Wasabi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Thunder Bay

I normally would not give a local restaurant a negative review, but in this instance I had no choice.

We went for the all you can eat sushi. The cost per person was $39.95.

I’ll start with the food. Because this is a restaurant that typically does a la carte sushi, I had high expectations for the quality of the fish. I was disappointed to find that the sushi was worse than grocery store sushi. The fish was not fresh, and the rolls were mostly rice. We were disappointed by our greyish brown salmon, and the careless presentation of the rolls (i.e falling apart).

The all you can eat menu is very limited. If you don’t like imitation crab, you will struggle to find any rolls to eat.

We are typically big fans of sushi, and not picky eaters at all. We found it difficult to find many popular rolls on the menu. For example, there were no regular salmon or spicy salmon rolls offered, which are staples at most AYCE sushi spots.

While we were understanding and patient with wait staff, considering that the AYCE menu is new, the service was quite poor. A number of the dishes we ordered never made it to our table, despite numerous reminders that they were missing.

We were limited to 90 minutes for the all you can eat, and waited the entire time without receiving about 1/3 total dishes. We were brought the bill before we had even completed our meal.

The wait staff failed to check in on us. Our waters were not refilled once, despite being finished within the first 30 mins of our meal.

All of this was quite frustrating, but we might have overlooked it if it had not been for our extremely negative experience with the owner of the restaurant. For context, the menu indicates that you will be charged $3 for each piece of sushi that you do not eat. At one point, we were brought three orders of one specific roll, when we had only ordered one. We immediately brought this to our servers attention, as we did not want to be charged for the additional rolls we knew we would not be eating. Initially, the server pushed back and told us that we had ordered these rolls, but later retracted and acknowledged that it was her mistake when she reviewed the order form with us and saw that we did in fact only ordered one of this particular roll.

We thought the issue had been resolved and carried on with our meal, until the owner himself came to our table to discuss this with us. The owner indicated that we would be charged for the rolls because we did not eat them. My partner very politely tried to explain to the owner that we had reviewed the order form with the server, who confirmed that we only ordered one roll, but received three. The owner cut her off, told her she was wrong, and said that we would be charged for the rolls anyway.

We asked the owner to double check with the server, because she assured us that we would not be charged for these rolls, as they we had not ordered them and they were made in error. The owner came back about 10 minutes later and said ‘our mistake, you won’t be charged for those rolls’. There was no apology from the owner for cutting us off and telling us that we were wrong, in a generally accusatory manner. Overall, we had to rehash this issue with staff four times while trying to eat our meal.

My partner was quite upset with how the owner spoke to her, and we were disappointed that he made no attempts to apologize or make the situation right.

At the end of the ninety minutes, we were brought a bill despite not receiving half of the food we ordered. When we expressed to the owner that we were dissatisfied with our experience and frustrated with the way he treated us, he continued to make no efforts to remedy the situation. In the end, our bill came to $83, and the only food that we got to eat was an order or edamame and 3-4 rolls, despite ordering much more.

If you are looking to have all you can eat sushi, I would absolutely not recommend this spot and would advise you to go elsewhere for better service and better...

Would not eat there again, but the atmosphere earned it 1* and the service staff bought them another 2*.

First impression is good, nicely lit, several curtained private booths, open booths appear cozy and intimate, myself, and every single person I saw while there was greeted immediately upon entry, and addressed when leaving.

Food: Well, my mother always said if you can't say anything nice, you shouldn't say anything at all - so, I guess they get some small credit for actually using crab and not artificial crab sticks. Other than that, bland, bland, bland. I had both kitchen and sushi items (including maki, tamaki, nigiri) from the rice to the sauces I stick with my crab comment.

The real saving grace is very definitely the staff, (front of house that is, servers and sushi makers, pretty sure not actually itamae based on quality of sushi - rice is sooo important in good sushi - my opinion of the chef/kitchen manager, whoever is in charge of the food is, I'm sure, implied above) As mentioned everyone was greeted immediately on arrival and upon parting, even if someone was taking phone orders or packing to-go meals.

Service to myself, but also to the other patrons, walk-ins, take-out and telephone was exceptional by all the serving staff. All were personable, polite and neat.They were also organized and quick to help one another, with excellent communication between themselves, and both aspects of the kitchen. Very big kudos to the owner/FOH manager, trainer or whomever is responsible for that.

The star by far is the server Courtney. Her service skills are excellent as is her attitude toward business. There was an issue (as there will always be in any business from time to time) with a take out order while I was there and while she had not taken the order, packaged it, delivered it, or taken the complaint call, she very much took ownership of the situation and while others (that were actually involved) were dithering she got what was needed and despite having tables of her own, rectified it. She also, (very politely, and sotto vocce, so as not to embarrass anyone) corrected the other staff about discretion and reminded them that other customers could see/hear as it is an open serving area.

I've said time and again to staff over the years whatever job you have, you may not come in with a suit and a tie on, but that makes you no less of a professional. This is a young woman that has, or at least is on her way to, having that. She should very much be working on pursuing an active career in management. I don't mean the Boston Pizza/ franchise type of management either where you get a card and permission to discount meals for other staff and call yourself management but have no growth potential and the extra buck or two an hour will never in a life time cover the tips they lose in a year of not serving. I don't know her and she may have little or no knowledge of how to handle things in back but in 30+ years in the industry, it's been my experience that if she needs some mentoring in that area, any good owner or gm should be able to provide that but you can't train work ethic or 'give a damn' and she already has those and the service aspect of it down. With some attention and mentoring on operations if she needs it, she could be making someone a lot of money for the years between now and when she's ready to go her own way. Someone should definitely snap her up and see to ensuring she has the skills to take over your FOH before moving up, or at the very least serving somewhere that the bottle of wine ordered to start costs what my meal, beer and tip did and be putting away some serious money for whatever she's going to pursue if management isn't something she has the desire...

When this restaurant first opened it was really really good and became one of my favourite places to eat and I have a good memory of my baby trying there miso soup. She practically took my hand off to keep the spoon in her mouth she thought the miso soup was so good.

But the last time I went there with my grandmother the food was very gross and not the quality it used to be. The miso soup used to be very very very good.. now it’s really really really gross… and the sushi rolls I got where nasty to it tasted like someone put mayo on cat food and rolled it up in a sushi roll..

To be honest the grocery store sushi tastes 100000 times better and it’s cheaper.. witch is sad because I really used to like there food.. now it’s not very good at all. Feels like a waste of money to pay that high cost for food that tastes so bad.. you call tell they are using cheaper ingredients and they taste gross…

the waitress was nice and good at her job and very attentive. But some of the other staff seemed like I was unwelcome in and made me feel uncomfortable. They did not talk to us but they where looking at us in a way that felt uncomfortable and I felt unwanted and tense and seemed like they did not want us there…that’s how I felt. Not welcoming at all. It felt like he was giving me annoyed disgusted dirty looks.. and the way he was moving around seemed like he was angry. I honestly felt uneasy for a time..I don’t know if he was was the manager or owner or what but he made it feel very uncomfortable to be there.

used to really like and love this place but now I don’t think I will ever come back to be honest..

It was a while ago a few months? At first I was not going to say anything but the more I thought about it, it started to bother me. And I thought maybe my feed back might help. I don’t normally complain or make reviews.

The guy there I don’t know if he was having a bad day or what but it was uncomfortable. But the female blond lady who was serving us was very nice and good at her job. It was lunch and when we got there it was not very busy maybe one other table was seated. but a few people came in after us. We sat at a booth table, I don’t remember what my grandma ordered but myself got miso soup and 3 different types of sushi rolls that I shared with her. And to be honest they did not taste very good. Not the way they used to when you guys first opened.

Kinda makes me sad because I really liked it. And had a good memory of bringing my baby loving your miso soup so much she would not let go of my hand and not letting me are the spoon back to get more broth for her. Lol she would cry a little and go momma mine. And held on to my hand with a baby death grip. And when she first tasted it her eyes went all big and sparkly and gripped on to my hand hard right away. She was turning one years old at the time. That was when you guys first opened. It was like that cute video with the baby trying ice cream for the first time when she grabs the cone after her eyes go all big only with miso soup. Lol I wish I...