Sushi Wasabi

In honour of Hubb's birthday, we decided to celebrate by going to Sushi Wasabi. At first I balked a little at going to this particular restaurant, because it seemed too casual for a birthday celebration, but since it wasn't *my* birthday, I eventually deferred to the birthday boy.

We arrived early for our reservation, so we had to wait a few minutes before being seated. The restaurant was very small and had a limited number of simple tables and chairs, which were pretty much filled by the time we started our meal. Keeping in mind that this was on a Thursday evening, I was impressed by the number of people dining there.

The server came by to take our drink orders (green tea) right away. We noticed, upon studying the menu, that Sushi Wasabi offers a pretty extensive selection of nigiri, as well as moderate number of bento boxes and various forms of maki and appetizers. We ordered the edamame, the Wasabi sushi combination (consisting of 4 pieces each of tuna, salmon, shrimp, hokki-gai, octopus, kanpachi, and tobiko, as well as salmon and kappa makis), and an extra unagi nigiri.

We received the edamame shortly, and I pretty much inhaled the beans in my hunger. They were not the freshest beans I had ever tasted, nor the most flavourful, but they were good and I was starving. Then, we began to wait. And wait. And wait a little longer. At one point, when we looked over at the sushi chefs (two of whom spoke Cantonese so I understood what they were saying), they were fanning something vigourously and looking back at us with somewhat sheepish expressions on their faces. Our order took over 35 minutes to arrive, because (as it turns out), the chefs were fanning the fresh rice to cool it down to a proper sushi temperature. The server first brought out half of our order, and the brought out the other half about 3 minutes later.

Thankfully, the nigiri was delicious, and well worth the wait. The cuts of fish were very fresh, as well as generously portioned. Instead of giving us huge bites of rice and small pieces of fish that barely covered all of the rice, these pieces of fish were so large that they nearly enveloped the little balls of rice beneath them. I was especially impressed by their tuna, which I usually find to be poorly done in sushi restaurants, and not fresh enough. As a result, the tuna often tastes like, well, *tuna.* Not here! The tuna was tender and fresh and did not have the slightest fishy taste to it. It literally melted in my mouth.

The service was good, but not terribly prompt. The older Japanese lady (who I think to be one of the owners) commented on how much she liked my smile, so she was great and I liked her a lot! =)

Our server, however, is a different story. This young, Asian, and attractive woman seemed to take special notice of my husband throughout the dinner. Whenever she came to the table to talk to us, she'd make eye contact exclusively with Hubbs, and would only look at me when I asked her a question directly. At one point, while offering the explanation for the delay in our order, she even adjusted her bra strap (somewhat seductively, in my opinion) while gazing at him. When we paid in cash and asked for change, she somehow made the assumption that we were not married or that we'd be going dutch on the meal, because she brought back the change divided into two equal amounts, even offering an explanation that she did this deliberately so that we could each take back our change. Finally, when we forgot our leftovers on the table after leaving, she came chasing after my hubby to give him the food. Maybe it's just me, but I found this server's behaviour to be somewhat amusing, yet entirely inappropriate.

Overall, great sushi, arguably the best in the city. Prices are a little on the expensive side, but that is to be expected for quality fish. The service: well, if you ask Hubbs, he'll say it was awesome. If you ask me, I'd say otherwise ;) Come here for tasty, fresh, generous portions of quality nigiri, but make sure to keep a close eye on the young server who could be scoping out your hot guy (or, if you're a single hot dude lookin' to score, maybe this is the place for you!).

Rating: 9 / 10
Hubby's Rating: 10 / 10