Wasabi Sushi & Noodles — Restaurant in Mobile

I should preface this by saying that my fiance and I are from California, and have eaten Japanese food in many states, including Alaska, where I've had the best, freshest Japanese meals, so we are basing our opinions on this past experience.

My fiance and I ate at Wasabi around 4:00 PM on a Wednesday. There was one woman on staff in front, and at least one gentleman on staff, who I assume was the chef. The woman was brisk and wasn't particularly friendly. I ordered the beef udon soup and my fiance ordered chicken teriyaki, which came with a bowl of salad and a bowl of miso soup. The ingredients in all of the items were absolutely superb: high quality and fresh. The salad was made of crisp, fresh romaine with a sweet orange dressing, which I think was made of carrot. The miso soup was of excellent quality with small cubes of soft tofu. As for the main dishes, whereas the ingredients were exemplary, we did not find the overall recipes to be particularly impressive.

The udon soup arrived in a large bowl. The udon broth tasted much the same as the miso soup, perhaps with a beef stock added, and contained a couple of large slices of beef, a few smaller slices, a handful of udon noodles, half a hard-boiled egg (which was cold in the center), some lightly cooked spinach leaves, and what seemed to be uncooked bits of romaine: the same lettuce that had made up the salad. I did not feel as though it were worth the $10 charged.

The teriyaki on the chicken had a light, fresh flavor, which wasn't at all unpleasant, nor was it particularly memorable. It was served with a bowl of quality sticky rice. The oddest part of this meal was the garnishes. The chicken was served sliced on top of a very large pile of onion slivers, which seemed to be very lightly sautéed. At the top of the plate there were about five pieces of lightly steamed broccoli, cooked so as still to have a bit of a crunch. As with the udon soup, my fiance did not think that the plate was worth the $14 it cost.

Furthermore, we found the atmosphere to be very tense. The waitress seemed to be in a poor mood, and perhaps irritated with the male employee (chef?). The chairs were uncomfortable for both of us to sit on: I have chronic sciatica and my fiance has a lower back injury. Perhaps half way through the meal, a Taylor Swift CD began playing at an uncomfortably loud volume. The only other diners, who had come in after us, didn't linger long before leaving.

I know that this restaurant has received many good reviews, so it seems to me that they specialize in sushi / sashimi. If you aren't in the mood for that in particular, I wouldn't bother with the remainder...

This restaurant used to be really nice but over the years it has gone down. I just ordered takeout from them. All I ordered was soup and a seaweed salad and they took forever to wait on me when I showed up to pick up my order, the guy making the sushi was the only one at the front and he never acknowledged my presence or called for anyone to assist me. Finally someone came up there to assist me and she barely parted her lips. In the meantime, there were no customers in the restaurant except one table of four men. What made it even worse was the low health code rating that was on display. They scored an 84 or 86?!! And it smelled and felt dingy in there. I wanted to just give them the food back and walk out when I saw that rating but I was just ready to go. I definitely would say, this place used to be great but now,...

I've eaten at Wasabi for over 6 years and never had a bad meal. I've had a lot of sushi in Mobile and I would argue theirs is the best in the city. They don't skimp on quality of the fish and the artistry of their sushi roller is always stunning.

If you're craving sushi and have a big appetite, go for their Chirashi. It's a large soup bowl filled with a variety of sashimi on a bed a sushi rice with seaweed salad and egg. Its sure to satisfy and very decently priced. Note that this is all raw fish so don't get this if you don't like or can't eat raw sushi.

This is truly a hidden gem for excellent sushi in Mobile. I highly recommend any sushi lover to...