Enjoy Japanese food and sushi rolls galore at this Long Beach restaurant – Press Telegram

“Osaka Story” has been the name of two dramatic movies released in Japan — one in 1957, the other in 1999. Neither of them is about a restaurant.

By contrast, Osaka Story the restaurant sits on 2nd Street in Belmont Shore. It’s a happy destination for a crazy number of dishes on what’s easily Long Beach’s most diverse restaurant row.

On the back wall of the restaurant, a big-screen TV shows a hi-def body cam film of what looks like Tokyo — a journey through the sprawling train stations, plazas, food courts, landmarks — shot with such immediacy, you may come away with the impression you’ve actually spent the evening in Japan. It’s a story written largely in sushi rolls and ramen.

It’s a good idea to get a sake or a beer when you sit down at Osaka Story. Not just because they’re fine beverages, and very refreshing after looking for parking on the side streets. But also because the menu comes in parts and pieces that take a while to suss out. This is easily one of the largest selections of dishes in town; I counted 111 sushi rolls — and I may have missed a few.

And the outlandish number of sushi is just part of an even bigger selection of dishes. (I don’t know how the kitchen keeps up!) There’s a page of 25 sushi options, about half of which are offered as sashimi. There’s a choice of eight yubu dishes — a food not often found on Japanese menus, largely because it’s a Korean creation, called yubu chobap, and consisting of sweet vinegared rice stuffed in a fried bean curd pocket, along with (in the case of Osaka Story) salmon (both plain and lemon pepper), tuna (both spicy and ginger), garlic butter crab, grilled eel, barbecue beef and spicy pork. That’s pretty fancy for a picnic dish.

There are six ramen specials, along with 14 signature dishes like carpaccio made variously with escolar, albacore, salmon, yellowtail, tuna and octopus. There are dishes poetically called Osaka Blossoms (crabmeat, tuna, salmon albacore, yellowtail, wrapped into a pretty little package).

Two more wrapped dishes are called “Tangos.” Another two are referred to as “Blues.” Someone clearly likes their musical references.

And the entrées, of which there are 25 — beef bowl and chicken bowl, salmon poke bowl and tuna poke bowl. Beef curry rice and chicken curry rice. Hawaiian fried rice and a full range of teriyakis. There also are lunch and dinner specials — combos with two main dishes and combos with three main dishes, along with rice, salad and miso soup (the inevitable trio).

But, mostly, there are the rolls. If you’re old school — and a very good school that is — the 21 classic rolls should suffice. There’s something ever-so-reassuring about a well-turned California Roll, a tasty spicy yellowtail roll, a down-home salmon skin roll.

If you like your rolls looser, the 21 hand rolls are basically classic rolls that aren’t sealed. (There are several restaurants around town that offer nothing but open-faced hand rolls.) There are deep-fried rolls, baked rolls and rolls without rice. And then there are the Chef’s Special Rolls, which, as a rule, are packed with more ingredients than you can shake a chopstick at.