Osaka Japanese Restaurant is a huge sushi restaurant close to the sea front in Santa Lucia, Napoli. It offers an all you can eat menu for both lunch and dinner with a vast menu to select from. Due to its location it caters to a touristic crowd and is not fully occupied on most week nights. Although I usually skip all you can eat sushi offerings, I gave this a shot due to the many positive recommendations.
All You Can Eat Dinner
The prices and menu options at Osaka Japanese Restaurant differ slightly between lunch and dinner, so I chose dinner to sample the full breath of the menu. Although the menu is extensive, most dishes did not really appeal to me. The restaurant has a strong focus on ebi (shrimp) and fried food, which is common in Napoli. After some browsing, ordered some amaebi (sweet shrimp) and ebi (shrimp) wrapped with sake (salmon) sashimi, some taco yaki (fried octopus), sake (salmon) tempura make (friend rolls) and ebi (shrimp) and cani (crab) tempura futo maki (fried big roll). As expected the quality of the shrimp was quite good and the fried tolls lived up the Neapolitan standard.
Afterwards I tried some more ebi (shrimp), amaebi (sweet shrimp) and ika (squid) nigiri, all of which were quite nice but not outstanding. Some more ebi (shrimp) maki (roll) and sake (salmon) uramaki (inside out roll) were followed by some ebi (shrimp) and kani (crab) uramaki (inside out roll) with tobiko (flying fish roe) and ebi (shrimp) uramaki (inside out roll) with tobiko (flying fish roe). All in all it felt a bit repetitive and the taste of the ebi was not quite enough to keep me excited throughout the entire dinner.
Sushi Guide Verdict
Osaka Japanese Restaurant is among many options to choose from. It is a huge restaurant, probably the largest sushi restaurant in Napoli and does provide a canteen atmosphere rather than an intimate setting for a nice dinner. The menu options seem extensive at first glance, but are limited at best. There is a strong focus on shrimp (that might or might not be locally sourced) and salmon. The quality and taste of the food is not great in general, but above average for all you can eat restaurants around. The drink menu offers a good selection of basic items at fair prices. The service was forthcoming but a bit distanced at times. Overall, the restaurant ranks above other alternatives and might belong to the better all you can eat options around. However, it is not a remarkable sushi restaurant.
Atmosphere
Menu Options
Food Quality
Drink Variety
Service
Review date: June 19, 2019