Restaurant Review - WasabiSabi : Cooking As A Performance Art?


As it was Jane's birthday last Friday she booked a table at WasabiSabi on London Road. There were eight of us in total and Jane thought it would be good fun and a little different if we ate Teppan-Yaki. This is where you all sit around a large hot plate and your own personal chef cooks your food in front of you.

Neither Victoria nor I had eaten Japanese food before and were not too sure what we would be eating. It turns out that there are six set menu's and you all select one. The chef then cooks the food a bit at a time for all of you, so you get say a plate of Scallops followed by a plate of Prawns then a piece of Salmon and so on.

Victoria and I (and most of the others) chose menu 3, the Sakura menu. This was the 'fishy' option and cost £25.50 per head. Phil chose menu 5, the Niku menu which was the 'meaty' choice at £28.50 per head and Chris chose menu 1, the Ume menu which was the 'veggie' choice at £19.50 per head.

Firstly you all get a salad and a bowl of Miso soup. Both very nice. Then the chef comes over and starts preparing your food. He cooked Chris' first as he went for the veggie option as I guess cooking meat and fish on the same hotplate may have annoyed some of the veggies. This was the only dissappointment of the night really as Chris got all his food at once and was eating while we were enjoying getting ours a bit at a time and watching our chef entertain us.

Entertain is the correct word. This guy was great!! He was juggling the salt and pepper. He was throwing the food around and making big flames appear!!! He was even juggling eggs and catching them in his hat, which was really funny when one of them broke. :-)

The food was excellent. After the salad and soup we had Scallops, Jumbo King Prawns, Salmon, Seabass, Vegetables and Egg Fried Rice. This was followed by a Wasabisabi Pancake and Ice Cream and a coffee or green tea. It may not sound like a lot but by the end of the main course(s) we were all getting a bit full. It all tasted wonderfull. There was nothing to let the food down at all.

I would recommend Wasabisabi to anyone, especially if you are going out in a large group and go for the Teppan-Yaki rather than the a la carte menu. Saying that, Victoria and I want to go back for a menu based meal as we want to try Sushi and Sashimi.

Total bill including drinks came to £37.50 per head. A bargain if you ask me. Excellent food, service and all-round entertainment.

After the restaurant we went to Menzels for a drink. Apart from it being REALLY expensive I've never seen so many desperate women in their 50's dressed as if they were in their 20's. It was scary. They all seemed to have spent too much time on a sunbed and too much money at the Coles make-up counter as well. :-)

And it used to be such a nice place to go when Michael owned it.

Restaurant pictures are available here.

Comments

The Author said…
hi its Dan, i went to wasabisabi for my birthday, and i love it. we go to teppan yaki restaurants in spain and theyre sooo yummy.

Popular Posts