Okinawa Sushi & Hibachi Steak House

by

Nestled near the back of the Wildwood Shopping Center is a slumbering giant in Homewood’s food scene – Okinawa Sushi & Hibachi Steak House.

In its two years of operation, the quaint eatery has established itself as a destination for quality sushi at competitive prices. Its friendly, attentive wait staff and skilled chefs have attracted a stream of customers who rave about their experiences.

At first glance, Okinawa’s exterior is unassuming. But once inside, it’s easy to see the owners have applied great effort to making the restaurant warm and inviting.

The spacious dining room is softly lit in blue and accented by a falling water feature that both serves to calm the atmosphere and set a romantic mood. In the far corner of the restaurant, sushi chefs prepare rolls in full view behind a glass case that displays fresh ingredients ranging from eel to baby octopus. 

Okinawa’s location, near the Wells Fargo and State Farm Insurance offices, has made it a popular lunch stop, Manager Alex Siow said. The restaurant’s Bento Boxes and Hibachi Specials start at $8.99, but the sushi special is the primary draw. Customers can order combinations of two ($7.99) or three ($9.99) rolls from a list of 28, and Siow said he sees people return multiple times to try different combinations.

In the evening, the hibachi fires stay hot as the kitchen sends out sizzling plates of steak or seafood paired with rice and vegetables, and the sushi chefs perfect their special rolls, each more vibrant than the last.

Siow said the more popular choices of the special roll menu ($10.99-$16.99) include the Dancing Dragon Roll and the Tuna Amazing Roll. The Dancing Dragon features spicy shrimp, jalapeño and tempura topped with spicy crab meat, while the Tuna Amazing has spicy tuna, avocado, tempura white fish topped with pepper tuna, masago, and mango and eel sauces.

Another often-ordered option is the city’s signature dish – the Homewood Roll. It contains shrimp tempura, spicy tuna and avocado wrapped in soybean seaweed. The entire 10-piece roll is then topped with a tangy, sweet sauce that ties the flavors together.

Siow said Okinawa is promoting itself through its Facebook page and okinawasushiusa.com. The restaurant’s lunch crowd has boomed in the past year, according to Siow, and dinner service has experienced steady increases as more Birmingham-area residents learn about the restaurant. Out-of-town business has been good to Okinawa as well, he said.

“When people from New York or California stay in the hotels nearby, they often find our menu or stop in to see how we compare,” Siow said. “They always leave happy.”

Online Okinawa is rated 86 percent positive on Urbanspoon.com, 4.5 out of 5 on Yelp.com and 5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor.com. Reviewers commend Okinawa’s sushi as “beautiful” and “the best in town,” and the service as “friendly,” “eager to please” and “wonderful.”

A meal at Okinawa is an inviting, memorable experience, and it’s impossible not to leave with a piece of the pride the restaurant’s staff displays for each of its customers.