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Wakasaya
Plenty of Choices, and Also a Big Challenge, at This Japanese Joint
by Richard Guzmán
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - If you’re the type of person who takes forever to figure out what to order from the menu, stop reading this, because Wakasaya in Little Tokyo is not for you.
With hundreds of choices, this restaurant will overwhelm you. It will frustrate you with possibilities and haunt you with thoughts of what could have been.
If, however, you are assured in your tastes, know what you want and can live without regrets, then read on.
Located in the Japanese Village Plaza outdoor mall, Wakasaya has an unexpectedly simple concept in light of the number of dishes they offer. The restaurant serves donburi, which is rice bowls with your choice of pretty much anything you can think of on top. The specialty is sashimi and seafood.
The menu lists about 200 or so combinations, like sea urchin with tuna and sweet shrimp ($13.10), salmon roe (fish eggs), tuna and yellowtail ($12), and tuna, salmon and squid ($8.80). It can take most of your lunch hour to look through the entire menu, so do what the waiters suggest and just pick any combination of seafood on the menu, and they’ll prepare it for you.
Whatever combination you choose, make sure to include the salmon roe, since the salty sweetness of the fish eggs adds a perfect accent to any other item on the menu.
If creating a custom dish is too much responsibility, do what I did and go with the All Star Don ($18). It’s one of the priciest dishes, but it combines some of Wakasaya’s best items. My bowl included eel, salmon, salmon roe, shrimp, crab, yellowtail, squid and something I didn’t recognize but I’m sure came from the ocean.
It’s a lot of food, and the quality is generally high. The salmon was rich and full of flavor while the shrimp was fresh. The crab legs, although not my favorite, were appetizing nonetheless, as was the rest of the seafood, including the thing I didn’t recognize.
The miso soup is not the bland or watered down concoction you find in many restaurants. The wasabi sauce is also worth noting at Wakasaya. They warn you that it’s extremely hot, and they’re not kidding. I used my usual amount while dipping the sashimi and my ears popped from the fire gushing through my head.
One other thing sets Wakasaya apart: It’s the Bikkuri Don, which is not just a meal, but a challenge.
This massive bowl includes every seafood item on the menu served over a king size bed of rice. It costs $44 and is equal to about six or seven regular bowls of food. But if you can finish it by yourself, rice and all, within 15 minutes, it’s free.
But before you run out to eat all of the ocean life you can, be warned that, as of this writing, no one has succeeded in the challenge. Seven people have tried, and seven people have failed, and their pictures are up on the wall so that all can witness their unsuccessful attempts.
At 104 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, (213) 621-2121.
Contact Richard Guzmán at richard@downtownnews.com.
page 11, 08/03/2009
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
With hundreds of choices, this restaurant will overwhelm you. It will frustrate you with possibilities and haunt you with thoughts of what could have been.
If, however, you are assured in your tastes, know what you want and can live without regrets, then read on.
Located in the Japanese Village Plaza outdoor mall, Wakasaya has an unexpectedly simple concept in light of the number of dishes they offer. The restaurant serves donburi, which is rice bowls with your choice of pretty much anything you can think of on top. The specialty is sashimi and seafood.
The menu lists about 200 or so combinations, like sea urchin with tuna and sweet shrimp ($13.10), salmon roe (fish eggs), tuna and yellowtail ($12), and tuna, salmon and squid ($8.80). It can take most of your lunch hour to look through the entire menu, so do what the waiters suggest and just pick any combination of seafood on the menu, and they’ll prepare it for you.
Whatever combination you choose, make sure to include the salmon roe, since the salty sweetness of the fish eggs adds a perfect accent to any other item on the menu.
If creating a custom dish is too much responsibility, do what I did and go with the All Star Don ($18). It’s one of the priciest dishes, but it combines some of Wakasaya’s best items. My bowl included eel, salmon, salmon roe, shrimp, crab, yellowtail, squid and something I didn’t recognize but I’m sure came from the ocean.
It’s a lot of food, and the quality is generally high. The salmon was rich and full of flavor while the shrimp was fresh. The crab legs, although not my favorite, were appetizing nonetheless, as was the rest of the seafood, including the thing I didn’t recognize.
The miso soup is not the bland or watered down concoction you find in many restaurants. The wasabi sauce is also worth noting at Wakasaya. They warn you that it’s extremely hot, and they’re not kidding. I used my usual amount while dipping the sashimi and my ears popped from the fire gushing through my head.
One other thing sets Wakasaya apart: It’s the Bikkuri Don, which is not just a meal, but a challenge.
This massive bowl includes every seafood item on the menu served over a king size bed of rice. It costs $44 and is equal to about six or seven regular bowls of food. But if you can finish it by yourself, rice and all, within 15 minutes, it’s free.
But before you run out to eat all of the ocean life you can, be warned that, as of this writing, no one has succeeded in the challenge. Seven people have tried, and seven people have failed, and their pictures are up on the wall so that all can witness their unsuccessful attempts.
At 104 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, (213) 621-2121.
Contact Richard Guzmán at richard@downtownnews.com.
page 11, 08/03/2009
©Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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