since every Japanese restaurant has them. However, I did order the flight of Sake. Wow! I was incredibly impressed. They were all so tasty!
Overall, I rated a 3 for portion size and price. Total was $65. Â I'm not sure if there is better in Springfield and I am rating the place based on my experience in California....
This place is really good! I love their vegetable tempura, miso soup, tuna roll, and avocado roll. Yum!! They also have good thai food here such as the basil beef. Their cocktails were strong and delicious (I had the pineapple mojito), and last but not least their oreo tempura ice cream sundae was to die for!!!
Yummy in my tummy!!!
Aside from the entertainment value of the grill guy, this place didn't have anything that "wowed" me. The food is VERY salty and so much butter is used on the grill.
I had the salmon and scallops with veggies and thought it would be a light and refreshing dinner, not the truth. It was overpowered with salt and butter.
For the price it isn't much above take out chinese food.
The one plus to this place was the sushi roll I split with a friend was decent. Not sure if I would find anything comparable in the area.
Food Quality Review: Â The WORST Sashimi and sushi I've ever had. I heard this place was decent and looked forward to having a great sushi place in Springfield finally... But this was NOT the case. The fish was not fresh at all. Calamari was sub-par -- it looked like fried onion rings with limp vegetable garnishes. Soft shell crab was the same story as the calamari. I felt like i was eating pre-made frozen food that I could buy from Sam's or Costco and make at home for a quarter of the price. To make things worse, the glass in which the sake was served was noticeably chipped and broken. Â Do the bartenders and waiters/waitresses not check the food or plates before they send it out?? Â The only decent food was the tempura (it wasn't too soggy) and the Lion King Roll (which has tempura in it -- no raw seafood... so it'd be somewhat difficult to mess that up).
Deco/Ambience: Otherwise, the decoration and ambience was nice. This restaurant is family-friendly and great for big groups. There is a "grill" area and a separate dining area. Â It gets busy, however, so you may strongly consider making reservations. Â The only catch is that your entire party has to be present before they'll seat you.
Service: Â Our waitress was nice. Â All the waiters/waitresses/bartenders were quite young. Â They were conscious about making sure our glasses of water were full... which, for me, is one of the signs of a good waiter/waitress.
Cost of Food: Â Well... the fact that the sashimi and sushi was terrible... and obviously not fresh (... I was worried I would be sick the next day... but I guess they were able to get rid of that fish before it was totally rotten ... ) -- The high cost was akin to any excellent sushi/sashimi restaurant... but Osaka Restaurant is NOT EXCELLENT ... Thus, their prices are unacceptable.
Overall Review: Â Unfortunately, Springfield still does not have a place to grab decent sushi/sashimi at. Â Maybe it just happen to be a bad night?? Â Hopefully, the latter is the case. Â But this place left such a bad taste in my mouth (literally!) that I am hesitant to ever eat here again.
I wandered in to the restaurant around 8:45 P.M. and found out they closed at 9:30 P.M. The inside was beautifully decorated with Asian themed decor. The water on the tables had a slice of cucumber in it, which made the water quite refreshing.
Thursday nights are half off on certain drinks including the specialty martini's and daiquiris. Their strawberry daiquiri was very strong! Just because it was half off doesn't mean they were cheap on the liquor.
Our server took forever to greet us and we did wait forever to get our drinks and to order. The food arrived quick; I received my sushi, entree, and appetizer all at once. I ordered the Thai Basil Noodles with both chicken and tofu and I must say it was only OK. It was under seasoned and I was looking for salt every where on the table. The seaweed salad did not have enough vinegar but was very large in portion. I ordered a spicy scallop roll and shrimp tempura roll. However, the server messed up our order and we ended up with a spider roll and a spicy scallop roll instead. The sushi was pretty good.
Between 2 entrees, 2 sushi rolls, an appetizer, and 2 alcoholic drinks, my boyfriend and I only spent $46. Pretty cheap for sushi if you ask me. The hostess was nice and said good night to us before we walked out.  Overall, I guess I just had really high expectations for this place and was  a little bit disappointed. Its not one of those places I would definitely go back to.
I continue to have good experiences here. Â The kids love to go for the hibachi dinner and really enjoy the show and the food. Â The wife and I prefer to go at lunch because they have a 2 or 3 roll special for me and a bento box for her. Â
I find their sushi to be perfectly acceptable. Â I understand some people complain about their prices but that is the nature of Springfield-ians. Â I personally avoid really cheap sushi because I won't endure gastric distress just to pay rock-bottom prices. Â This place has good sushi at a good price. Â Nothing as edgy as what I get in big cities but again, this is Springfield.
Pretty sure KiKu is losing a lot of business to Osaka. Â Be wary of negative reviews on Yelp which seem to indicate KiKu is a better choice.
We ate in the (Thai) Dining Rm on a Thursday evening to celebrate a birthday. 5:30 reservation & seated without problem. Business was steady from 6pm on & I was surprised how busy they were for a week night.
Katy, our server, was very pleasant & attentive but we did let her know we wanted to hang out & visit over cocktails before we figured out our orders. Â She backed off but stayed closeby. Â She answered our questions and what she didn't know she had a small note pad with her and looked it up. Â
Excellent selection of Infused Vodka's, Sake, Bourbon & a Tequila in the (small) bar area. Â Martini's were half off ($4) & were very good & filled to the rim. My friend who is a sake drinker enjoyed hers on the rocks and then warm with dinner.
We each ordered a different sushi roll and shared -- all were presented very nicely and tasted very very good & were fresh. Â Appetizers of asst'd veggie tempura, seaweed salad & sashimi sampler were also enjoyed. Â
Birthday dessert was N/C but uneventful...deep fried banana. Â Presented very well but didn't care for it. Â No biggie.
We would definitely go back to Osaka. Â Our bill for four adults was $130 - which I didn't think was terrible considering we had many cocktails but were saved half the cost there, and considering it was a special occasion we didn't mind forking over a little extra. Â
A definite plus for Springfield!! Â Decor was very nice also. Â :)
We waited for the newness to wane on Osaka before trying it. Â
The food ad the service were top notch. Â Both times we had sushi and sat near the sushi bar. Â The wait staff was attentive and never let our drinks sit empty. Â
The food was good too! Â Both times we have sampled a few different sushi rolls and found them all to be fresh and tasty. Â They have a huge variety that changes frequently. Â
My only complaint is that it feels like a chain restaurant. Â I can't put my finger on it but it doesn't bother me enough to keep me away.
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