OC Wasabi — Restaurant in Ocean City

Run, don't skip, past OC Wasabi. It doesn't deserve your money, time or patience.

We were seated last night by a friendly male host around 8:13 pm. The atmosphere feels very old school Japanese dining, and we had a traditional table in a corner. That's where the meal rolled down a cliff.

We sat for 5...10... then 12 minutes as we witnessed who we assumed to be our server (Sona B), chatting with a nearby table about her kids, activities, their trip to Shenandoah, etc. I'm glad they were having a great talk, but at least a glass of water and acknowledgement of our existence would have been nice.

Thankfully, a woman in a flannel top (we assumed a manager) noticed and we heard her tell the server, "That table in the corner has been sitting for too long."

Sona came over and immediately asked what we wanted for dinner. (Good evening to you as well). This was now past 8:40 pm, the restaurant closes at 9:30 pm according to the Google page. We ordered three rolls, gyoza/dumplings and tofu teriyaki entree.

Food took forever. We weren't sure if it was because, once again, we watched our server talking with other tables for long periods of time and our food was actually ready, or if it's a slow kitchen. Our meal came out at 9:24 pm.

The rolls weren't presented well or very tasty, they fell apart and were simply thrown together with massive chunks of veggies, not nicely cut as usual sushi restaurants. The spicy mayo was good, actually had a great kick. The tofu teriyaki was a letdown for $21. Broccoli was soggy, the tofu wasn't fried long enough and just had sauce dropped on top of it, and the biggest portion of the meal was rice. And it was cold, but I don't know if that's because my meal sat from a slow kitchen or an inattentive server. $66 not well spent.

And, once again, we waited so long for the check (Sona disappeared) that we had to ask the manager in flannel for the check. Thank you to the manager for acknowledging us.

We are always very, very good tippers (20% +) but she received a 3% tip and I hope she realized it was directly related to the absolutely terrible service she provided us. We were friendly, polite and easygoing, but to spend an evening ignored while watching her interact so much with every other table is unacceptable.

OC Wasabi is a hard pass. Do yourself a favor and stroll past and try elsewhere! Or, don't sit in...

OK…. Let me start by saying this was the busiest place I had seen in OC, so I assumed it was good.

Bad News… I love sushi, like love love it. I have been to the cheapest sushi places to the most expensive places (like $1 a piece to omakase dinner for $400 a person).

My expectations are just good food. I have never not finished a sashimi dinner. I ordered what they called the Sashimi Bounty (if they are using this as bounty, lord help those they are paying) and a side of sashimi scallop.

I knew when they put the plate in front of me it wasn’t going to be good, by the smell. I didn’t say anything, because I was trying to be nice to the person I was there with. But about halfway through the meal they realized I was basically forcing myself to stomach this. I had the scallop, which is normally smooth and buttery, this scallop just tasted off. On top of the other fish that was chewy and just was totally fishy.

He then laughed and said taste this and gave me a piece of his NY Strip. Not sure how a NY Strip can taste both boiled and microwaved with some nasty sauce on top of it, but it did. I chuckled and said, “OK, Yeah - we tried it. Let’s add this to our never again list.”

The sad thing is although I love sushi I’m not overly picky. This was just really bad. Like the worst of the worst. Cheap Chinese buffet sushi is better. Seriously.

I have no idea how they have a high rating. It has to either be the folks in this area have no taste (which could also be why every “specialty” roll they had was Maryland crab and nothing real sushi OR they have done some get a discount for a good review promo (I can’t stand restaurants that do this.)

The only redeeming quality of this visit was the server was...

It’s an interestingly looking sushi restaurant. The fish tank is nice. The waitresses are very attentive. That’s about it.

A large percentage of the sushi options seem to be crab, crab stick or shrimp. … there are very few salmon or tuna specialty rolls, now that could be because of the clientele and location … but I’m more likely to believe it’s because the fish they are serving is not fresh.

The rolls came out so quickly, that’s another thing, it doesn’t bode well when 6+ rolls is done in under 8 minutes.

The smell of the fish was not fresh, the tuna was very dark and had a mushy texture.

I’m a chef by trade as well as having been to dozens and dozens of sushi places.

It was a very odd texture and did not leave a good taste in my mouth. The portions of fish in all the fish rolls were tiny. The salmon was not fresh Added avocado of which they put next to none is an additional charge of $1.50 per roll making the basic roll $9+ each for a tiny portion of fish. The sushi rolls are absolutely tiny… and the quality was worse than low grocery chain. The vegetable rolls had l next to no vegetables in them. The only decent one was the sweet potato roll.

I wanted to try the basic rolls, because that is a good way to know if the quality is there. Let me tell you It isn’t . Specialty rolls can cover up the freshness, basic tuna and salmon rolls cannot.

We ordered 6 rolls and two sashimi totaling over $80 with tip.

I would never order again. I honestly don’t know how this place has such a high rating, people must be drinking a lot when they go there. The sushi does not look...