Some months ago, I spied a new restaurant at Bukit Panjang Plaza. It’s Osaka Ohsho, and they have apparently opened their first outlet in Singapore in the beginning of 2013. Osaka Ohsho caught my attention because it looks suspiciously like some place I’ve been to before. Not in Singapore, but some 5000 km away in Tokyo.
The colours, and the gyoza specialty, it looked just like the restaurant I visited with my wife over a decade ago. We have since returned to patronise the restaurant every time we are in Tokyo. We didn’t remember the name of the place. We just knew how to get there.
A quick Internet search confirmed the name of that place to be Osaka Ohsho. We didn’t know it originated in Osaka.
One fine weekend, we finally decided to dine in the Osaka Ohsho outlet in Bukit Pankang. Yes, I’ve noticed they’ve a couple of other branches in Singapore now, including Raffles City and Westgate.
The Osaka Ohsho menu looked pretty much like what we saw in Tokyo. We knew what we wanted. I ordered the spicy cha shu ramen set, which includes 6 pieces of gyoza.
Let’s talk about the gyoza first. The gyoza is pan fried. In Tokyo, they are served in a pan. They tasted very good. The skin was very light and crisp. The filling inside was juicy and tasty. It’s something that you’ll definitely remember and want to come back for more. That’s why we kept going back for more.
Now, the Singapore version was of quite a different standard. To be honest, I think it was a let down, having pegged our expectations to what we had seen and tasted in Tokyo. The gyoza skin was slightly soggy, and the six pieces of gyoza had become stuck together. I had to separate the pieces out, and in doing so, the skin all broke. The inner filling tasted alright, but it wasn’t fantastic.
The spicy cha shu ramen was good. There were two pieces of cha shu, very tender and a nice layer of fat. The miso broth was spicy enough, but otherwise the taste was just alright. The ramen was a just little chewy, just the right texture I like it.
It was a little bit disappointing that the Singapore version of Osaka Ohsho’s famed gyoza didn’t quite match the standard in Japan. It’s still worth a try, nevertheless. They have outlets in Bukit Panjang Plaza, Raffles City Shopping Centre, and Westgate. I’m not sure if there are more others.
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