davisb

Hello. Yes, WasabiSito is the "kid brother" of our downtown restaurant and I am THRILLED to announce that we passed our final inspection today and will be opening tomorrow at 11am!!!!! We have a very similar menu to Wasabi -- Modern Japanese Cuisine, which includes traditional Japanese favorites (tuna nigiri, chiken teriyaki) as well as some very cool fusion items (tiradito, anticucho, etc). Please stop in and give us a try! We will begin delivering to much of north arlington on 5/15 and we have a kids menu. A healthy fast food alternative... We will have our site up in the coming weeks, in the meantime you can see more at www.wasabisushi.com or www.wasabisito.com (and www.wasabidelivers.com although it only services DC until 5/15). We are offering our neighbors "thanks for waiting" discount cards for the first few weeks, if you would like me to drop some in the mail to you send me an email at davisb@wasabisushi.com. And come see us tomorrow !!! All the best, Bo Davis

I can't help but chime in with a tidbit, again I am biased, I am one of the owners... First the fish is absolutely the best available. The comparisons to Kaz are very interesting. Kaz is a great restaurant. Before I moved to Europe I worked only a few blocks away and ate their regularly myself. Our manager was the manager of Kaz for the last five years. It is safe to say we know it well. Our fish is from the same suppliers and we are every bit as picky about what fish we buy and how it is handled. Our prices, given different proportions, are similar in some cases, lower in others. All of that said we are a very different place than Kaz. Our chef has an extremely strong reputation in London. His food is fusion, it is not traditional Japanese. While Kaz uses elements of fusion it is still at heart primarily traditional sushi. Not everyone likes this style. That is cool, there are lots of foods I don't like that other people do. But I do want to make it clear that the quality standards with Chef Choy are as high as they come. He did not build a reputation in London over the last 15 years opening numerous very successful restaurants such as Itzu, k-10, and Yuzu by skimping on fish quality. PS - How about the sake menu? We worked hard on this and it is quite extensive with many sake's that are being brought into DC just for us. Any comments?

Not sure if it is fair for me to weigh in, but if I disclose that I work there it should be OK? On the wait, yes we are MOBBED between 12-1. Funny thing is at dinner there is rarely a wait and if you come at 11:45 there is no wait. So the 32 minutes Seitsema referenced is once you are seated... On the price, I think you will find if you compare items we are less expensive then Kaz, Sushi-Ko, and the others in this class. We did compare. Also, to the person that spent $34 on food and wasn't full I am not sure how that is possible. Our most expensive plate is $5. So even if every plate consumed was a specialty that is 6 plates which is above the average 5 plates per seating. Our average check is closer to $20/head. -- Bo Davis

roughly between the hours of 12-3 today and tomorrow there will be a woman standing in front of our space (sarah) who will be signing people up who are interested for tastings thurs lunch, fri lunch & dinner, mon lunch & dinner. Food will be half price for the tasting and we will ask you to fill out a survey and be patient with us. We will not do full seatings, we are still finalizing our liquor paperwork so will not have booze, but the food should be fabulous! See Sarah...

Hello All! I am thrilled to see the interest in Wasabi and will answer all of the questions above. But first let me say I can't wait to see you all in the restaurant soon!!! Meaghan - Yes, we will have premium sake! In fact we will have an array of Sake's ranging from several dollars for a hot sake up to $100 for premium cold Sake and including at least one type that we will be the only provider of in the US. (((this may come a bit later as we are dealing with the import process at the moment))) Hill Vally - No comparison to Cafe Asia. Where Cafe Asia is pan-asian and so has a little bit of everything in a massive three story environment, we will offer some of the best Modern Japanese Cuisine available in the world in a cosy personal setting. Chef Choy is an award winning Chef who I am sure you will be impressed by. ol ironstomach - Yes, much kaiten sushi is not noteworthy. In fact the concept in Japan is largely used for inexpensive sushi delivery. However, in London a couple of places (Itsu & K10 for example) took the concept up-market. Delivering top quality food in an attractive setting to people in a hurry has been a huge success, and we believe the same will be true in DC. Scott Johnston - yes, the current website is fairly useless. It is a placeholder. The full site will launch in the next 72 hours. Sushi Robots - These are cool. They do not affect the quality at all and do not really make sushi per say. One takes the rice made by Chef Choy's team and makes unlimited perfectly shaped Nigiri rice balls. All it does is shape rice, but as you know this is a time consuming affair so is very helpful. The other robot takes the rice, and other ingredients and rolls the sushi into Maki. This doesn't let Chef Choy or his staff off the hook, all the work of a Chef is still done these machines just take some of the monotony out of the job so that they can focus on the food!!! Check out a video of these at www.sushirobots.com (note we are not using this manufacturer but they are a similar concept). Opening!!! As I mentioned to Scott Johnston we are having private parties until our chef tells us the food is perfect. We expect to be open in a week to ten days and would love to see you then!!! Any questions can be directed to davisb@wasabisushi.com. I will try to keep checking this site as well but you can imagine we are a little busy at the moment! Sincerely, Bo Davis CEO Wasabi