Wassabi On Fire — Restaurant in Fresno

This place is racist or at the very least prejudice and discriminatory …which I do not say lightly because I’ve never said this about a restaurant but what other explanation is there when one experiences the following…

We walk in (party of four-we are POC) sign ourselves in…and then different groups of white people having a party of 2 or 3 come in after us but are getting seated before us, my husband got up to see if maybe they were getting seated because their party was smaller but then saw that they were getting seated in tables meant for four people and told me, I think we are being discriminated…At first I thought, that can’t be, and said to my husband, “maybe they have a reservation.” So we still sat their waiting to be called to be seated but then saw the same thing happen again, a group of white people walk in, are greeted, and then got seated. My husband got up and went to speak to the hostess (tall white blond woman) if those people had a reservation or the people before them, and she said no, and he told her, well we’ve been waiting for a long time now and have not been seated. The response was that they had forgotten about us …how can you forget about a group of four people sitting right in front of you? We had our two young girls with us who are pretty friendly and were actually interacting with all the white people that got seated before we did and by default we also interacted with them because they told us how cute our girls are…so how is it that the hostess could see them and not us?

When I spoke to the manager he said the same thing, that the hostess must have forgotten about us, and I asked him, “isn’t the purpose of list that you had us sign into so you know who came first and not forget about people?” He responded, “yes, but that maybe the hostess thought that we were part of a large group.” Why is there an assumption that we are part of a larger group? I ask the manager, “but you have a list that you’re supposed to use and follow, so shouldn’t you call the name of the person (in my case, Kenia party of four) and when you call them, then you can see if whole party is there or not, or if they are waiting for more people?” He responded yes, but that it wasn’t discrimination, that it was a mistake. This manager had nothing good to respond to us but to make excuses for the terrible behavior, he didn’t even think to say, “I’m so sorry we will do a better job at training our staff” if his excuse was that what occurred was due to incompetence…I actually said to him that they need to do better in training their staff if this is supposed to be an oversight …because truly, how is it that you have a group of 4 people sign in and “forget about them” when they are right in front of you, and then proceed to sit a bunch of of other groups of people (that come in after them) before them? Believe me, we don’t have any special powers to make ourselves invisible for the hostess to not be able to see us sitting right in front of her to forget about us.

We wasted 30 minutes of our lives there and when we spoke up got nothing but excuses and no remedy or any attempt to make amends for what we had experienced.

Glad to say we did not wait any longer wasting our time to give our money to a restaurant that immediately sees white people and sit them, even though a POC were there before them. Like I told the manager, we had seen their restaurant and were really looking forward to eating there but we will not give our money to a restaurant that treats people in this manner and when given the opportunity to do something about the situation, they opt to make excuses that make no sense, don’t make any attempt to make amends or even think proactively of what to do to make sure this doesn’t...

Okay so I've been here twice so the questions that we are asked are just not accurate however it is a very nice restaurant I have eaten both at the Teppanyaki and at the sushi bar the sushi bar is a little different than some I'm used to but the food was excellent the fatty tuna belly Toro was in stock a little expensive and the best I've had in years I was so happy! I ate about 15 different items from this menu over my two visits some are Sushi items small I also at the Teppanyaki had the fillet dinner number eight it was excellent I ordered the meat rare but hot inside my Teppanyaki cook delivered without any hesitancy or or failure the meat was perfect it was actually some of the best fillet I've had in the Fresno area! The rice was really good the one exception I would like would be to add mushrooms to my steak next time although that was probably an ordering error because I was dependent on previous experiences where the mushrooms were automatic that is not the case here so if you like mushrooms with your steak and you want them with the meat instead of the vegetables you may want to add them on as you order! I gave this five stars because I haven't seen this high level of energy in the Fresno Market in a long time the place is hopping it's kind of like something from the past it's got a good vibe everybody seems to be happy working there even though they look a little tired and like they've been through the ringer for the last 3 years which they probably have it's been tough for these people working in the food industry be kind to them if they make a mistake don't chastise them just ask for what you want don't be a jerk about it this place is not about negative Vibes in any way so get there have a great time and enjoy it wasabi is a really great place Wasabi on fire...

1st time visit. But it will be our last. Here's why.

We were seated quickly. However the menus were all just shoved at us.

We ordered and the menus were left on the small table throughout lunch. As were the used dishes from completed appetizers. I will say that it was not busy, 4 tables including ours and two intoxicated older ladies at the sushi bar. The saki must have been good.

The waitress was upset because I asked her to repeat herself after she mumbled something about silverware. A male waiter came to clearly say what the waitress said. Asking if I needed a fork when I was using chopsticks.

I'm a bit hard of hearing. Excuse me for a disability you can't see.

The food looked good when it arrived. Actually it was mediocre.

Not seasoned well, the steamed rice on my beef teriyaki box tasted a bit like mold.

The veggie tempura was soooo greasy it dripped everywhere and literally fell apart on the chopsticks, and made a huge mess if you tried to eat it with your hands.

The sushi on the other hand was well prepared and was the only reason they got a 2 star rating.

I'm my opinion, they need to train the waitstaff to be customer oriented and actually check on customers during their meal.

The cooks should know more oil is not better when it comes to cooking, especially tempura. Remember light and airy batter not loose and drippy and limp..

When I go out with my family and spend my hard earned money on food. I expect it to be good, I expect promot FRIENDLY service. I understand being busy and that does slow things down but it wasn't the case here. So no excuse for the bad service.

And if a waitress is having a bad day, don't blame the customer. We didn't cause it to happen.

I hope you have a better experience...