Osaki Sushi

As I stepped out of my car ready to eat, I was greeted with a daggy, dreadlocked, unshaven but nevertheless friendly gentlemen holding spray bottles and a windscreen cleaner.
"Want your windows cleaned mate?", he asked.


I paused. "Sorry I've no coins!" I responded cheerfully and with as much truth in my voice I could project across.
This didn't phase him by any means, as he proceeded to spray my car screen anyway.
"That's alright, I'll just do it for free. I've got nothing else to do"
Naw. I strode back to the car with shame in my step and fumbled around for loose change that usually lives under my car seat.
I sheepishly handed him my spare change and made my escape before we both realised that I had just lied to his face.


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So you would have picked up what sort of environment Osaki Sushi is located in from that little excerpt. It's definitely not intended to have bad implications, as it instead left me with a positive impression of the locals. Free window wash with your dinner, with complementary streak marks. Nice guy though!

Teriyaki Chicken Set - $10

A Red Rooster craving unsatisfied at 10pm led me to discover this small, undiscovered Japanese haunt quietly doing its business in the suburbs. I took an immediate liking to the place as soon as I discovered a second row of chicken underneath the top layer!

Generosity is a rare gem.

Usually teriyaki flavour gets sickly sweet for me after a while, but this one was a-okay! Their bento sets are such good value and they really are filling. Tender teriyaki sauce coated pan-fried chicken thigh fillets still have a slightly crispy layer of skin attached, with the bottom row fully soaking up the moat of sauce surrounding it.

On top of a miso soup, the 3 pieces of mixed sushi becomes a challenge to eat if you leave that until last. Typically you'll get a chicken, a california roll and a vegetarian sushi that become really effective tummy fillers.

Teriyaki Chicken Bowl - $8.50

I downgraded the next time to the bowl version of the Teriyaki Chicken, with an equally satisfying amount of meat content. If you're a thighs person over a breasts sorta guy (or...girl...), you might prefer the meat to have more moistness. You get a bit of a jaw workout working your way through all the chicken, so more sauce might be beneficial.

Would you like some rice with your chicken?

The amount of chicken they give really makes me happy, when I stare down at my thick and cosy blanket of chicken thighs. The juicy sweet, caramelised skin, a light sprinkling of sesame seeds, the close to 1:1 ratio of protein to carbs - so velly good.


Your usual big serving of rice isn't the case here, with the portion being close to completely overtaken by thigh.

Side salad

All of Osaki's main meals come with a side dish of salad, much needed to balance out the meaty meal. Presented on a separate dish, it's quite substantial in size and flavour alike. Just a simple salad of lettuce, cabbage and carrot strips tossed through with dressing that bears some resemblance to seeded mustard - but I am hooked.


On this tastier version of coleslaw!

Teriyaki Prawn Set - $11

A more decadent choice of teriyaki - lightly battered fried prawns smothered in sauce with a prematurely softened batter. The prawns are now wrapped with a sweet, sticky and soggy coating thanks to the syrupy teriyaki.


Personally I'd be more excited at the prawns if they were still crispy and less soaked. But this very characteristic means they are bursting with moisture and flavour, sacrificing the *crunch crunch*

Tempura Soft Shell Crab Bowl

I couldn't contain my excitement when I spotted this on the menu. You hardly see this on menus at casual Japanese eateries and when you do, you hardly see them at a price you (...I) can afford to be splurging on a meal.


When it was placed in front of me, I tried to contain my disappointment. Not at the dish itself, but more at the amount of batter on there. It was an impressive amount of crab in there with the bowl laden high with gold chunks...yet looking a little dry.


Soft shell crab would make you think the whole thing is edible, shell included. That's why upon eating this, you'll find feathery crab gills still in tact, battered. You're going to have to be like me in this instance, painstakingly peeling off the batter as you eat to pick out all those indigestible breathing tubes. 

Tempura Soft Shell Crab Bowl - $12

This was entirely different to what I had conjured up in my imagination and a lot more...heavy battered instead of light. You'd have a mouthful of batter and this really outshines the crab...in an unwanted way. The presence of the crab is insignificant because of all that fried flour around it that steals its glory.


And this is where the accompanying dipping sauce comes in with its creamy texture and mild sweetness that won't overpower other flavours. A taste somewhat similar to honey mustard with a squirt of mayonnaise - the sauce that never fails in any circumstance.

Tempura Soft Shell Crab Set - $14

You might even get a smaller amount of crab with the bento set, but nevertheless enough.
Even a voracious eater will probably be satisfied by this!

Bento Set

It's a little hard to finish, unless you have an immense love of deep fried batter and no sense of remorse.

The Clawww

Packed in a small area, the deep fried claws tower high like a bunched up Pinnacles - rugged and jagged with rough, uneven, weathered surfaces.

On the table

A bunch of vibrant red roses adds some much needed colour to the shop, placed on top of the table inside. Yes. Table. Singular!
With hardly enough space to fit the second small table, this place has seriously limited seating even with 2 tables outside. You're not spoilt for choice in terms of seating options but the abundance of choice in the menu compensates.
With something bad, comes something good :)


...


Small, no ambiance and a complete lack of a restaurant atmosphere doesn't deter me from taking an immediate liking to this place. It is small and cluttered and for that it exactly resembles to that description of a shop having a homely feel to it. And for such a small eatery it does a great job in kicking on to late hours when most other shops are closed, except for every other shop in its immediate vicinity with flashing bright lights beaming an open sign for 24 hours.


Osaki appears as a family owned and operated shop, as it is only ever the same 2 staff taking orders and cooking. They come across as the most accommodating staff I have experienced in a while and are ever so friendly that I feel particularly...warm when eating there :) My usual habits of taking half my life to decide on my orders and turning up to restaurants 3 hours later than a normal person would is not a problem here, as patience is their virtue while I weigh up my dinner choices like it's my last supper.

Menu wise, it boasts a large range of choice for such a small (you can really tell my emphasis on small can't you!) shop and at affordable prices that give no sign to the large serving size you get. It's pretty slow and quiet all the times I've visited so food is cooked and served fast with no compromise on freshness. Unfortunately they have notified a $2 increase to their prices when I popped in to grab a takeaway menu to write this blog post. Sad, but modest. Things only ever go up these days!

With a little TV droning away in the background in their kitchen, it provides much needed sound to take away the silence of dining in this seemingly secluded restaurant. It's a little treasure I was introduced to when I couldn't get my fast food fix and I love finding neighbourhood eateries that are unknown but really should be discovered, for it is unexpectedly good. And with pretty much ZERO activity on Urbanspoon with only one positive vote on there, I hope to see Osaki's successful, thriving business in future!

Plus with their advertising of "Japanese Dinning & Take-away", people seem to accept and embrace this little eatery, spelling mistakes and all.

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Open Tuesday - Sunday: 11am onwards

(08) 9242 4408

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