Have you heard of double cooked pork ?
Apparently, it translates into "wui wo yook" in Cantonese, which is "The process of cooking twice cooked pork involves first simmering pork belly steaks in water with spices, e.g. slices of ginger, cloves, star anise, jujubes and salt. After refrigeration to firm the meat, next it is then cut into thin slices. The pork is then returned to a wok and shallow fried in oil, usually along with some vegetables. The most common vegetables to accompany the pork are: napa cabbage, bell peppers or scallions." Read more about it here
I've eaten it several times at Osaka Ohsho and thought that it was quite unique. It turned out that it's a Sichuan dish! Anyway, this is our 4th visit to this restaurant, which we stumbled on by chance a few months back. It's situated on B1 of Raffles City Mall (MRT : City Hall) where you can find many unique restaurants.
We reached early so there's still plenty of seats. If you come around 7/8 'ish, you'd have to queue for a while. Like many casual Japanese restaurants, you'll be greeted by a cheery wax scale model display of their popular dishes. Lots of students and young working professionals dine in this budget friendly place.
The ordering process is quite straight forward, they have a simple menu, where everything is itemised with alphabet / number codes - you have your rice sets (fish, pork, chicken, fried rice, garlic rice), ramen (charsiu), a special potato starch dish and side dishes (fried chicken, gyoza etc).
Between the 4 of us, we ordered the Double Cooked Pork set, which comes with a bowl of good grade Japanese rice (costs $4 a bowl if ordered separately), a 6 piece gyoza set and a soup ($14.90). We also ordered a bowl of charsiu ramen ($9) for the kids.
1. Double Cooked Pork : The dish arrived piping hot 5 minutes after our order was taken. There is a generous amount of pork and liberal servings of green and red capsicum and cabbage. The pork has a nice tender texture which gives a strong marinated taste and is sliced thin enough but still gives a good bite. I would've prefered a wee bit of fat in addition to the lean meat though. The vegetables are also cooked just right - both flavor and bite are still intact, with an aroma of good soy sauce. It accompanies the rice nicely and if I was alone, I can have 1.5 bowls. (I'm not hungry today). This gets a 4 / 5 rating.
2. Gyoza : The Gyoza arrived several minutes later. Now there's one thing I noticed about Gyozas that come in a set and that they usually don't taste good or fresh. No worries here, they have always consistently served fresh and hot off the pan gyozas, and very delicious ones at that ! They don't skimp on their ingredients and it is cooked just right and it releases its flavors when you sink your teeth into one. I can eat a whole plate of these without the need of a dip. This gets a 4 / 5 rating. (edit : They're well known for the their gyoza in Osaka - since 1960's!)
3. The Condiments / Sauces : I have to do a review on these since the chilli oil is really good. In fact, you can purchase a small bottle separately for less than 6 bucks. They also have their own branded soy sauce and chilli flakes which goes well with their dishes, especially Gyoza.
4. Charsiu Ramen : They have limited ramen dishes in their menu, so ramen isn't one of their stronger points. I don't particularly fancy their ramen as it has a strong alkali taste and ingredients wise, it's just 3 slices of charsiu, half a hard boiled egg (not the onsen kind) and scallions. The soup base is a simple, salty affair; hardly any flavor. Since my kids like ramen - I ordered this for them. This is a 1.5 / 5.
Overall, I'd say that this is a good place to hang out after work for a meal with your colleagues, its also kid friendly and the staff are very helpful and accommodating. Our bill came up to $30, which included 2 drinks. 3.5 / 5 for the entire experience.
Address : #B1-75, Raffles City Shopping Centre, 252 North Bridge Road
Hours : Daily: 11:30 - 21:30Website : http://www.osakaohsho.com.sg/
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