Wasabi — Restaurant in California

I've never eaten here, but I feel that I need to point out that this restaurant's menu is pretty much reverse Engrish. It's like someone didn't know Japanese google translated a bunch of words and hope that non-Japanese speakers won't notice. Like, if you're looking for a place that's pretending to be Japanese, this is it.

For example: Specialty Rolls 特産 That's somewhat passable. 特産 means local specialty. Does it have to do with rolls? No. Is it more suited to the "Chef's Specialty" section? Yes.

Sūpu 麺 Sūpu is literally the katakana for the English word "soup". So they wrote the Japanese pronunciation for an English word... For noodles. That's what 麺 is. Noodles.

Sarada サラダ Like soup, "sarada" is the Japanese pronunciation for the English word salad. サラダ is the literally how they write the English word "salad". With that said, "sunomono" (酢の物) literally means "vinegared thing[s]". So, pickled things. I'm pretty sure most Japanese people wouldn't call pickled daikon a salad nor would an American call pickles a salad.

Anotre ご飯と Anotre is "Entrée". This one took me a minute to figure out. They took a French word, got the katakana for it, and translated just the sound into English. The Japanese just says "with rice". They somehow translated "Entrée" to "with rice". Which wouldn't be bad considering this menu section has donburi's. But consider this, there IS a Japanese word for entrée. They either use "メイン" (main) for main dish or 主菜 which is literally main dish (as opposed to main food). And no, -don's and -ju's are usually not considered main dishes in Japanese culture.

Nomimono 飲み物 It means drinks/beverages. Just write drinks or beverages.

Japanese whiskey 乾杯 The kanji says "kanpai". Like what you say when you drink. Literally "dry your cup". Not 酒 (sake). So what did they use for sake?

Sake 目的 They somehow translated alcohol to "the purpose of". "Mokuteki" (目的) literally means "the purpose or goal of ."

So, to recap. If you're an English speaker, you'd have no idea what "anotre", "nomimono" or "Sūpu" means. Rendering the menu section headers useless. If you only read Japanese and not English, you won't be able to order because the headers are often wrong or misleading and the rest of the menu has no Japanese. Making the menu useless.

I imagine there's no real Japanese person working here. This is the restaurant equivalent of someone speaking mock Japanese to you hoping you think they're an authority on Japanese culture. Anyone Japanese child or first year Japanese language student or just anyone with a Japanese to English dictionary will know this is wrong.

Eat here, if you think it's good. I imagine the service staff has nothing to do with the menu. I just want people to know when they're...

I went to this restaurant on a Friday night and was disappointed. First off we were treated poorly by the hostess, who told us our table was ready but then had us wait so they can wipe it down before we sat. Our waiter was nice, he took our order and left. We received our appetizers the chicken dumplings were good but our fried calamari was terrible! It was tough to chew and the batter was burnt. Another waitress arrived at our table brought out my food and another dish in her hand and kept repeating the name of the roll to us in a rude manner even though we had already told her no one ordered that, then just walked away. The rest of the food took so long to come out. We kept getting different waiters so each of them were confused about what was already asked for. I asked a waiter if he could please bring wasabi and soy sauce out, he brought only three sides of wasabi (we were a party of four) and said that he did not want to bring more out because people just waist it, he never brought the soy sauce we had to ask another waiter for it. We asked one of the waiters to turn the outside heaters he agreed to do so, after about 10 min he came back to our table and said he needed to run down to grab a new propane tank (which he could’ve done during the time he was gone) we said that was fine and he left again. We waited another 15 min or so before he came back and said it was going to take about 25 min for him to grab the tank, im guessing he didn’t want to do it so he was expecting us to say never mind. It was cold out so we said that was fine and he then walked away. My sister ordered a tuna roll that came with crunchy onion pieces on top, the onions were burnt looked like they had been fried in old dirty oil. We finished our meal and the heater was finally turned on (too late) our original waiter came back and we asked for the bill. He brought it out to us and left, we waited about 10 min for someone to come grab our debit card, no one came. So we walked up to the hostess so he could do so (he did in a rude way). Overall food was okay but service was terrible! Don’t waste time or money here. Bubba gump will be...

I want to be straightforward: this restaurant is masquerading as a Japanese restaurant. Let’s start with the menu—it’s shocking to see they’ve simply written 'Kanji' for sake. For those unaware, 'Kanji' refers to Chinese characters, not sake, and this glaring mistake is obvious even to someone who isn’t Japanese. It’s clear there’s no authentic Japanese influence here.

Now onto the food. The Yuzu Margarita was a disappointment—a salty and unsavory drink that tasted neither of yuzu nor anything resembling a proper margarita. It was the shame of the day.

The shrimp tempura was another letdown. The shrimp were curly, a common mistake by those unfamiliar with proper tempura preparation. To make tempura correctly, you need to make small cuts along the shrimp’s belly to prevent it from curling. Even Costco manages to get their bulk tempura right, but this restaurant cannot.

The tonkotsu ramen was equally disappointing. We waited almost 30 minutes for our ramen, which is shockingly long for a dish that’s usually quick to prepare. Worse, during this time, we were completely ignored by the restaurant staff—no updates, no apologies, just a rude lack of care. When it finally arrived, the broth was watery, lacking the richness and creaminess that defines a good tonkotsu. The noodles were overcooked, and the bamboo shoots tasted like they came straight from a can. It felt like eating a bowl of rinse water with noodles.

To make matters worse, the staff placed the chopsticks vertically, pointing directly at other people. This is extremely disrespectful and rude in Japanese culture, as it violates basic chopstick etiquette. It’s another clear indication of their lack of understanding of Japanese dining traditions.

And finally, selling miso soup as a side dish feels like an insult to Japanese cuisine. I’d strongly recommend the restaurant owner take a trip to Japan to experience authentic Japanese food, learn the techniques, and understand the culture before labeling this establishment...