food review! the eatery du jour is Wasabi-Tei, a little (and i do mean little) japanese diner on the 5th floor of Far East Plaza. once again a surprise find from HungryGoWhere.com, we decided to head over to get some japanese food for comfort purposes.
Wasabi-Tei has a reputation for being run by a tyrant of a chef, who has a peculiar way of taking orders, but who creates amazing food which generates quite a crush of people. with this in mind, we arrived about 15min before opening time (1715hrs) and were first at the head of a queue which slighly overflowed the eatery's roughly 20-seat capacity by the time the doors opened. the excess people were left quietly sitting outside.
layout of the eatery corresponds to that of your average sushi shop. the chef's main work area is in the centre of the floor, with a bench all round. once customers are seated he is effectively locked in, much like an Elizabethan thrust-type stage. from here he and his wife command the floor. orders of food are taken first, from left to right, then drink orders. there is a strict rule of ordering everything at first instance, else a fee of 20% of cost is levied on the 2nd order. drinks are factored into a $2 'occupancy' charge, unless you want booze. Ocha is of course free-flow, and very hot.
a standard-issue starter of stewed chicken and wakame was plonked down in front of the whole eatery. while some food reviewers were over the moon with the starter, i found it pleasant enough but nothing to write home or scream oiishi about. a rather homely flavour which relaxes you as opposed to a knock-your-socks-off overture kind of starter.
next up was an Una-maki. here our opinions divided. the una-maki was cut in to 4 big, chunky sections with the unagi spilling out the terminal ends for visual effect, then piled on a small dish with a bit of pickled ginger and wasabi before special-secret-keroppi sauce was dribbled on (for those who understand the reference, a pat on the head for you!). i liked it. big-ass pieces of unagi, soft and tender with a sauce to modulate the potentially overpowering fishyness that unagi occasionally suffers from. minus points for incompletely slicing the nori between my pieces, requiring me to tear my makizushi apart. a ruptured maki is a tragedy... PJ found the sauce too sweet, and was not terribly impressed with the way he plonked the unagi pieces on the dish before getting the rice ready for rolling.
next up was a teriyaki salmon set. a slab of salmon, accompanied with shredded cabbage and salad dressing, pickled cucumber and a good old bowl of miso soup on the side. huge serving. and i say it again, it was big! i liked the done-ness of the salmon, altho the skin was a bit charred, resulting in PJ removing it from circulation.
the last item ordered was a Gyu-jyu. beef on rice in a laquered square box. honestly, while the beef-and-garlic concept was a good change from the usual beef-and-sauce type of gyu-don/jyu thingy, it was a little bit on the stringy side. anathema to she-of-the-active-ortho. i got a glimpse of the chirashi-don as i was eating this. similar box, intimidating mound of fish. i so want that the next time i go.
and so... in summary:
Jon - yesyesyes! want sushi in servings big enough to hurt when thrown! wantwantwant! surly service and small seats are a small price to pay!
PJ - nothing to write home about
Changin' - Stephanie