wa'z Seattle — Restaurant in Seattle

I have always been a fan of Waz for about a year. Despite some mixed reviews, my previous 4 visits are all great. Chef Hiro is nice and caring. Though the other 2 chefs are not interacting with customers much, the atmosphere is casual and comfortable.

However, my recent visit is way below the bar for $195 after tip/tax spent ($595 for three people). For this visit, I can't rate it over 2 stars. Reason of giving 3 stars are because of my previous good visits. Funny is that my other three friends came to visit a few days ago, and they were not happy, but I did not choose to believe them and kept my reservation.

room temp is a little bit chill, when the regular dish wagyu oyster is served, it is already cold the second course was pre-made before any one is seatted. It is ok for some dish of course, but for fried corn, it became oily and not crispy, not to mention the cold wagyu The duck breast and nasu soup is not well executed, it feels like I am eating two things separately. The tastes were not mixed or forming a great chemistry. The soup is lacking taste as well. sockeye salmon as sashimi dish is lackluster for sure the rice is very hard and the fish lacks tastes. I was at least expecting the toro to be great, but it is not fatty or melting in my mouse either...and not to mention that they made all the 5 pieces for all customers and then serve them at the same time...sushi does not taste good after leaving it on the board for 20mins....not acceptable for counter seats....even I Love Sushi omakase serves sushi piece by piece... Ochazuke: emmm, I wasn't expecting anything unsatisfying from a dish simple as ochazuke, but the wagyu in the dish is too sweet... My other female friend was already very full and left some rice of the sushi on the dish, but this was not picked up or attended by chef or stuff..

I really hope Wa'z can improve future months' menu rotation, as I...

My wife and I went to Wa'z over a month ago, but I waited to write this review until after we returned from Japan and had something with which to compare this experience. Our seat at the counter satisfies the curiosity of how the food is prepared but is really only practical if you are alone or with just one other person. While all the ingredients were excellent, as kaiseki, I expected a bit more seasonal ingredients local to Seattle. The presentation was top notch and the care taken to present each dish in the best possible way was very apparent. Clearly, I enjoyed the food, but my experience was not 5-star.

My issue is the price of this meal. I know that many of the dishes required much preparation beforehand, but there wasn't anything exotic on the plate that really justified the cost. Many of the dishes were mere tastes. One small slice of Wagyu, two pieces of sushi, a couple slices of sashimi, and a few specialty seafood items don't really add up to how much it cost, which I thought was a bit inflated.

My wife and I just went to a one-star Michelin rated kaiseki restaurant in Osaka called Sanai. Our meal in Osaka was in elegant yet simple intimate surroundings with a good degree of privacy, unlike the strange Belltown storefront that housed Wa'z. At Sanai, we had 11 courses of very unique and seasonal food over a 3 hour meal, along with a split of champagne. Our total bill for two was less than the cost of ONE of our 9-course meals with sake at Wa'z. After having the opportunity to compare this to something authentic in Japan, I'm a little disappointed with what we received...

The service was really rude snd slow from the beginning. They were preparing some courses ahead of the time and putting them in front of us for 5 -15mins while they are still completing either serving other customers or completing our last course. For the first course, they had almost forgotten to serve us - we received the food (raw food sitting there for 15mins)when everyone else had finished their food. I also noticed that one of the chef's collected our finished plates crossing over where nigiri were being preped and without changing his gloves, drizzled soy sauce putting the same gloved fingers on the nozzle of the soy sauce bottle. Tea service was weird to say the list. Some times they refilled the same cup, sometimes they gave us a new cup. There was a time when the woman wine server helped garnish the sashimi, she sprinkled sisho flowers (a delicacy, I suppose) on the sashimi with such apathy, that we did not feel like eating that food. I needed a napkin, they gave me a hand towel and made it very awkward about it. They were giving a lot of attention and time to people who ordered alcohol. They charged us automatic 20% gratuity, which they definitely did not deserve. 1/3 of the restaurant was empty on a Saturday evening - that shows that the people are not happy with this restaurant. I don't think, I will be back. The staff here needs more professionalism. And the food was not at par with other high-end places in Seattle. Take your business...