Wara Sushi — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Chanced upon this place and had dinner here. It's a sushi train run by Koreans. There were a few telltale signs. The place was blasting english pop music. Handroll was categorised as Maki and Maki was roll. No chawanmushi and mentaiko (eventhough mentaiko was actually innovated by the koreans).

First impression of the food was pretty good. Sushi rice was seasoned with rice vinegar, mirin and salt. A number of sushi places we visited don't do this. Which is quite disappointing. Cus Brisbanites will never know what good sushi is.

I'll start with the bad first then the good... yes... there's good. Hence the 4 stars.

Nigiri. They put a slice of lemon between 2 Nigiri sushi. Firstly, if your seafood is fresh enough, you shouldn't serve it with lemon. Secondly, even if you serve with a slice of lemon, it shouldn't touch the Nigiri. Sorry, I'm pretty picky with my sushi esp when it's at a certain price point.

Scallops and salmon were okay. The mark of a decent sushi place is how they manage their fish inventory, if it's off, make soup or chuck it.

They served me ikura that is a few days old. You can tell from it's plasticky texture and flat taste. They should've just made chawanmushi with that. Maybe they tried to age it seeing the current trend with aged meats.

I digress... and now to the good.

They make really good stock for the udon. Didn't stinge on the dashi. Some places in Brisbane serves you watery broth. This one was quite rich and very clear. Udon noodles were done al dente. We enjoyed it! But $7 for a small bowl of noodle soup with no meat, not even a fish cake... is quite steep.

Seasoned rice! Good on them. But the rice was slightly undercooked today. Might be a moisture or a time issue. But yeah, good overall.

Service was prompt and friendly. Koreans are known to be a bit curt and rough for service. But this restaurant's service was great!

Suggestions:

Chawanmushi to your menu, it's literally water, egg and your soup stock. Add a cubed chicken, ginko nut, mushroom, Naruto and aged ikura if you must. Swordfish Sweet prawns Fries (you have a deep fryer already. Low cost, can mark up! Mentaiko sauce Okonomiyaki Chilli mayo with cubed fresh salmon. Add mincrd Birdseye chilli. In Singapore, we call this spicy salmon. Make it a warship. Use fresher ingredients for your lobster salad ship. Don't use dry seafood, it didn't taste too good.

All the...

WE were here for dinner on a weekday. The moment we stepped in the restaurant, we were eager to try this new sushi place in West End. Unfortunately, the service and food we received was disappointing. Unlike other japanese restaurant, we did not feel welcomed, the staffs was impolite and quiet. Lack of training and passion might be the reason behind this poor customer service for dinner. Also, we sat in the middle of restaurant next to a staff that constantly washing dishes, making the atmosphere unpleasant. Food-wise, I can't believe that the quality for an average $5 per plate sushi was such a disappointment. We ordered some nigiri (~$4), raw fish was alright but the rice was cold, options was limited too. Another 3 aburi (torched sushi) served lacked of torched flavour, the sushi maker only torches each aburi for about 3-4 secs (too quick). We also tried 3 premium plates, a scallop cheesy volcano sushi, where all 4 pieces glued together in the middle; a soft shell crab roll, it appeared to be a jumbo size (not written in menu) and fell apart like items on shelf during earthquake; a salmon California roll, texture-wise it needs a cucumber (crunchy texture) to contrast other soft texture. After I finished my meal, I sat for another 10 minutes to evaluate the sushi maker skills. Here I would like to point out few mistakes, The sushi rice was not kept warm, as cold sushi does not stick well to each other, it was over-compressed by the maker into hard sushi ball. For sushi roll, same mistake happened where the rice was pressed too hard and flattened onto the nori, resulting in a texture-less sushi rice roll. The technique using sushi maki mat was not entirely accurate and the flow was not professional. Overall, it was not a pleasant sushi dining experience. IF the restaurant management does not reflect on this, I would not re-visit...

I always eat at this restaurant because of how good the food is and at first I thought the staff were kind but I was appalled by the behavior I faced by a racist, horrible customer and how the staff did nothing about it.

They recently have a new guy who works here, and when I asked for a takeaway he didn’t bring a box so I was not sure what to do and proceeded to take my plate to the takeout till. Suddenly, the rude Karen a customer YELLS at me saying “you can’t just walk out of the restaurant!! Sit back down.” And I was so taken aback. I put down my plate and stared at the staff in awe, they proceed to not react and one of them gives me the stink-eye (not recognizing a long term customer) and asks if I want a take out box to which I say yes. I do. BECAUSE I ASKED FOR ONE JUST A MINUTE AGO BUT YOUR NEW EMPLOYEE DID NOTHING. I felt so embarrassed, appalled, offended, and harassed.

I called them and stated what happened, to which the new guy working there simply said “yes we will think of a punishment for this person,” as if to mock me. I ask for any details of this person so I can report her for literally harassing me in public and the employee states “yes yes obviously what she did is wrong I will get back to you with her details” and no one ever got back to me for the past two days.

I feel unsafe in my own area with people like this, and a local restaurant takes no initiative and lets a young person get harassed this way. Ruined my day. Disgusting. Don’t know if I ever wanna come back here after...