Ocha Thai & Japanese Cuisine

This is - by far -my favorite lunch spot in this area (close to my work). The staff is super-friendly. There are regulars (I am getting to be one myself), so you know they are doing something right. The food is top notch (and I have annoyingly tight dietary preferences*), inexpensive, and because you get so much, the value is amazing. So with a standard lunch, I get miso soup (delish!) and a lettuce with ginger/miso dressing, then a huge stir fry of choice - all barely coming in at a bill of just over $10 before tip. Even while ordering a soda. You cannot beat that in this area - even if you chose less-healthy fast food! Seriously. The best! On this day, I added gyoza, so the final tab was a little higher than that, but still very affordable. (And those gyoza were fresh and so good!) They have sushi and I imagine it is good. I just haven’t gone that route yet! *In case you want more explanation: I am type 2 diabetic and subscribe to a nutritarian diet. Nutritarian means that I choose not to eat animal products - so a vegan menu usually puts me in a good place. Ocho doesn’t necessarily advertise as vegan or vegetarian, but Japanese and Thai stir fry is always right up my alley. So ordering any of their big items while using tofu or extra veggies as my chosen protein works great. On top of that, the dishes can be different enough from each other that it doesn’t feel like I can only do one thing over and over. With T2 diabetes, i do what I can to limit high carb food, so Ocha is great because I can control that and get enough food to actually feel full. Rice comes on the side, so I can use a little so soak up some of the leftover sauce, or skip it entirely.