thelovingspoonful.net

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant
Becomes Wasabi Ultra Lounge after 10pm
200 Pine Ave
Long Beach, CA 90802
(562) 983-5165
www.longbeachwasabi.com

Ordered Dishes:

Rainbow Roll
Philadelphia Roll
Crunchy Roll
Alaskan Salmon Roll
Sake2me Sake, Iced Tea, Coca-cola

Reviews:

Recently, when a group of us had intentions of sipping Sangria and dancing the night away at Cafe Sevilla, our plans were unexpectedly altered, landing us at Wasabi Restaurant instead. (I know what you are thinking. Us? Go to a Japanese restaurant called Wasabi?) Well, all I can say in our defense is that, hey, shit happens. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow.

As it was, our group was running super late. I believe we had reservations for 8:30, and Dan and I were the first to meander in at around 8:55. Our friends didn’t arrive until maybe 9:30. By then, the owner was visibly concerned about our large party, which happened to be occupying a long table smack dab in the middle of his soon-to-be dance floor. After some hemming and hawing, we moved downstairs to a teppan table in a corner of their much publicized “basement bar.”

Soon after the first of our food arrived, the upstairs level of Wasabi was transformed into Wasabi Ultra Lounge. The “basement bar” stayed well-lit for awhile longer to facilitate us and another group of straggling diners.

Ultra Lounge graphic logo displayed behind the main bar upstairs:

My Iced Tea, complete with dirt-encrusted, unidentified object:

Needless to say, I was in Flavor Country.

There was a lot of confusion. We would ask for things, be acknowledged, and then completely ignored. Maybe the waitresses were in over their heads. By the time Dan and I received our rolls, most of our friends had completely finished their much more elaborately prepared meals.

Philadelphia Roll (left) and Rainbow Roll (right):

One word of advice about going here for sushi: don’t go here for sushi. You could get better and fresher in the deli section of your local Japanese grocery. They also liked to do unneeded variations of well-known staples (like substituting crisp julienne of cucumber for floppy asparagus stalks. Go figure.).

As we waited for the rest of our food, Dan and I joined in on a toast with our dear friends. Sake2me sake was highly recommended to us from the bartender. It was fine, but rather than drinking it from a small cup, I felt like I should have sucked it out through a bendy straw a la Sofia Pinot Blanc.

Sake2me:

Then the rest of our food came!

Crunchy Roll:

Alaskan Roll:

Unfortunately, in this case, the photos are pretty self-explanatory… so we will leave you with one last, delicious image for the day!

Dan’s napkin, which he unfolded to find a wad of chewed-up gum in:

The grossest part? I had drunk from my cup and Dan had wiped with his napkin several times before either of us noticed. And we didn’t even receive apologies from the staff.

PROS:
Two bars upstairs and one downstairs so you never wait long
Deejay spinning downstairs
Decent music
“Dirty” Teppan show (though not nearly as good as Daimon’s)

CONS:
Not sanitary
Bad communication between front and back of house
Sushi
Old and fugly crowd (I thought I saw my friend’s 80 year old (not fugly) grandmother grinding on the dance floor in a halter dress. But he assured me that she lived on a farm in Mexico.)

PROS/CONS/DECIDE FOR YOURSELF:
Waitresses aren’t great at waitressing, but they do wear plaid miniskirts and some go commando
Multiple go-go dancers, if they are your thing
The old Korean lady/co-owner who stands behind a curtain and counts dollar bills all night. I thought she was hilarious, but she wasn’t trying to be. I just tend to see the humor in stuff like that.

Our tip? If you want to check out the Ultra Lounge, show up at 9:45 and order a drink or appetizer. This way, you will be around to see the venue transformation but won’t have to stand in line or pay the hefty cover charge ($30?). This place is definitely not worth a $20-30 dollar cover. This is basically your Hooters of poorly-made, bastardized Japanese food. I say this in the nicest way possible (because I was left genuinely amused!).

Rating:
0 out of 10 Spoonfuls - Sorry, but the Iced Tea and napkin incidents were just unacceptable.

Value:
$$