Variety Satisfies At New Asian Restaurant

Walking into Osaka Asian Fusion is like walking into your favorite Chinese, Thai, sushi and Southeast Asian inspired restaurant all wrapped into one.

Late on a Friday night, the newly-opened restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue was deceptively empty, aside from a few friends watching an NFL preseason game at the bar and a table of business colleagues in the dining section. The hostess was friendly and cheery and the atmosphere immediately after walking in the door was already promising.

The decor is warm and welcoming with some brick walls and some walls painted in a vermilion, orange-red, color. The soft lighting gave the dining area an intimate ambience, while the cool blue and white lights above the fully-stocked bar made the atmosphere fun and playful.

Osaka gives off the type of vibe that could be suitable for a group of college kids catching up over dinner and drinks, a nice family outing or a romantic dinner date.

The menu is extensive but easy to understand, with detailed descriptions of each item. Overall, everything is reasonably priced, with appetizers and soups between $5-$10, entrees from $10-$18, and a kids menu (complete with a pasta option) from $5-$8. The wine menu was also reasonably priced at $6 a glass or $20 a bottle.

We started off with the Thai crispy calamari, per recommendation from our server. The breading was crispy and enjoyable with the spicy and tangy sauce, but the meat wasn't the best.

As we finished our calamari, we were served the super California roll, which was very well priced at $6.50. The roll is just what it sounds like: a super-sized California roll packed with crab. It was what you would expect from a California roll, lightly rolled in sesame and comparable to any sushi around town.

Entrees were served right on time again, just as the last piece of sushi was polished off.

We ordered General Tso's chicken, chicken Pad Thai, and green beef curry. The General Tso's chicken and green beef curry cost $13 each, while the chicken Pad Thai was a great deal at $10. The presentation of each entree was simple, colorful and beautiful.

The General Tso's chicken was absolutely delicious with a flavor not too strong, but not mild, either. The chicken was lightly breaded, not like the kind of carry-out you sometimes get that is all breading and a tiny nugget of chicken buried somewhere beneath it.

The chicken Pad Thai could compete with any Pad Thai in the Baltimore region. It wasn't greasy and had the perfect chicken to noodle ratio.

The green beef curry wad delicious but unexpected. The sauce was creamy and warm with a kick of lingering spices and hint of coconut. The beef was cooked just right and the vegetables were crispy and fresh.

The portion sizes turned out to be smaller and less overwhelming than typical American-sized portions, but that wasn't a problem. There was enough left over to take about half the food home in a doggie bag.

The dessert menu was a fun mixture of exotic and classic, offering ice cream flavors like red bean, green tea, ginger and vanilla; tempura banana; tempura ice cream and classic New York style cheesecake. Prices ranged from $5-$10.

We ordered the cheesecake with chocolate and strawberry sauce and the tempura ice cream.

At $8.50, the cheesecake was overpriced and underwhelming. It was still hard from being taken out of a freezer, and the size left a lot to be desired.

The tempura ice cream, $7, however, was a pleasant surprise. It's hard to get fried ice cream right, but Osaka definitely did it. Complete with whipped cream and a cherry, the tempura ice cream tasted like fluffy funnel cake from the state fair wrapped around a scoop of comforting vanilla ice cream.

Overall, Osaka Asian Fusion was a great place to dine on various Asian cuisines. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming and the service was great. Our drinks were never empty and we never had to flag our server down for anything--he was always there anticipating our next move.

With its reasonable prices, large selection and welcoming atmosphere, Osaka has the potential to become the new "it" restaurant in uptown Towson.