John, a friend, and I went to try out Wa’s Japanese Restaurant. According to over 100 bloggers / reviewers / critics, this was an exceptional sushi restaurant to go to. After our $200 meal for the 3 of us, we decided that it was only average. Not the worst we have been too. Not the best either.
Firstly, you can tell … it was EXPENSIVE! We didn’t pig out. Just consume our usual meal. Oysters motoyaki was $10 for 3 – 4 oyster pieces on one small baked cheese covered plate. Large bottle of Asahi beer was $10. Sushi pieces range upwards from $3.50 a piece. Appetizers (such as shredded squid tempura) ranged from $8 and up. For a 6 piece large roll, it was $20 – $30, depending on ingredients.
Secondly, the ambience was nice. Small place. Bad parking. Needed a reservation. Modern decor but weird, ugly bathroom though. Service was good.
Thirdly, fish. Some of the rolls were creative but personally, I think Globefish Sushi restaurant still tops these guys by far. They did have daily specials which include a couple of unique fish that I never have tried before such as the jack snapper but after ordering some they said they were out. Tasty but not worth the $4 tag. John and our friend thought the unagi was crispy and delicious.
Thirdly, appetizers. The shredded squid tempura turned out to be dried cuttlefish battered with a light tempura coating. It took away the strong taste of dried cuttlefish. I liked it. The avocado tempura was good. Neat idea to try avocado as tempura. I didn’t dip it in the little salt dish that came with it though. John thought both tempura dishes were a little oily.
Interesting note though which bothered me but not the others. The restaurant rested our chopsticks on a unshelled peanut. I don’t know anything about peanut allergies but isn’t that screaming for trouble? (Oh, the signage and logo are TERRIBLE too. Holy, you can’t even read it. You can tell no graphic designer helped them out.)
Out of 10, we rate Wa’s restaurant a 5 or 6. Too expensive for average sushi. In chinese, when we say “wa”, it’s usually to show excitement or shock. Funny thing when I mentioned it to my cousin where we went, she exclaimed in disgust, “WAAAAA! So expensive-ah!”
ravishing
RuneRider
ChowTown 