Wasabi Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Orange

I have been here in person with my wife several times and the experience was just "okay."

The food is okay, in some cases good. It's not great; it pales in comparison to the good places in other parts of Orange and Milford, the couple in downtown New Haven and the great places we've been able to visit in major cities. It is marginally overpriced; the prices are not far from what you'd pay at other restaurants of the same genre (sushi-plus-pan-Asian), but the portions are smaller and at least for delivery, they charge $1 for a portion of "fresh" wasabi the size of a sugar cube (it neither looks nor tastes fresh).

This review pertains specifically to the restaurant's fulfillment of an Uber Eats order. I placed the order two hours in advance for delivery between 8 and 8:30 on a Sunday night. At 6:36, Uber Eats "confirmed the order with the restaurant," per the app. At 8:30 the order status was still "restaurant is preparing your order," so I called the restaurant to find out if the order were lost or if there were some other extenuating circumstances. This is a precise transcript of my call:

Restaurant employee: "... ... hello." Me: "Hi, um, is this Wasab--" Restaurant employee: "Yes, yes." Me: "Hi, I placed an order on Uber Eats that was supposed to be delivered by now, but it looks like it's still being prepared." Restaurant employee: "What's your order number?" [I give number] "Yeah. It's not ready yet. But it's almost ready." Me: "Okay. It was supposed to be delivered within the last half hour, and I placed the order two hours ago." Restaurant employee: "We were busy then." Me: "But, I placed the order two hours ago; if you were busy you could have started preparing the order earlier so it was ready on time." Restaurant employee: "That makes no sense." Me: "... Okay, well if you can't prepare an order by the time you say you will, I'm not going to order from you again." Restaurant employee: "That's fine." [hang up]

Really? That's the final word? A simple "we're so sorry for the delay!" goes a long way.

If there's an extenuating circumstance that keeps a restaurant from fulfilling an order as promised, I may be disappointed but usually understand. If the restaurant simply fails to meet their own projection because they are busy, I might be annoyed, but it isn't the end of the world.

When a restaurant not only fails to meet a scheduled delivery window for an order placed long in advance, but then is also rude about it -- I can't recommend them to anyone, and won't patronize them again.

Summary: others may be satisfied with okay-to-good, overpriced sushi serves by rude people. My money will go to the better and friendlier establishments...

We once loved going for lunch here, their mango avocado roll was the best in comparison to other places. But what really used to put them on top was their unique salad dressing-we dined there today and it was a complete fail and waste of money. Inflation must’ve gotten the best of them now as well. Super sad. Their salad portion has downsized to a quarter of a side salad portion-perfect for a toddler size. Their once fabulous dressing seems to be changed as well-bland and barely dressed the salad. Their sushi rolls have been scaled back on quality and size as well. Their chicken tempora boxed lunch was a joke! Literally 2 thin strips of chicken breasts-the size of medium pretzel rods! Even the flavor was off-bland. Very disappointed, I’d have rather them increase the menu prices a few dollars and kept their quality then to scale back the way they have. A spot we would frequent is now a never again. Not worth the prices at all anymore. Horrible experience. Even the inside was warm and uncomfortable temperature wise. And the waitress never checked in on us seeing if we needed anything-just rushed for an order and literally grabbed my plate from in front of me while I was still picking and eating to the point I grabbed my fork off the plate before she ran away with it....

I had the spicy shrimp roll and the mushroom tempura roll with salad. The wonton soup is really good. I think the wontons are made with a Chinese rice wine-cured sausage and shrimp. It’s different than any I’ve ever had and I love it. I’m a regular at lunch. The green tea is genmaicha, a toasted brown rice and tea blend. It’s nutty, aromatic and delicious. The salad dressing is kewpie mayonnaise based rather than a carrot ginger base like most places. It’s VERY umami, so I ask for it on the side. I also asked for the sauce for the mushroom roll on the side and they’re very accommodating. The staff is very friendly, and the seating area is decorated with lovely wood screens and traditional Japanese prints. The only thing is, sometimes the fried items don’t settle too well, and the chicken teriyaki is a tad too salty for me, but I give 5 stars with...