This restaurant was recommended by hotel staff. They said it doesn't look so great from the outside but the food is wonderful. They were spot on. Osaka serves Korean, Japanese and some "American" food. The portion sizes were filling, no one was able to finish there meal. There were 4 of us having 4 different Korean dishes. All of the dishes were great. Wait staff were attentive. They only had 1 waitress covering at least 6 tables, she kept up with all tables. Additionally, she made good recommendations. Now, the bad things - the furnishing are coming apart. We sat in a booth that the vinyl had ripped and was taped back together. The tape looked like it had been there for years. The whole place looked tired.

I used to go here as a kid but won't be back as an adult. The portions are very small for the price. The chicken katsu w/ fried rice was about $13 and had less food than a $5 mini katsu from L&L. The hambuger steak had a weird taste and the tempura was oily. The server was nice but she was the only one helping five tables so no refills on water and she forgot the tea.

This place HAD GOOD food and GREAT service at one time. NOW...I wouldn't go back again!! And I am not one to share a negative review, but this place has just gone down. I don't know how come?? The tempura plate came with all the fried batter to make it LOOK like it was alot, but it wasn't , the fried fish was still a bit frozen in the middle, the saimin gravy is their signature dish, not any more. The wait staff pay better attention to the two guys having a beer (must be regulars). She came to check on us only once and that was to hand us the bill. Then when I went up to pay, I asked for one$ in my change...she said she didn't have any one$ and walked to the kitchen...what's up with that??? The time before this visit, the other wait staff kept complaining that it was too busy....Isn't having a busy business a GOOD thing??? A few years ago they had good food and friendly wait staff, now these young ones get tired of getting you a refill for your water even..and the portions have really gotten smaller...They need to better train the wait staff and try not to cut so much back on the food quality. I hope they change and take this with a grain of salt, you know, constructively. We need good places here in Hilo, I would like to see it get BETTER, not close it's doors. We miss the old OSAKA ...