Wild Wasabi Signature — Restaurant in Bellevue

Update 3/25: we've visited several times now and multiple staff have recognized us. Maybe we go too much?! The food is delicious, what can I say! The The manager has offered complimentary dessert and many apologies/thanks during any slow service, short staff, if there's an issue with someone's satisfaction at the table, etc. He is a great guy and we appreciate his personable hospitality. I do recommend calling ahead to consider a reservation. We have gone twice more on a weekend with a 30-min wait time when we didn't call ahead. Sometimes they will tell you there is no wait and sometimes they have a large party or rush. Don't take your chances and have to wait hours to eat, just call ahead.

Original 10/2024: From start to finish, Wild Wasabi was amazing. It was our first visit since the rebrand (? Maybe not a rebrand but it was a different, disappointing, hibachi restaurant previously) and we will definitely return to Wild Wasabi! The host helped us with the new parking instructions. Our server explained each menu and even asked if it was our first time, if we knew how to order- but not in a condescending way! It was always a very pleasant interaction and she made sure we got refills and cleared our plates as needed when we finished each "course". We visited on a Saturday evening after 7pm and had less than a 10 minute wait for a hibachi table. The staff were all well presented and attentive. Of course, you get a full show during your hibachi Chef's cooking and our Chef was very personable and talented. We chatted about how long it took him to learn certain tricks and he inquired if we were celebrating anything or just having a date. Our food was cooked to perfection. We were previously avid fans of Mizu hibachi restaurants but have been severely disappointed in the quality of our food over the last year or so. This was not the case at Wild Wasabi! I cannot think of one complaint from the starter soup+salad, hibachi main course, nor the sushi roll we ordered. The portion received is well worth the cost. Within our meals we had steak, chicken, shrimp and tofu, along with fried rice and veggies. It was all extremely flavorful. Nothing was overcooked and the roll presentation was out of a magazine! We were able to sub the veggies in one meal for double rice, were given plenty of extra sauce (we are sauce junkies!) and even sauces & and bag for our to-go boxes.

My only peeve was the noise/interruptions. Of course it's expected when dining out but it felt like a lot... There was some sort of sport game or TV action on the other side (Assuming that's a bar area? We didn't visit or inquire.) where frequent group exclamations took over the attention of the entire restaurant, even while a whole fired up grill and fan are booming in your face as your chef cooks. There were also 4 birthday celebrations in the 1 hour visit we had. It's not a 15 second happy birthday song either... it is a whole drawn out performance with loud drums where multiple staff members participate each time. It definitely interrupts conversations abruptly and gets annoying very quickly. Expect...

Tried out Wild Wasabi Signature for the first time this past weekend.

Food: We got wayyyy too much food when we came here haha. For my drink, I got a Mai Tai and it was fruity and sweet. It didn't taste strong at first but the more I drank it the more I understood how much alcohol was in it. For our appetizers, we got the Miso Soup with salad on the side, Gyoza, and the Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura. I really liked the Miso Soup, the Gyoza, Tempura, and Salad were okay. For our main dishes, we ordered three rolls and two hibachi dishes: the Philly Roll, Shrimp Tempura Roll, Wild Wasabi Fire, Spicy White Meat Chicken, and the Suki Yaki. The hibachi dishes (Spicy White Meat Chicken and the Suki Yaki) kind of saved the day because we weren't really a fan of any of the sushi. The we took the Tempura Roll to go but left the Philly Roll because we really didn't enjoy it. The Suki Yaki was my favorite dish we ordered, the noodles were buttered very generously and I also really liked the steak that came with it. I would order this again if I came back! We also got fried rice that I never tried because I was way too full haha. For dessert, we got the Strawberry Cheesecake and it was not that good. I also got a little birthday ice cream and preferred this over the cheesecake.

Service: Service was okay and pretty fast. The hibachi chef was my favorite person to mingle with and he was pretty funny and super talented. There was one point where he said "choo choo" while scraping a stack of onions across the stovetop and said "it's the light rail" and this cracked my boyfriend and I up. One thing I didn't like was that our main server was aware that we were celebrating my birthday but didn't mention that I would get a free dessert until after we ordered another dessert. Additionally, he didn't really explain how the hibachi worked so we ended up ordering a lot more food than we wanted. That's partially on us for not asking more questions at the beginning of dinner though.

Atmosphere: Honestly, we probably chose the worst time to come LOL. There was a high school homecoming the night we went so the place was packed with super loud high schoolers and it took away from the dining experience (not the restaurant's fault though). We eyed other parties while we were there who also seemed annoyed by this. The noise was pretty hard to ignore. Other than that though, the interior is pretty cool. I think that the lighting is a bit bright, dimming the restaurant a bit would make it feel a bit more posh.

TLDR: Despite the food being just okay, my boyfriend and I still had a great time! I would say stick to the hibachi options, sushi...

Decided to try this place as we were looking for Tokyo steakhouse but apparently this place took over several years ago.

Food- 3.5/5

Sushi - phenomenal to say the least. I ordered the creamy scallop roll. The rice was cooked wonderfully and all of the fish and ingredients were very fresh. As an “appetizer”, this isn’t easily shareable and can be messy if you do unless you want to eat it with a fork. I suggest eating it yourself.

Bacon wrapped scallops - very good flavor and not over cooked

Hibachi - I had high hopes for the hibachi after we had sushi and appetizers. we ordered NY steak, shrimp, and scallops. The onion soup was decent. The fried rice was fairly flavorless and was actually crunchy like the rice wasn’t fully cooked. The steak was ok but also pretty flavorless. The scallops and shrimp were cooked well and tasted good. All in all a bit of a let down in this area

Dipping sauces- this usually makes or breaks it for me when trying a hibachi place. The plum sauce was not good at all. Yum yum sauce was ok but certainly not great. I felt like the cook didn’t want to give me more.

Service 5/5 - we didn’t order any alcoholic beverages, but they kept refilling our water glasses promptly and were very attentive. We did come in an hour before closing and we were like 1/3 tables so I can’t speak for the service when they are busy.

Atmosphere 5/5 - this is a big space. They still have their Halloween candy jar jump up in January mixed in with Christmas decorations, but other than that the place is decorated nicely to appease the snobby rich people who inhabit Bellevue.

Another guy was crying on his review that the place is hard to find. I’m not a city boy and I dread coming to any type of city and the place wasn’t that hard to find if you have a half functioning brain and don’t rely on your smart phone to do all of the work.

I would return but would probably only eat sushi and try...