Osaka Hibachi is a new Japanese Restaurant to open in Moncton. One part is the restaurant and the other is an entertainment grill with seperate menus.
Osaka Hibachi Grill
To get a seat here you need to make a reservation so I decided to bring one of my friends for her birthday party. The show was absolutely amazing with the fire and the juggling and ofcourse the entertaining chef.
My order was the mega, which has shrimp, calamari, lobster, steak and scallops. It also comes with fried rice. I can say that the fried rice tasted very good and so did all the meats, but that is it. It is not really a plate, he just threw the meats on the grill then served them, something I can easily do with my grill at home. So honestly, you are there for the show and that is it.
With that said, it was still cooked well, but I am only giving it a 5 out of 10 because I go out to eat food I can't make at home.
Osaka Hibachi Restaurant
So for me, this was the actual critic because the Grill is simply a nice show. So if you can learn to juggle knives and make fire balls, then you can save some money. If not its still entertaining, but don't expect Japanese Cuisine.
For me, Japanese Sushi is my favorite food, along side Greek. But I had to keep in mind that Japanese Sushi isn't the only Japanese food, so I decided to step away from temptation and try some japanese cuisine.
For a drink I ordered an Osaka-Tini followed by two appetizers, the Gyoza and the Ocean Spicy Roll, the main, Donbyri Unadon and the FBI Dessert.
Osaka-Tini
This drink had sake, vodka, and leech juice with some leech fruit in it. It was the closest cold japanese drink I could fin on the menu. Extremely tasty, even with the large amount of alcohol. Tasted like an exotic paradise drink.
Gyoza
This beautiful dumpling was soft in the body and crunchy at the pinch. It was the best textured and cooked dumpling I have ever seen, and had to pleasure to feel in my mouth. The meat and vegetables inside for me however were alright, I would have wished for such a high class japanese restaurant to give me a contemporary kick to the dumpling. Perhaps with a nice tangy spice sauce.
I rank this dish 7 out 10 because it had such beautiful texture but I would have liked to have a little kick to the inner ingredients.
Ocean Spicy Roll
I know I said I would try and stay away from the sushi, but instead I just added another appetizer. This sushi roll had salmon, crab and shrimp with cream cheese and a nice spicy sauce. I can say, I really enjoyed the flavours. Even when I took individual pieces, each piece alone was delicious, the sticky rice, the seaweed, the vegetables, the sauce, and the seafood. My only opinion is that the portions were extremely large and this is probably due to the large amount of cream cheese they used which did hide some of the flavor. Other then that, it was great, probably one of my favorite rolls I've had in Moncton.
I rank this dish 8 out of 10, because the cheese did mask a lot of the flavor.
Donbyri Unadon
This is eel served over steamed sticky rice. Yes thats it! The description seemed a lot more appealing then this. So basically I had 5 pieces of eel, and a large bowl of rice. Not much to say then that. Eel usually is really bony, and this eel was not, so that is a plus, the rice was nice. It is hard to critic something when its plain and nothing special. So yes I was disapointed. I have a few bites of my friends chicken terryaki, and the chicken was slightly overcooked, but still juicy and tender, and like my dish, contained a lot of rice and needed some sauce.
With that, I rank these dishes 4 out of 10, for plain boredom.
FBI
This was the dessert which is the Fried Banada Ice Cream. As the name says, it was 3 fried bananas topped with 3 balls of Green Tea Ice Cream covered in whip cream and chocolat syrup.
So what did I think...? Absolutely delicious, the crunchy exterior of the banada had a crunch like a chip, then you have a soft inner banana, it very much tasted like banana bread but juicier and well, its not bread. The Green Tea Ice Cream I am sure they did not make but it was still nice. But the best part is having the contrast of hot and cold sweetness in your mouth all at once. I simply loved it.
I rank this dish 9 out of 10, because I don't think they made the ice cream from scratch.
Conclusion
I found everything except for the main meal to be tasty which is a bit of a problem for me as the main dish should be the front liner. I am really looking for that Japanese Cuisine Restaurant that says, hey lets step out of the traditional rice on everything concept and lets mix tradition with modern and have a unique Japanese experience of giving our clients a rice free menu. I know rice is major in the orient, but its getting to the point where I can get fried rice from anywhere, I can cook it at home so give us something unique and Japanese.
The Grill, just go for the show, don't expect fancy food. As for the restaurant, I will be sticking to their sushi, which is the best sushi in town (almost the most expensive).
Overall, 6.5 out of 10 for the restaurant and grill ( 9 out of 10 just the sushi bar)
