Normally one doesn’t expect too much in the way of quality food in Airport restaurants, but I found one that was surprisingly good on a recent business trip.
It’s called ‘Osho’, and is located in the San Francisco Airport. The name comes from ‘王将’ which is the name of the ‘King’ piece in Japanese chess (将棋).
I circled around the airport food courts, looking for my best shot at tasty cuisine. There was one asian restaurant that had off-color photographs displaying the different dishes, but Osho had plastic models of the different platters inside a glass case. Although some of the items looked a little strange (not exactly appealing), this sort of display was nearly identical to what I’d seen in Japan, so I decided to try a ‘Katsudon bowl’.
“Katsudon” is written in Japanese as “カツ丼” and is a relatively simple dish with breaded pork strips served over white rice, topped with egg, and nori (strips of dried seaweed). Onions are also mixed in, and overall there is a mild soy sauce flavor that permeates throughout.（Here ‘どん’ is an abbreviation for どんぶり（also written as 丼), which means a bowl of rice.)
The Katsudon bowl at Osho was excellent with a large portion, fresh ingredients, and authentic flavor. It reminded me of the same dish which I had eaten from an authentic Japanese restaurant. And for all of this, the dish was only around $9.50, an amazing deal overall. It was a perfect way to end my business trip and kept me full for many hours.
Since this restaurant is located inside an airport, it probably isn’t worth driving all the way there and parking just to eat there, though you could since it is outside the security gates. But if you happen to be in the airport I highly recommend checking it out. I can’t speak much of the other dishes, but you can’t go wrong with the Katsudon bowl (unless you are vegetarian).
I did some searching to see if this restaurant was a chain, and found a few other similarly named restaurants, but they seemed unrelated. There is also a Indian mystic by the same name, also unrelated. I did find a restaurant chain in Japan called “餃子の王将” (“King of Gyouza”) which might be related, or at least the inspiration for the airport restaurant.
References
The restaurant itself: https://plus.google.com/116418671890621443761/about?gl=us&hl=en
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsudon
A different restaurant in Japan: http://www.ohsho.co.jp
[Image credit: Image taken from a website selling Shougi chess pieces: http://shogi.wdy.jp/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6_7)