Wave Sushi Island Grill — Restaurant in Spokane

My wife and I wanted to find a sushi bar to frequent for our evenings out. Called to make a reservation- thus confirming they close at 9pm. Asked for a 8pm reservation for a party of 2. I understand, it’s pushing the envelope regarding the time to be respectful for the kitchen/staff but having experience within the restaurant industry, this is not a far off request either. The staff member on the receiving end informed me that since they close at 9pm, the “latest” (quote end quote) they will seat anyone is 7pm. Respectfully, then I even asked for 7:30pm reservation and he quickly told me “no” - even though 7:30pm is available, the “latest” they can seat ANYONE is 7pm. Understandably if this was going to be a large party; then I could respect this logic but for a party of 2, made no sense why it was their “policy” to seat a two top party at least 2 HOURS prior to closing? Even with a 8pm reservation, our entrees would be ordered before the kitchen closes and yes (maybe) our server would be late by give or take 15 minutes past their 9pm closing. Theoretically, allowing a party of two 60-75 minutes to have a meal is doable and reasonable. Regardless, it was evident, they didn’t want to even attempt to accommodate anything outside the bare minimum that (might) inconvenience themselves. With that brief call, If that is a preview of their customer relations, I’m hesitant to see how the whole experience would be and I’m not willing to journey down that road that find out! NOTE: Within minutes after that dismissal phone call from the WAVE staff, we found another sushi bar (also closes at 9pm) and they HAPPILY took our 8pm reservation. The moral - there is many other amazing sushi bars out there with superb customer service; no need to subject yourself to mediocre service....

I really wanted to like this place so I decided to give it a second chance after a not so good first time. This second chance turned out to be worse than the first time. A friend and myself went there to get a quick drink and a couple appetizers. The front bar was full so we asked the Hostess if we could go to the back bar, she said sure. As we were walking back some guy came with menus and gave us a huge, I'm talking about a 2-3 minute lecture about how we needed to wait to be seated, we told him she said we could go back there. Mind you the place was not crowed, at all... So we sat at the bar, ordered hot sake, that wasn't even barely warm, I asked the bartender if it could be a little warmer, she took it and and I had to ask for it back after a good 10 minutes. Mind you, i just want to add again, it wasn't busy. Then we ordered Miso soup, which was about as warm as bathwater, edamame, which was barely warm and the tempura tower, which was so greasy and slimy that it wasn't even crispy. We paid the bill, tipped well and left knowing that we will never go back there again. I had no idea the best was yet to come. Around midnight I had the worse stomach ache which was followed by a tsunami WAVE of diarrhea. That gives a whole new meaning to The Wave.......

You can get taro leaves in Spokane. If you made laulau Sundays I'd come definitely come for that. I don't always want to make a roast's worth.

Spokane being Spokane it feels like a place off the main strip in Waikiki during the rain. Nice. The inside is nice and I was surprised to hear reggae music inside.

My wife got the loco moco and I got the kalua pork. We split some gyoza and ahi poke.

The loco moco was very, very good. The patty was about an inch thick and the demi glace was a nice variation in the standard brown gravy.

My kalua pork and cabbage was a lot like home. This Aunty likes putting in a LOT of cabbage. It's not authentic, but that has more to do with the lack of an imu (underground oven, usually fed kiawe wood) than anything.

We got the regular poke. It was served on chilled sushi rice. My only quibble is that the ahi chunks were about a third to half the size I'm used to. Some places here think you should put the fish through a grater to make your think you're getting a lot. I feel satisfied with the amount of poke for the money. Next time I'll order it over hot rice, supermarket style.

Final thing. They don't have a kama'aina discount. Fair enough. My Hawaii ID...