Wasabi's Sushi — Restaurant in Nashville-Davidson

I visited Wasabi’s Sushi/Cascades American Café while staying at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center for a work convention. I had an early dinner with some coworkers on our last day at the hotel prior to leaving Nashville. We had a pleasant experience, with generally good food and impeccable service.

Some of my coworkers ordered burgers from the Cascades menu, and myself and a couple others opted for sushi. It’s nice you have the option to choose both while dining at one location, as (unfortunately for them) plenty of people don’t prefer sushi. Between the two menus, there would be something for anyone (although the sushi menu is somewhat small). The coworkers who chose burgers said they were good. We started with Edamame, which with two orders was plenty for the five of us. I chose the Spicy Tuna roll and the Crazy Ari roll. The Spicy Tuna was okay, but a little on the fishy (in a bad way) side and thus I didn’t finish it…kind of disappointing. The Crazy Ari (recommended by our excellent server) was delicious, especially the sauce.

As far as options within the Gaylord, Wasabi’s/Cascades is a solid choice. It was definitely pricey, but the portions were decent, and the service was excellent. I would maybe recommend sticking with the Special Roll options. The ambiance was very nice; waterfalls all around, and really nice tables, some in cozy little nooks nestled beneath the rocks of the botanical garden. I would imagine these would be especially nice for drinks in the evening.

I would generally go with 3, 3.5 stars, but I bumped it up to 4 based on the...

First, when we were seated we were informed that we had to use our phone to scan a card to pull the menu up...we decided to leave our phones in the room and just disconnect, but before I could ask the server for a physical menu they walked off....I understand this is unusual for people not to have a phone on them but a menu should still be offered. I also understand this was possibly implemented due to covid, and they were trying to improve sanitary practices which is why the next couple of things mentioned were bothersome. This particular server also grabbed my sons straw from his empty drink,and placed it in his new one, and booped my daughter on the nose after bussing a table nearby. I was disappointed to see that the menu had about 5 sushi roll options, tuna/salmon being the only actual fish, with maybe 2 other sushi choices (a poke bowl, and seaweed salad) I didn't understand how this spot had sushi in the name but didn't have a variety. The sushi we did get tasted amazing, and of course the atmosphere was amazing with the location being in middle of the atrium. If the service had been better the pricing of the food could have been justified, maybe we went on a bad night, or the pandemic effected...

After reading all the reviews on the various review sites, we were very skeptical about this place. But were willing to give it a chance, and we are glad we did. My daughter and I both had sushi and it was extremely fresh with great flavor. Yes, the other reviews speak about the odd size pieces, but that didn't bother us. The service was wonderful. I have to eat gluten free, and they were very accommodating and brought tamari "soy" sauce instead of regular soy sauce. The waiter was very friendly and attentive. Yes, the prices are higher than if you are eating at a restaurant that is not in a resort. However, the fish was very fresh, the overall size of the rolls were standard, so I expected to pay more. I'm not sure how they have such a low score, unless it is mostly based on price comparisons with restaurants that have more thru traffic. We will definitely eat here again. Pictured is the King Crab roll (real crab), and the...