I have this unexplained anxiety about hibachi restaurants. I think it’s mostly due to the performance pressure of having food thrown into the air that you’re supposed to catch in your mouth and the social pressure of participating in having sake squirted directly into your mouth WITHOUT letting it stain your clothes…my refusal to go to hibachi has not gone over well with boyfriend so after a year of stubborn refusal I finally agreed, much to boyfriend’s outward jubilation, to visit Osaka Seafood & Steakhouse for date night.
Atmosphere:
Hibachi is super fun to watch. The onion train, the insane spatula flips and egg juggling far outshines Tom Cruise in the movie “Cocktail.”
Hibachi is also apparently the go-to birthday spot to celebrate birthdays in the burbs. Every hibachi station but ours was full of birthday groups, which also meant that we heard the happy birthday chant on repeat for 2 hours and let me tell you, their version of the Happy Birthday song is an unexpected earworm. A couple cocktails in, we couldn’t stop singing it and in fact got the rest of our table in on it causing complete confusion to the tables around us wondering why we were singing the song when no one in our station had a birthday….Sorry for partying haha.
Related News: Since our birthdays are 3 days apart in July, we fully intend to go back to celebrate with our families, however, I WILL be bringing wet wipes to sanitize the heads they put on every birthday boy and girl before they touch my head.
Food:
Hibach Filet Mignon & Chicken
I got one of the dinner hibachi combos which comes with; Hibachi Chicken & Steak with Clear Onion Soup, House Salad with Osaka Ginger Dressing, Hibachi Noodles, Hibachi Vegetable, 2 Shrimp, Osaka Ginger & Osaka Shrimp Sauce & I upgraded to get fried rice.
It was delicious and boyfriend was excited, because he got to add my shrimps to his surf & turf combo (I’ve always hated the texture of biting into shrimp, but I was once told shrimp is 1 chromosome away from a cockroach and ever since I’ve never even been able to attempt to eat one ha).
In trying to find their website (or any social sites for this hack), I’ve been made aware that Osaka Woodbury’s website is down and their branded online presence is nonexistent, so if you work for Osaka Woodbury and want some advertising help, call me. If you’re confused why I’m using links to non-Woodbury links to the website, that’s why.
Drinks:
Titos Vodka + Soda
They have some specialty cocktails, a full bar, and a mix of local and non local beers.
Service:
Our server was attentive and had a great personality. He also kept my vodka flowing which was definitely what I needed. He and the Hibachi chef did confuse the ends of the grill a couple times and they thought I was the order on the other end, which resulted in my steak being prepared after everyone else.
There were some issues with timing, as well. When I called to make a reservation they were too busy to answer the first time and the second time I was put on hold for 5 minutes. They were running a bit late on our reservation so we were about 15 minutes behind and then it took about 30 minutes before our hibachi chef actually started preparing the food. We had our side salads and soup during the wait, but it felt a little too long and there appeared to be some scheduling issues.
For the price, you would definitely hope for a little more buttoned down service, but in general it was a great atmosphere and our server was great, our hibachi chef prepared the food to perfection, and although we were sitting at a table with 2 other random couples…clearly from all very different walks of life, I managed to get us all engaged in conversation (thank you vodka), which made it a really fun evening.
Osaka Woodbury
9020 Hudson Road
Location F-122
Woodbury, MN 55125
Monday – Thursday: 11AM – 2:30PM & 4:30PM – 10PM
Friday: 11AM – 2:30PM & 4:30PM – 11PM
Saturday: 12PM – 11PM
Sunday: 12PM – 10PM
*This is from the Woodbury Lakes directory since their website is down
Hipster Hack 