Robata Wasa — Restaurant in Irvine

Excellent Food. Excellent Service. The decor was very modern, making use of Traditional Japanese elements, but constructed of modern materials and contemporary techniques. Think natural wood shapes and facades but covered in a modern wallpaper or endgrain wood branches layered to form an entire accent wall. (See Pics Attached).

I'm using talk-to-text to write this review so please pardon any grammatical errors or confusing writing style... I'm not writing, I'm talking.

This theme, Traditional Japanese fused with Modern Ingredients and Cutting Edge Flavor Profiles, prepared using contemporary techniques carries over through the menu. I ordered 6 robata skewers, a couple of salads, we had scallops and salmon as well as the Miso cod.

I would say the winner was the satsuma roasted Japanese yam, purple in color bold and flavor much more enlightened than say a taro root. The yam was sitting in a luscious pool of honey butter and bordered on dessert level sweetness...but how great is that for an appetizer.... sneaking in a dessert (shhh no one will know).

The Robata was simple, fresh, high quality and could have almost achieved elegant had they not all come on the same plate OR had they had a been served with a couple more accoutrements. alAlthough the traditional spicy rub, raw wasabi, and Japanese mustard accompanied the plate, I felt that they could have used a little bit more sauce or something with them to really heighten the flavor profiles.

Don't get me wrong, the Robata was a Class Act. Indulging in the beef tongue, the prime beef with garlic chips, and the negini (chicken layered with scallion) on a skewer was delicious and eating with your hands is always fun. I do recall them being a little bit too room temperature when we got them and it didn't seem like it had taken that long. nevertheless I would return for the robot alone so please allow my criticisms to be interpreted as nothing other than very constructive.

Another dish worth noting separately was the Smelt Robata. This was a large skewered Smelt unlike the popcorn calamari-like varietal you might find in traditional Greek restaurants where they're battered and fried. Here the Smelt was both tender enough and fresh enough that the bones would simply chew away... filled with flavor and definitely delicious.

One thing that I thought of and I'm wondering if this even exists in Japan, but it would certainly be something that would fit in perfectly with the menu here...because of the fact that the chef is willing to be somewhat daring and unique..., was when I asker for the Smelt to be prepared tempura style.

When you think about it when ordering smelt at any good Greek restaurant, it's always flash fried in a like flour batter similar to Tempura anyway and I think there might be something there. A dish of six to nine Smelt as a larger $16 appetizer prepared with tempura batter and served with traditional Japanese accoutrements family style.. Yummy. The Smelt in a Tempura Style... that would be (another) winner.

I would have stayed for dessert but I imagined asking the owner where she would direct her own family for dessert and no question it would be Afters Ice Cream for a milky bun filled with the combination of "dark chocolate matter", a brownie batter flavor... and peanut butter s'mores, a flavor that needs no introduction. That milky bun was definitely the ultimate dessert to have after such a delicious meal at Robata Wasa.

Finally, since I know that this matters to the owners of the business and since I have my own business that uses the internet for support and good reviews, I must say that I would always choose this restaurant over any other restaurant at the Irvine spectrum, including another unnamed yet decent Japanese restaurant.

Robata Wasa is the Best Restaurant in the Irvine Spectrum. My wife and I were raving about it all night long after we came home and threw out the Clint Eastwood movie we saw right afterwards. I'm about to watch a genuinely made for a fun evening and a memorable...

My first time in for Happy Hour and I was relatively smitten over the cocktails, presentation and sushi selections. My only gripe was the lack of consistent service, but I gave them a pass since it was a relatively new restaurant and maybe, they were still working out the kinks.

With a group of three, I met up with a few friends to catch up and grab some light bites. But first, we ordered ourselves a first round: Classic Highball + Baba No Kosui. The baba no kosui was very alcohol forward, but I loved the citrus finish. It was a nice, dry balance.

For food, we ordered a few items to share - serrano yellowtail carpaccio, spicy tuna crispy rice, garlic edamame and Naruto roll. The carpaccio is personally one of my faves and it was a definite re-order when I recently went. The yellowtail was topped with fresh serrano chilis and pickled beets, then drizzled with yuzu ponzu & herb oil.

I was in for a surprise when I received the Naruto Rainbow roll. It wasn't wrapped in seaweed and it had no rice! It was tuna, yellowtail, salmon and crab mix wrapped in cucumber lying in a sea of ponzu. However, the ponzu was very light and complemented the roll really well. Very enjoyable!

On my most recent visit for lunch service, there's definite room for improvement. First of all, the hostess at the time was sort of awkward and hard to hear. She just pointed us to a table and went back to her station, so we were just like, okayyyy. The servers also seemed really busy even though there were just a few parties in the house. They were almost nowhere to be seen for long periods of time and hard to flag if you needed something.

Aside from service, combination lunch boxes are small portioned and limiting. For $19, my boyfriend got the pick 2 bento: chicken thigh + 4pc crunchy roll. The set comes with rice, spring mix salad and edamame, but the portions are pretty small in comparison to other places we frequent. It didn't feel worth it to get a bento and the lack of service on the day we went didn't help either haha.

Doesn't look like I'll be a regular after this experience, but it was nice to try them for both...

This is our second time here and I'm disappointed that we had the experience we did. We got there and the host gave us an estimate of 30 mins. We went back 30 mins later. I asked the male host and the female host was looking up, got a phone call and then walked away. The male host ended up having someone approach him to ask him to change a phone number and then had to go back to helping me and telling me it would be another 15 mins and that we would be seated after another couple. They confirmed that couple would be seated next. The couple got seated and we saw 3 other parties getting seated so I went back after 15 mins and was told all the reservations were coming in and it would be a little bit longer. At this point I'm frustrated because reservations are booked in advance and that should have been considered before providing us with an estimate. I am also frustrated that the expectation wasn't set and no apology was offered. I stated that we were told something and something else happened. At this point the hostess is annoyed with me and it was very evident when she seated us and just left the menu on the table and walked away, rolling her eyes, acting super annoyed. I'm not asking to be seated exactly when you promised, but I am expecting that you communicate with me so I don't have to keep coming back to see what's going on. You can be proactive, especially since I am standing right outside.

I have never, ever seen a hostess treat a guest like this and although our waitress was really nice and the food was fine, I would not come back. Like others have suggested, for the price point, I would expect higher quality sushi but you pay for the convenience...