Okadaman

THE TRUCK WASN’T EVEN THERE!!! (noon on 8÷9÷13)
We ordered via Grub Hub online (since the link was on their website), and good thing we were going to pay cash and not credit card or else our money would have been stolen!
False information on your website — not a good business plan.
I got so excited I would be able to get okonomiyaki in NYC, but I guess not. They don’t even update their twitter saying that they are not going to be there.

What can I possibly say? I went here about a month ago with a friend and we were both stunned at how terrible the value was. For $ 12, I was expecting at least three times as much food, if not more. The okonomiyaki is basically the size of a standard pancake, and while it does taste better, it should cost about $ 4 maximum.
I hope that anyone reading my review (and the others below mine, which say pretty much the same thing) will make sure they avoid this place completely. Let my wasted $ 12 represent a benefit for someone else!

Wow don’t I feel like a dumb sucker after paying $ 12 for their mediocre mayonnaise-​smothered mush dough. I’m pretty appalled a truck like them exists, especially when parked on a street full of other food trucks/​carts selling things half the price (w4th near NYU). On the occasions that I do shell out $ 12 for street food, it usually has large portions and gourmet ingredients. So I was willing to give them a try, especially since I was missing okonomiyaki after having had it in Japan years ago. It turned out their okonomiyaki had neither and taste was pretty bland and dismal. I’d be surprised if anyone who tried them once would ever go back.

I wished I checked Unilocal before I bought Seafood Okonomiyaki at NYU, 4^th Street. I was incredibly disappointed. Okada-​man, the name Okada is a very Japanese name so I thought Japanese must deliver good Japanese street foods but I was totally wrong!
There was more flour than other ingredients. It had a bit of cabbage and tiny pieces of seafood, only squid and octopus (?) and the rest was thick carb with a price of $ 12. Also, it only had a size of regular pancake that you can get at Dinner (see my photo).
The thick dough gave a texture of Takoyaki, ball shaped pan fried octopus (tako) balls. It didn’t translate as Okonomiyaki for me but I’m sure it translates well as Takoyaki that they also offers. I don’t need to try the rest of what they offers. I rather walk a bit more East to get much better and cheaper Okonomiyaki in Little Tokyo.

If you’ve never had oknomiyaki before honestly, this isn’t horrible. It tasted okay and didn’t take much more that 5 minutes to be served. But the disappointment came by not only is it SO over-​priced ($ 12 for their tiny 6-​inch pancake) but also they only put a tiny pinch of bonito flakes on top instead of smothering them on.
They’re parked nearly every day at NYU by the park on 4^th Street but you’re better off taking a trek a half mile down 9^th street to Otafuku for tastier fare for only 8 bucks (but you might wait 15 minutes to get served).

This is just plain bad. It’s like they gave up on the concept of good Japanese street food and made it as bland as possible. It actually looks delicious when you first see what lies behind the clear plastic containers, like you’re actually going to scarf it all down. Not at all. There wasn’t any flavor on any of the dishes and everything just tastes like doughy carbs. Just an utter disappointment was the telepathic thoughts my friend and I glared to each other as we took our first chomps of what we thought may be a Midtown-​alternative to Otafuku.
Okadaman is a horrible representation of Japanese food or even of truck food. Even if I was to look for a cheap lunch option around the Midtown area, this is actually the LAST place I’d look.

Not great okonomiyaki, and truck takes forever to get food.
Coming here for lunch on a warmer day recently, I see 2 – 3 unorganized lines and nobody taking orders. With my clock of waiting to order nearing zero (after standing for 7 minutes) I got to place my order. Then I waited for another 16 minutes to get my food.
23 minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, for a lunch food truck with not a long line, it’s an eternity.
The food itself was decent — I’ve been to Japan and have had okonomiyaki in Osaka, in Tokyo, in Kyoto, and in San Francisco and NYC elsewhere — this falls behind all of them. It’s okay, but when you can count 5 – 6 times better on a difficult to find food, you mark a place down.
The fried chicken was pretty good, but again not great.
Net, too long to wait for average food — search for other sitdown Japanese restaurants and go there, it might actually be faster.

Had a chance to try Okadaman in one of the street fairs. I’ve seen this truck around the city a few times, but never had the time to go and actually try it out.
They have all the filling Japanese fast foods, and they have good lunch special combo platters which let you try everything. My friend and I decided to order ½ okonomiyaki & 3 pieces of kara-​age, and ½ yakisoba and ½ okonomiyaki. I don’t know if they generally take a long time to make the food, or if we were just there just when the truck opens, but we waited around 10 to 15 minutes for our food.
The portion sizes were pretty big, but I wish there was a more uniformity with the fried chicken. We got one REALLY huge piece, and the other two were regular size. They gave us way too much cabbage to go with the kara-​age and just enough rice. The okonomiyaki was delicious. Very filling and cooked well.
I thought it was a bit pricey, but the combos do a good job of filling you up.

I ordered Karaage over rice with cabbage. Got back to the office and no rice! This is not the first timeout seems from what someone else posted. I can only guess it was intentional. I can’t believe this is Japanese. There are enough food trucks out there that I don’t have to go back here.

Back in the day, lunch at a food truck meant a dirty water hot dog or, if you wanted to splurge, a falafel platter. Recently in New York City, we’re seeing a resurgence of gourmet food trucks. You have lobster rolls, dumplings, artisanal ice cream, and all other kinds of fancy fare.
A friendly note to people who want to start a food truck: rule #1 is to BE FAST. That’s the whole point.
The one food truck who needs to learn this lesson and learn it fast is Okadaman. As of this writing, they’re usually parked on that primo spot on 47^th between Park and Madison. But if the service I received today is indicative of their regular service, they won’t be there much longer.
I left my office at 1:00 and made the 5 minute walk to their truck. When I got there, there was a big crowd gathered in front of the truck. Half the people were waiting for their food, while the other half were waiting to place their order. Problem is, there was no one taking orders at the front of the truck where the cash register was. Not even a sign saying «this is where you place your order».
Turns out the young man who is in charge of taking orders was also busy cooking as well. There were a few times he came to the front of the truck to grab something but didn’t even acknowledge the crowd waiting with a «just a few minutes» or «sorry for the delay». He took one woman’s order and then disappeared for about 5 minutes even before she could pay. As for me, I had to wait about 10 – 15 minutes just to place my order.
I wanted the takoyaki (octopus balls), which was on the menu. He told me «sorry, no takoyaki». That’s fine, but at the very least couldn’t they cross it off the menu? I then decided I wanted the Kara-​Age (fried chicken). The young man warned me, «they’re a little over-​marinated today». I figured that was okay. I also ordered the Okonomiyaki (seafood pancake) and Yakisoba (fried noodles).
I walked to the middle of the truck to wait for my food. Now, the cook had disappeared. It was another 10 minutes before he started to even cook again. By now I’d been waiting about 25 minutes.
For the next 15 minutes other people who had been waiting before me were getting served. Finally, exactly 40 minutes after I placed my order, I got my food. For me, a 5 minute wait at a food truck is too long. 40 minutes is farcical. It’s a shame, because in the time I waited I noticed about 80−90% of the people who stood on line eventually got fed up and went to the next truck.
The Yakisoba was the best thing on the menu – it was chewy and had a nice flavor, although for my taste it was much, much too salty with too much sauce on it. The same goes for the Okonomiyaki – it was drenched in dark, salty sauce and mayonnaise to the point where I couldn’t taste the pancake.
As for the «over-​marinated» chicken, when I opened it up I saw that it was burnt to a crisp. I mean literally, they were like chunks of charcoal with a little breading on it. Any chef with any pride would have dumped the whole thing away instead of trying to explain that they’re «slightly over-​marinated».
A few other things struck me as odd. While the workers in the truck did change their gloves often, I noticed that when the young man preparing my food was working, he used the same glove hand to handle the spatula, and then open a dirty refrigerator door handle, and then grab a handful of shredded cabbage. Salmonella, anyone?
This truck could be and should be so much more. I don’t blame the workers in the truck, who were working as fast as they could. But the management really needs to do some things to help them out. For one thing, hire another person so that you always have someone taking orders. For another thing, streamline the production of the food so that the line doesn’t get monstrously long. If that’s not possible, choose a different menu. Like I said, the first point of a food truck is not to dazzle people with how exotic your food is – it’s to get your patrons in and out and back to work. If you fail to do that, you’ve failed period.

Note: For anyone trying to use the groupon deal, they don’t accept print outs anymore so you have to show it on the phone. They claim its due to people using copies of the voucher.
For a truck with so much potential, it is quite a let down. I went here on a Monday afternoon and they ran out of takoyaki and okonomiyaki… the two items that I was going to order! Isn’t the sole purpose of this truck serving okonomiyaki? Okay, they still have yakisoba and Kara age so I got those instead.
Yakisoba ($ 6.25) — The noodles tasted average and the little pieces of sliced fatty pork was good. However there was burnt noodles everywhere. Eating this noodle became a game of picking out the non black parts. (⁴⁄₁₀)
Kara age ($ 7.75) — So not worth it for 6 pieces of fried chicken on some cabbage. I think they forgot my rice and sauce. Also the chicken tasted like it was covered in salt. It was overwhelmingly salty. After the first piece, I couldn’t finish the rest. (²⁄₁₀)
The items served in this truck are some of the classic staples of Japanese fast dining cuisine. I am disappointed at how the food turned out. Almost to the point of being butchered. The service was decent though and let me use my print out but that shouldn’t be my problem in the first place right.

Worst lunch I have ever had in the city.
I bought a Groupon offer and split it with a friend. Got the kara age (fried chicken over rice) and takoyaki (octopus balls).
Let’s begin with the service. The guys that work there are not too friendly and a bit standoffish. We got our food before the lady that ordered ahead of us got hers… strange.
The takoyaki — I was super excited about these, but these were the WORST THING I HAVE EVER HAD. I bit into one and it was all batter. I knew something was wrong when the balls were not balls — they were half deflated blobs. They had like 2 pieces of tiny octopus cubes in them also. But seriously, these had to have been uncooked or flash fried or something, because the entire inside was still gooey. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
The kara age — mostly batter and purple/​brown/​discolored chicken. Gross. It was so greasy. Doesn’t taste like anything special either… I’d rather go for Americanized Chinese takeout food.
The rice — soggy, soggy, soggy. Or maybe it was all the grease from the chicken.
First food in the city I actually threw out halfway before finishing. I think the best thing I got from here was my can of Sprite.

Some sap at the office ate my frozen meal so I was forced to venture outside to get lunch today. Midtown lunch can get crazy expensive so I decided to check out the Groupon now deals in my area. This is how I found OKADAMAN, and as a lover of Japanese festival food I had to give it a try.
Price-​wise: Groupon gives you $ 15 worth of food for only $ 7. The lunch specials are only $ 7 – 8 so this fatty got two (I’m saving one for later.) Definitely a deal!
Quantity-​wise — 1 lunch special was more than sufficient for me. I ate the ½ okonomiyaki/​½ yakisoba and it is was pretty heavy. It’s the kind of food that expands in your stomach and I am currently more than stuffed.
Quality-​wise — I REALLY wanted to like this, but the yakisoba needs to be sauced up some more or something. It was lacking in flavor. The okonomiyaki was undercooked and I couldn’t even finish it. The thought of eating uncooked batter makes me sick. A couple minutes more on the grill or whatever could have made a huge difference! and I HATE bonito, but that’s my fault for asking to keep it off.
I love love love the idea of a Japanese festival food truck, so I don’t want to give up on it. I’ll try it again sometime in the future and hopefully update my rating.

I love to try out new foods. So when I saw a cheap group on for this food place I jumped on it. I paid $ 7 for $ 15 worth of food. Food was decently priced between the $ 6-​$ 8 range.
I personally don’t like fried chicken or pork so it was between the Octopus balls and the Yakisoba– seafood. They ran out of the Octopus balls, so Yakisoba seafood it was. It was great, very flavorful,
My coworker had their noodles, she loved it. Since our food was so cheap, we ended up using one of our vouchers. We’ll be back next week.

An okonomiyaki food truck? Now I’ve never heard of this before, so I had to try it. Coincidentally, Groupon had a $ 7 for $ 15 deal, which made the decision THAT much easier. Okadaman serves up, you guessed it, okonomiyaki, but also yakisoba and some karaage. If you come early enough, they even do their own version of breakfast.
For lunch, Okadaman has either some lunch specials, or you can get this ala carte. $ 7 gets you a lunch set of karaage, white rice, and yakisoba or okonomiyaki. It’s a half portion on the yakisoba/​okonomiyaki so don’t be surprised when you get your food. As far as the food goes, it’s a little hit and miss for the most park.
First, the karaage is a little on the dry side. It comes already seasoned and sprinkled with lemon juice, so if you’re not into the hint of sour, then you’ll be disappointed. With good karaage, you’ll bite into the chicken, and it will be nice and juicy. However, with the karaage here, you’ll bite into the chicken, and it’s like eating paper. It’s just dry and for the most part, unflavorful.
The okonomiyaki is actually a lot better. The taste is pretty on point, considering it’s a food truck, and is loaded with veggies and pork. For the yakisoba, I found it a little on the sweet side. The noodles were really thin, and, for the most part, filled with cabbage. Overall, I felt that the lunch special was just 60% white rice and cabbage. I’m not really sure if I want to eat white rice with my noodles in the first place.
Overall, the potions here are pretty small. I bought 2 lunch sets, and thought that I could eat one later for dinner. Instead, I ate both for lunch just so that my stomach wasn’t growling anymore. Okadaman is not bad, but it’s not really a bang for your buck either. For the same price, you can order okonomiyaki at a restaurant. I guess that’s the premium you pay for getting it on the go. This place is totally a cool idea for a food truck, but you got to fix things like your karaage and portions to take it to the next level.

i absolutely love food trucks and i am a huge supporter of them. i heard about this food truck from a friend and i had to try it. i was lucky because the truck parks one avenue away from where i get off the bus in the morning so i decided to walk over and try their breakfast (it also helped that they were giving out free tshirts!).
i got the toast with okonomiyaki sauce on an egg, an iced coffee and a free okadaman tshirt! the breakfast was $ 5 total ($ 3.50 for the food and $ 1.50 for the drink).
the egg tasted just like the pancake and the sauce got me all excited and wanting the pancake! the sauce tasted just like how i remembered it when i recently had it in tokyo/​st marks/​mitsuwa etc. i wish there were more egg. the iced coffee was in an 8 oz can and it was sooooo good. i like my coffee black, no sugar, no milk, nothing. this was perfect (albeit, there was sugar in it).
they were also giving out free tshirts to lure some customers and i was able to get one. this was definitely a nice touch. i don’t think i would have bought breakfast if not for the free tshirt. with or without the tshirt however, i would def buy lunch.
the guy that was ringing me up was really nice and helpful. since they park so close to where i work, i will definitely be back to try their lunch.
i’ll update my review after i try their lunch!!!

I was really hoping that this would be my new go-​to truck, but what a let down. Another mediocre truck.
I love japanese snacks and especially okonomiyaki so was pretty excited to hear about this truck. I got the lunch special that comes with half a okonomiyaki and kara-​age. For around $ 8, the portions were tiny. Three little pieces of chicken and the half pancake was small too. The pancake was seasoned well, but was underdone in the middle. The chicken was mediocre, like something you would get in the freezer section at Mitsuwa.
Overall, a pretty disappointing experience.

An average lunch truck in NYC. I got the lunch special combo with half seafood pancake and half fried chicken. I thought the pancake was tasty, had a good amoutn of squid and crab meat… didn’t find any shrimps or clams though. Still the serving they give you is rather small. It’s not much of a lunch special really. The fried chicken you only get 3 pieces of, again small portions. It was pretty well fried though and nicely seasoned, tasted salty at first go but actually is ok once you keep eating.
My gripe is that it’s just not a great value, you’d need to break the $ 10 mark to have a full meal at Okadaman. Nice concept and offers some unique japanese dishes, but from what I understand these are mainly snacks in japan and not meals.

They are still working out the kinks so you will need to be patient but the food is pretty good. I went with a friend on a hot Friday afternoon and got:
Okonomiyaki — Was slightly undercooked but that was probably due to day 1 jitters in trying to move the line. It did have good flavor.
Kara age — Good flavor and crunch in the fried chicken. Came with rice and cabbage. The cabbage was surprisingly fresh even in that nasty humid weather.
Tako Yaki — One of the better octopus balls I’ve had. Not too mushy and a good bite of octopus in the center.
Not sure how long this will last, but Tea’s Tea was handing out free samples with their food. I love free stuff!
The lady managing the lines was super nice. Her husband is the one who came up with all the recipes. I think they are still trying to figure out where they’ll be from day to day cuz even though the website says they are stationed at 45^th and Lex for lunch, they were actually on 48^th and Park. Give them a call beforehand.

Hmm. So today was the first day for the truck so the review isn’t really fair. The line was insane and it was a 45 minute wait for anything except the noodles. So had to settle on those. I was really looking forward to the octopus balls/​pancakes though :/​next time…
Noodles were good though. Can’t be mad for the price and wait (took like 2 minutes to get). Standard noodles with a little pork. I uploaded a picture. It wasn’t too greasy which I like.
Next time I’ll get there suuuuper early.