Wasabi Japanese Restaurant @ Buffalo, NY

I think Wasabi’s my brother’s favorite Japanese restaurant in Buffalo, NY. We went there after his graduation to celebrate and to also meet up with our friend (my classmate from high school) Sherene, her hubby Pete and her sister Sharon.

Upon arriving there, we were seated immediately as Sherene had called ahead for availability and to our surprise, they were able to accommodate us (party of 8) during this busy graduation weekend! We arrived there just in time before more patrons started arriving!

The interior was nicely decorated and had a nice ambiance. Service was surprisingly slow and I believe Pete mentioned that they’ve never been that SLOW.  Here’re some of the stuff that we ordered. Most of them pretty good, except the Chilean Sea Bass ordered as appetizer…disappointing!

The Spicy Chilean Sea Bass @ $8.95 looked like a joke to me. I guess this is what I get for paying $9 for it. It was so mediocre, it wasn’t funny. I did not bother to take pictures of it. I recall 4-5 thinly sliced pieces of fish being served on a piece of banana leave. The fish was probably deep fried or something as it was super oily. I prefer my Sea Bass in a large juicy chunk! The only consolation, the spicy mayo sauce, wasn’t that bad. This was the worst Chilean Sea Bass I’ve ever had!! =(. By all means, skip this appetizer!

And because I was raving on how YUMMY Chilean Sea Bass is, I had mom ordered the Grilled Chilean Sea Bass @ $15.95. You can choose from 3 different sauces that they offer with the fish; Teriyaki, Spicy Mayo or Spicy Black Bean. Mom picked the black bean sauce. Again, the fish was sort of thinly sliced, came with sautéed vegetables and a bowl of rice. The fish was either microwaved steamed or lightly pan fried then just topped with the black bean sauce. Mom & dad thought it was ok. I again wasn’t too thrilled about it….. Again, the price of the entree (cheap, as Chilean Sea Bass is always $20 and up) should have given me the tell tale signs of what to expect! Now, I just hoped that they did indeed serve Chilean Sea Bass… and not Tilapia =P

Dad, hubby, bro and I ordered a variety of sushi to share. I was VERY IMPRESSED with their sushi! =) Dad ordered Alligator Roll (Spicy tuna & avocado roll topped with whole broiled eel & tobiko)@$11.95. I skipped the grilled eel topping (I have issues with eating eel.. hehe) and ate the sushi part. It was pretty good! Not too bad for $11.95. The presentation was quite decent too!Brother ordered Christmas Roll (spicy tuna and tempura flakes roll topped with avocado and red tobiko) @ $9.50. It surely looked X’massy with all the red from the tobiko and the green from the avocado. It was another yummy sushi! =)) . I think there was another thing that brother ordered…but we were so busy munching on the sushi we probably forgot to take pictures of it. Hubby and I ordered one of our favorite sushi; Spider Roll (Fried soft shell crab, avocado, lettuce, cucumber and tobiko topped with mayo and sweet eel sauce) @ $9.50. This was another yummy dish. Soft shell crab was quite generous and crunchy! Yums!! We also ordered Wasabi Lobster (lobster, tobiko, tempura, avocado and mango roll wrapped in soy bean wrapper) @ $11.95. Another delicious sushi! I forgot if I tasted lobster… I’m sure there were small chunks of it… But this sushi was so tasty and different, sweet and salty and the same time. The soy bean wrapper was a refreshing change from the regular seaweed wrapper. Somehow, I really thought we ordered more sushi… I guess I must either be wrong, or we really forgot to take pictures of them! I did not take pictures of what my friends ordered.

I remember Sherene ordered Grilled Teriyaki Salmon @$ 12.95 which looked quite yummy. I think she couldn’t finish her entree and my brother happily helped her out! =p. Pete ordered Super Dynamite (Tempura Fried Roll with Eel, White Tuna, Crabstick, Asparagus & Cream Cheese)@ $9.50. I recalled having a bite, and enjoyed the warm crunchy outside of the fried sushi. I will probably not order this as I’m not a big fan of cream cheese in my sushi and also eel! Sharon ordered Unagi Don (broiled eel over rice) @ $15.95 which also looked very delicious, of which I will happily pass because of issues I have with eel.

We ordered some desserts to share; Mochi Ice Cream (2 @ $2.50) which was nothing to shout about. I suspect it’s maybe store bought. I’ve eaten similar store bought Mochi Ice Cream that came in a pack of 6 @ $4.00, I think! The Tempura Ice Cream @ $4.25 was not bad with green tea ice cream in the inside, lightly deep fried in a tempura batter.

Overall, I will definitely be back for their finger licking good sushi! No doubt passing on their Chilean Sea Bass! =) Thumbs up for their sushi! Service needs improvement…. as they were a little slow with coming up with our food…. Maybe it was tough for them to prepare variety of food for party of 8? Of maybe they were swamped with the other graduation crowd…..

If you’re in the Buffalo, NY area, check out this restaurant and their menu HERE.