Guest Restaurant Review: Wasabi House – Quinpool Road

Date: 2012.03.30 | Category: Eats, Guest Blog | Tags:

Where: Wasabi House (Quinpool Rd across from the Oxford Theatre)
Time: 9pm

There has been at least 3 different restaurants in that spot since the original greek one that was there for years closed.

Walking up the two steps into the entrance, the restaurant is packed. A long booth runs down the entire side with adjacent tables and chairs. Apparently it’s Happy Hour, so from 9pm – 11pm it’s a smaller version of their menu. Choice of appetizers from miso soup to dumplings to tempura and then 2 rolls for $9.95 or 3 for $13.95. The variety of rolls was very basic, the spicies(salmon, tuna, crab) california, shrimp tempura, hamachi and salmon and some vegetarian options. We ordered vegetable tempura and gyoza for appetizers. The vegetable tempura was hot and crispy and the vegetables were a combination of sweet potato and zucchini. We had an option to have beef or veg gyoza, or both, so we opted for both. If you don’t know, Gyoza are little dumplings similar to pot stickers. The vegetable ones were pretty bland, they may have needed salt. The beef ones were flavorful but very greasy, you could taste the fat. Not a fan.

For rolls I chose spicy salmon, dynamite maki and spicy crab. The rolls came out quick and I liked the toasted sesame seeds on the rice but all in all they lacked finesse. The rice didn’t evenly cover the nori – it was thick on some sides and not so much on others. The dynamite maki had no avocado as promised and the salmon pieces were too big for the roll. Didn’t like the crab either, it just didn’t taste fresh at all.

The only great thing about The Wasabi House was the service. With only a couple of servers running around she was wonderful, attentive, asked if we had any questions, answered honestly about what she liked over the other and was all over the table but not in an obtrusive way; like a ninja, we’d remove our chopsticks from the paper, next thing we know the papers are gone. She came back after each course asked how it was, if we needed drinks refreshed, brought more napkins, etc, etc. She was great!

Needless to say, I’m not sure I’d give them another chance especially with all the other options for sushi in town.

Cost: $51 tax in. Plus tip it was $62.