As the semester starts to wind down, and you find yourself downing countless espresso shots and chai lattes to fuel your late-night academic endeavors, make sure you keep an eye on your pesky WesCard point balance. If you’re anything like us, you may have gotten carried away thus far in your frosh college experience and have seriously decimated your points. Your saving grace in this traumatic tale is none other than Middletown Cash. Consequently, this week Ellie and I have decided to take a break from the kitchen and the overpriced ingredients available at Weshop, and instead venture down onto Main Street for Ethnic Food Friday. This week we are sampling one of three Japanese restaurants in town, Osaka.
From the social ambiance of a hibachi grill to a quiet, candle-lit dinner aside the colorful sushi bar, Osaka Japanese Restaurant offers a variety of dining options. After a hectic week, Ellie and I opted for the tranquility of the downstairs dining room. Sipping on less than pleasantly warm green tea, we quickly opted to order edamame and an array of different foods, from traditional udon to the specialty house-made rolls. Although the edamame never quite made it to the table, we were promptly served miso soup and house salads drizzled with a delicious ginger dressing. There was collective smiling and munching across the table as everyone present thoroughly enjoyed eating food that had not been stewing atop a Usdan hot plate. Just as we began to scrape our bowls for any remaining bits of spinach or droplets of dressing, the sushi rolls arrived at the table. The Osaka roll came stuffed with avocado, cucumbers, and crab and topped artfully with salmon, tuna and a sprinkle of roe. Served on the side were two heaping piles of fresh ginger and wasabi, the two of which mixed with the soy sauce created a sweet and zesty zing. The rolls disappeared from the table in record time and were followed by two colossal plates of tempura and steaming bowls of udon. The tempura was a combination of shrimp, sweet potato, and zucchini along with some other tasty, though unidentifiable, vegetables. Dipped in the slightly over salted broth of the udon, the tempura simply melts away in your mouth. Once the tempura had been devoured and the udon had cooled slightly, Ellie and I filled the remaining pockets of emptiness in our stomachs with the abundance of vegetables and thick Japanese noodles swimming around in the bowl.
Service throughout dinner was prompt, polite and consistent and contributed to a general atmosphere of relaxation and enjoyment. Given the general salty nature of the food, you may feel compelled to accept that third or even fourth refill of your Diet Coke. A word to the wise: each refill is a hefty $2.50, a fact that smacked our friend and fellow diner Jessie in the face when she received her bill at the end of the meal. However, the staff was extremely courteous and readily split our bill into four separate checks, easily payable with a WesCard. All in all, we heartily endorse Osaka Japanese Restaurant for a fun night of ethnic cuisine. Although it may not be the most authentic Japanese dining experience, Osaka does offers everything from Chicken Teriyaki for the less adventurous eater to a Chirachi dinner for those daring enough to sample some of the truer colors of Japanese food.
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