Wasabi Sushi

The much anticipated opening of Wasabi Sushi Bar & Grill has finally happened - they opened their doors to the public today, so I went with my buddy Tim (a fellow sushi fan) to check it out. The signs outside mark the opening of this new sushi restaurant in town and upon entering I was pleasantly surprised by the very nice dark wood decor and interesting features.

At the entry there is a tall glass waterfall and tables setup along a low center wall with cut glass that is lit up in blue, and there are more tables against the windows as well as outdoor seating. There's also a room to the side for private parties, a bar and a good sized sushi bar. Throughout the place there are several large flat screen tv's and the light sculptures... they had were very unique and interesting - I can't even call them light appliances because they were all like art sculptures. The lights above the sushi bar looked like inverted red glass tulips.

After we got there, we found the place was soon very full - apparently we're not the only people in town who like sushi and know this place is now here. We sat at the sushi bar and went over the very extensive menu for a while while we had some hot sake.

There are a lot of sashimi choices and four pages of custom rolls to choose from. They have a very good well rounded menu that has many choices, there is something for everyone. We tried the hamachi and tuna sashimi which were both very good and then we ordered a couple of rolls to try. First up was the Red Dragon roll which was pretty spicy and good. The only downside to these rolls was the large amount of rice that was used to make the roll, it was almost too much, but it had a good taste and the fish and sauces were good.

Next we had the Brenda Special roll which was wrapped in sea weed and tempura and deep fried. It was ok, but too big and too much cooked fish for me - I prefer sushi that is not so well cooked, but that's just me. I think this was a roll that is better suited for folks who are not wholly fond of raw fish.

All in all it was nice, but it was day one so service was a bit slow and confused, they forgot one of our orders and they were not on top of the beverage service - we would have had another saki but the waitress was hard to find so we skipped that as well as the missing order. The sushi is good but I think I need to give it a few more tries before I really can give this place a good review. I'd like to go back and try some more of the interesting rolls and sashimi - I really want to find out more about how fresh their fish is and how creative they can be.

I'm not sure if this place is tied to the other Wasabi Grill that is in Citrus Heights but this place was much more hip (and I hate to say) trendy then that the other place. Thats both good and bad (IMO). They were playing techno music at times and it seemed they were really trying to keep everything up beat, which is cool, but I sometimes prefer a more mellow traditional setting for sushi. I'll be going back again in a few weeks to give them another try and see how well the service has improved and try some more of their sushi - and if you guys or gals get a chance to give them a try soon, please leaves some feedback with your thoughts about the place

Cheers!