Osaka: One-stop Japanese dining
34745 Emerald Coast Pkwy., Destin, 650-4688
Hours: Open daily for lunch at 11 a.m., dinner at 5 p.m.
Reservations: Accepted


By Bruce Collier
April 17, 2008 Issue

Osaka Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar is impossible to miss, even in the increasingly developed area of Destin it occupies. The building looks like a movie-set version of a Japanese mansion. Outside are fountains and plenty of bench-room for waiting diners. There’s a need for it. And for reservations.

We ate at Osaka early on a weeknight. Diners have three choices - hibachi, sushi bar, or “traditional” dining. I have written of the first two in previous articles, so we chose traditional. My friend and I were seated at a table in the room where the sushi bar is located. This gave us an excellent view of the sushi team - four men, kept very busy the whole time we were there. Our waitress seated us, gave us menus, and left us to look at them.

“Menu” is a flexible term at Osaka. There’s the regular menu, a hibachi room menu, printed-out sushi order menus, and specials written up on boards placed all over the restaurant. Listing everything available is nearly impossible, so this review will give a general idea of what one can get. If you eat at Japanese restaurants regularly, you know that availability of food, especially fish, varies daily.

Osaka has a full bar, and two large hibachi rooms, those recital halls where chefs juggle knives and ingredients while cooking for admiring families. The restaurant is decorated with equal drama, with displays of Japanese formal costume, prints, etched glass, and lots of statuary, plants, and knick-knacks by way of accents. There’s lots of polished light wood. The atmosphere is cool and airy, except in the hibachi room, which is lit like a theatre.

My friend ordered a pina colada. I had a 16-ounce Kirin, one of the excellent Japanese beers that always pair well with the food. We decided to split an appetizer from the sushi bar, and then have soup and main dishes. Our server paid attention to our request for time to look over the choices, and kept the courses well spaced.

The appetizer was spicy tuna. A mound of chopped raw tuna arrived, shaped and mixed with sesame oil, scallions, and spices, about the size of a filet mignon. Topping the pink fish were three colors of roe - red, green and yellow - and creamy spicy aioli. It was more substantial than it looked at first, and quite spicy.

We each got soup - my friend chose miso clam, and I had chicken soup with fat noodles. Both were steaming hot, and the noodles were the kind it’s permissible to slurp (at least in Japan it’s permissible). My chicken broth had a slightly smoky flavor. As always, the miso was comforting, and the clams in their shells added a nice touch.

For the main event, my friend ordered vegetable and shrimp tempura. I ordered beef teriyaki. The tempura was so hot my friend had to wait. The vegetables were broccoli, eggplant, sweet potato, squash, onion and mushroom, with a thin sauce for dipping. My friend especially liked the mushroom, and the onions were crunchy and sweet. The shrimp were large and plump, requiring several bites.

The grilled beef was in strips, in a teriyaki sauce with crisp vegetables. The beef had a nice chew, and the sauce was just sweet and salty enough. Accompaniments were fresh cucumbers with spicy sauce, two fried pork dumplings, steamed rice, and a slice of honeydew melon. It came in a compartmentalized red and black lacquer box, which was pretty and appetizing.

In addition to a large sushi menu - in rolls, by the piece, or in combinations - there are shrimp and chicken tempura, soups, cold and hot noodle dishes, teriyaki chicken, shrimp, and fish, steaks, lobster, and odds and ends. The latter include octopus, tofu, fish cake, and edamame. One could eat at Osaka many times and not come near to repeating a meal.

Osaka offers a few sweets for dessert - various ice creams and a “mango pie,” which we split. It’s sort of a mango version of a key lime tart, with a crumbly crust and a halo of whipped topping, garnished with a candied cherry.

The place was packed when we left. The sushi team was working hard and fast, with barely enough time to chat and flirt with the young ladies that sat at the bar, nibbling tidbits and flirting back. The hibachi chefs were wowing them in the back. Osaka is a pleasant, well-organized and friendly restaurant, and its crowds seem well pleased.

(Top)