Ogawa Sushi & Kappo

After reading a favorable review of Ogawa Sushi & Kappo, I booked a birthday omakase and Chef Carlos, Vy, and their team delivered a wonderful experience!Loved the personalized dinner program, which divided the 23 courses into 6 loose sets, the first floor space with its moody walls, under-counter hooks for handbags, and phone rests for the inevitable food photography that accompanied the 29 piece meal (with a full drink pairing add on).Every course was fresh, innovative, and delicious. Chef Carlos and his behind-the-counter team were happy to answer questions and chat about ingredients. Loved learning about dehydrated soy sauce--will have to pick some up next time we're in Japan!P.S. I saw a review critiquing the rice, so wanted to note that I thought the rice was perfect--would've been happy to have a bowl of my own (though that would've unbalanced a perfectly balanced meal!).

I really wanted to "love" this place. Since Royal Sushi omakase reservations are so hard to get & now so expensive, I was hoping Ogawa could be a good alternative. The space, ingredients, staff & host were all great. I actually enjoyed the cooked dishes more than the sushi. In my opinion, it was good but not amazing for the cost of $200. The rice was slightly sticky & gummy, the slices of fish were thin. I've had far better meals at this price point or less in Philly & Michelin star restaurants in NY. Ogawa was better than Sakana, comparable to Hiroki (price for Hiroki is less.) It doesn't come near Royal Sushi in my opinion. Chef Jesse at Royal really does something spectacular & beautiful with his sushi that is simply superior, starting with the most perfectly cooked & seasoned rice. I will spend a bit more for Royal Sushi instead of returning to Ogawa.

One of the best omakase I had in awhile!! And in Philly too! Great food and service!! The staff had such great vibes and kept the crowded entertained and felt welcomed.Before anyone books this, I will say it's for two hours long and it's $200/person. So make sure you have the time to fully enjoy this. I recommend and would come back. Parking was easy as well in the neighborhood.

My husband and I ate at Ogawa a couple of weeks back and had an amazing meal.23 courses with 29 pieces @ $200 for a belly busting, wholesome, and not pretentious experience.Upon arrival, my husband and I were greeted by the most vivacious hostess, V. Immediately, any initial intimidation from walking into an omakase was gone. As we waited for the others to arrive, my husband and I browsed the drinks menu. Personally, I was shocked by the prices of the drinks. Cocktails were priced at ~$40. The cheapest alcoholic beverages on the menu were Japanese beers, which were priced at ~$10. Aside from the drinks, everything was great. Most omakases don't provide a dinner program, but Ogawa did. The dinner program broke out the 23 courses into 6 sets and served as a general guide as to what we would be eating that evening. Sometimes, you do lose track of how many pieces you've eaten at an omakase, so having the dinner program was nice to refer to, especially when you're eating so many courses. The 23 courses were all very enjoyable. Every single course was fresh and tasted delicious and left us wanting more. For the nigiri, I liked that the rice was portioned smaller, so we can make room for all the courses. Some of the highlites of the omakase included:- Ogawa's miso soup is unlike the regular miso soup. This miso soup was prepared with lobster shells and cooked for an hour. Chef Carlos wasn't hesitant to share tips with us so we could all go home and make our own miso soup. It was delicious and packed with umami flavor. - Akagai (blood clam) is something that my husband and I haven't had before. We watched Chef Carlos spank the piece of blood clam before placing it on the sushi rice, activating the nerve cells of the blood clam, causing its muscles to dance. It was fascinating.- Sea urchin and scallop chawanmushi (steamed egg) combined the essence of scallops and was topped with sea urchin and seaweed. As if a plain chawanmushi wasn't already delicious. Soo frickin' good.- Lobster tail appetizer was a good but not exceptional dish. It is still worth noting because being served a whole lobster tail for a dinner costing $200 is a good deal. - Tamago was the final course. The only other place to serve us tamago as the final course was 2-michelin star restaurant Sushi Masuda in Tokyo. This brought back memories of our Japan trip last year. The way Ogawa and Sushi Masuda prepared the tamago was made to taste like a light pound cake, not like the kind on top of sushi rice. There were many other high-quality and expensive ingredients included in this omakase that I won't go into so you can experience them yourself. All I can say is this meal was $200 well spent. Lastly, Chef Carlos totally made this a one-of-a-kind omakase experience. He was light-hearted yet professional. I loved that he brought out an entire belt fish so we everybody could see what the fish we were eating looked like. He also let us see the head of a cornet fish up close.The vibe of Ogawa is easygoing, which takes away a lot of the awkwardness that comes with many omakase experiences.

Really friendly staff. Good food. Clean. Relaxing atmosphere. We liked the variety of the food.We left sooooo full. One of the girls in another group stopped eating and passed the food to her husband cause she was so full Would love if there was an option for a mini version of the menuDried soy sauce was something I've never heard of. It was the favorite of the night. And always the uni is up there.

The experience starts from the moment you walk into the restaurant. The service from the host and waitress was phenomenal. Originally had a party of 7, but due to personal reasons it had to change to 6. And the manager was very accommodating and worked things out with us and allow us to use the credit for a future visit. One of my girlfriends loved it so much she couldn't wait and once the night end she made a reservation for her and her husband for another omakase experience the following weekend! So let's go back to the omakase experience. We were welcomed with a complimentary mocktail along with a warm towel to clean our hands. Along that there was a sponge napkin that was there for us to wipe our hands as we eat each piece of our sushi with our hands. They even had a little coaster for our phones. Now comes the review for the food ! Words cannot describe the emotions my taste buds went through. From the freshness of the fish, to the extraordinary sauces made in house. Chef Carlos presented each and every piece of sushi and appetizer with such heart and elegance. All the flavors were very balanced and the amount of sauce and wasabi he put in each piece of sushi was perfect. The cold and hot appetizers were very unique. Words cannot describe how much me and all my girlfriends enjoy this meal. 23 courses omakase was more than enough. This is the first omakase experience we all had where we were wondering are we done yet, our belly is getting so full and we were all very satisfy. Usually at a restaurant I can tell you what was my absolute favorite dish/course, but during this experience everything was perfection and it was more than a handful I wanna eat again already. Definitely would be back with my husband and other friends who haven't been here yet.

Usually I remember to take all the pictures of my omakase courses but Ogawa exceeded all the places I've been to with a mouth watering 23 course that I lost track of picture taking - which is probably for the better! Ogawa is perfect for those who enjoy traditional and minimalism with their sushi, which is right up my alley. It reminded me of Japan immediately where the emphasis is on enjoying the notes and flavor of each fish and course, and no overpowering sauces or mixture of other fish and meat. For omakase, rice is also essential for me in terms of marination with the flavor, texture, and temperature which Ogawa nailed perfectly and proves to show professionalism in their skill. A handful of affordable omakase places I've been to tend to be inconsistent with the texture being too hard, too cold, or overly sweet or sour. Each course was extremely fresh, straight from Japan and hand selected from Ogawa-san himself. It was great conversing with the chef and owners to hear the dedication Ogawa-san puts into his restaurant including flying to Japan himself daily to search for the freshest fish of the season almost 2 or 3 times a month! As for pricing, with tip and tax, it is on the higher end of omakase in Philly but not by far for it's quality and quantity with 23 course with 29 pieces. It says clearly $200 per person with 20% service charge added to the final bill when making reservations, so depending if alcohol is added or not, it can range. Just in comparison, the famous Roya Izakaya is currently 300 per person for 16-17 piece course. I felt extremely full by the end of Ogawa and my belly was super happy! Again, I recommend Ogawa for sushi enthusiasts who purely enjoy japanese tradition sushi on the minimalism side and is aware that Ogawa is on the higher end of Omakase offered in Philly - but in my opinion, I'd go back in a heart beat for special occasions or an excuse with any friend to eat amazing sushi/omakase!

I visited Ogawa Sushi & Kappo at the end of January with two friends. My experience was wonderful, I've never had such high quality sushi before and I hope to come back in the future. It was an intimate experience with us, maybe about 9 other people, and the sushi chef. The rice was perfect, the fish was so incredibly fresh. I normally don't eat the wasabi at other sushi restaurants, but this wasabi really opened my eyes that the quality of the wasabi matters. We decided to go with the same pairing which was the best decision we made. All in all, id love to come back again.

Fantastic experience. Every bite was spectacular, particularly the uni, the scallop, and the crab appetizer. We did the sake pairing with the omakase, highly recommend doing this. The service was notably exceptional - attentive and thorough explanations. Can't wait to come back!

Came in for dinner on a Wednesday night and was impressed the moment we walked through the door. One thing I noticed was how attentive the chef Kevin and the staff were. I really appreciated how amazing the service was. Now this isn't your typical omakase where you only get nigiri pieces. We had a mix of hot and cold appetizers along with sashimi bites as well. Chef Kevin knew all the cuts of fish very well. Sushi was fresh and everything was prepped to perfection. Overall, it was a great experience!