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Wasabi To Go, Downtown and GWU


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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 :blink: !!!

All the best,

Bo Davis

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First impressions -- they were still pretty much setting up, but there was plenty of lovely sushi prepared and a nice man to tell me what was where. They have cold dishes -- with a couple of veggie selections -- and sides in coolers as you first come in, and then there is a list of all the hot dishes they can prepare. I picked up a pepper/avocado tempura roll, not really expecting much from it, and a "regular" (they also have Wasabi-style) miso soup. The sushi was delicious! I honestly was prepared for some disappointment (if from the tempura part alone), but I ended up wishing I'd bought another roll. The sushi and soup were under $6 together, which wasn't cheap, but also wasn't bad for a nice little meal on a cold, blustery day. I am definitely going to be eating there again and am even looking forward to the delivery service in May :blink:

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Wasabi Sito's Maki Mix ($12) is a cardboard-and-plastic Bento Box consisting of 22 rolls. It was purchased from the refrigerated section at 1 PM, was the last one available, and had probably been made awhile beforehand. The overriding impression with this is that the rice is too cold and very densely packed, there's not enough ginger or wasabi, and the stuffings are a bit skimpy. There is a four-by-four matrix of hosomaki (small rolls with the nori on the outside) with four each of salmon, tuna (tekkamaki), cucumber (kappamaki), and avocado, the latter two lightly adorned with sesame seeds. Then there are four oshizushi/uramaki (block-pressed medium-sized inside-out rolls): two salmon-avocado and two surimi-avocado, the rice on the outer perimeter lightly dusted with sesame seeds. Finally, there are two medium-sized maki stuffed with asparagus and shrimp tempura (cold tempura is not my idea of fun). At twelve dollars, this is too expensive and nothing special. That having been said, it's convenient, inoffensive, reasonably healthy, and a viable alternative to the more caloric Italian Store next door.

Cheers,

Rocks.

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It was purchased from the refrigerated section at 1 PM, was the last one available, and had probably been made awhile beforehand. The overriding impression with this is that the rice is too cold and very densely packed . . .

Have you ever liked sushi bought from a cooler in a grocery store? Unfortunately I don't think you can prevent the hardening and cooling of the shari. Consider that no one should keep leftover sushi in the refrigerator (at least I wouldn't), and it should be obvious that you shouldn't pay for such a product. Is there any possibility at WasabiSito of requesting sushi made directly from the kitchen or just taking whatever was just made before it is delivered to the refrigerator? Perhaps if the buyer called ahead for takeout, he could get something edible? :blink:

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I noticed that shop was opening when I was in the Lyon Village CVS on Wednesday. I was wondering at the time what had been there, and then it occured to me that it had been a Photo shop, perhaps even a 1-Hour Photo shop. Then I had one of those little revelations of an "oh, of course" nature: The handwriting was on the wall for the photo shop, it was living on borrowed time. Obsolescence had taken it over, just as it had the typewriter repair shops and the Livery stables and the buggy-whip merchants.

Time marches on.

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Have you ever liked sushi bought from a cooler in a grocery store?

This is a very good point, and actually the answer is yes - when Whole Foods had the Sushi-Ko contract, I'd go there fairly regularly and feel around in the cooler for what was still warm. :blink: No longer: Whole Foods' sushi is terrible now.

Cheers,

Rocks.

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The good news is that in the course of my getting what is now my "regular" order (one or two red pepper rolls and a Wasabi-style miso soup), Chef Choy mentioned to me that they are going to start doing more "on-demand" sushi making. My impression is that from now on, the refrigerator cases will be for those who are in a hurry, and fresh-made sushi will be available for those who can wait a couple of minutes.

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Any recent impressions from the Rockwellians?

I'm about to relocate to Cherrydale and am interested in hearing about nearby sushi options.

To be honest, I feel bad about posting this because the owner actually travelled to my fiancee's apartment to apologize about it, but I had one of the worst delivery experiences I have ever had at Wasabisito last Friday. I will not go into the full story, but we wound up waiting over an hour for our delivery to arrive (her apt is in Rosslyn, no more than a 10 minute drive from the restaurant) after having to receiving several clarifying calls from the restaurant about our order and the location of her apartment, which is in by far the largest complex in Rosslyn. When it arrived, there was no wasabi, soy, ginger, utensils, or napkins. We called once again to express our issue with this and did not hear from anyone until the owner showed up about an hour later with the items and a promise of a 50% discount. We were told that the confusion centered around us providing the wrong address of the building, even though all of her mail comes to the specific address that we gave and all other restaurants in the area recognize the apartment by the address we gave. I understand that it was an honest mistake and really appreciate the effort of the owner, but I did not think that it was appropriate for him to tell me that the reason that it took over 2 full hours for us to receive our order was because we gave the restaurant the wrong address of the place that my fiancee has been living in for 3 years.

Again, I do not feel particularly good about posting this, as I root for places like this to succeed as opposed to the next franchise that could potentially move in in its place. I just hope that they work out these types of issues going forward.

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I drove by recently and the name changed. Did ownership change as well or something else happened? It's now "Wasabi to go." Just curious.

It is my understanding that people were confused by the name "Wasabi Sito". I think the owner just changes the name to reflect his other restaurants in DC. Same ownership, same everything, just a different sign.

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We tried to like Wasabi to Go at the Lyon Village location - we went a number of times (more than 5 or 6) and tried sushi and most of the prepared to order items from the menu. Although it was never bad, we just were never that impressed. We have frequented Ichiban, in McLean, for many years, and it continues to be our favorite "local" sushi/udon place.

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Wasabi To Go (formerly known as Wasabi Sito) now has three locations: Spout Run in Arlington, 20th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. downtown, and 22nd and G Streets at GWU.

Wow, looks like it took over the old La Prima location. I used to get sandwiches there all the time when I was at GWU.

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Wow, looks like it took over the old La Prima location. I used to get sandwiches there all the time when I was at GWU.
Yes, it did and while it is nice to have some more variety for a quick meal (vs. La Prima which was essentially another sandwich express), the food isn't that great. As Don said in the Wasabi dine in thread, the sushi is better than supermarket sushi, but not in the same realm as a real sushi bar. Some of the non-sushi items are alright, I thought the vegetable udon soup was ok and good price at $5 for an entree portion - but they were pretty stingy on the tofu.
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We tried to like Wasabi to Go at the Lyon Village location - we went a number of times (more than 5 or 6) and tried sushi and most of the prepared to order items from the menu. Although it was never bad, we just were never that impressed.

Apparently, neither was anyone else. Walked by on the way to the Italian Store this morning and it looks closed. Sign on the door says it is moving the location to Tyson's Corner, no doubt in hopes that folks out there are more easily impressed.

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^ Well, I can attest that the construction is taking place and making Tyson's Galleria [Tyson's Corner Mall or Tyson's I? Thanks Eric!] hard to navigate, especially if you have a stroller. It is located by Cakelove and Fresh & Fruity/Cinnabon food court area and looks pretty big. Gebaby was very intrigued by all the cement breaking and uprooting taking place, which you can see going up the escalators. Does anyone else feel like the Galleria is now overcrowded by not-so-good eateries and kiosks now? The new Yogun Fruz just juts out like a misplaced puzzle piece. Makes me wonder who has the master plan???

Edited by goodeats
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Do these Wasabi To Go outlets still exist?

Anyone know? Or are they going exclusively with the large-scale mall ops? I can easily see a GWU carryout being profitable, but Yelp says that's closed - what about downtown?

Quite frankly, I can't find any evidence at all that there was ever a second Wasabi To Go - other than the one at 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue (202) 822-0648. Maybe that was "both" the one at GWU and also the downtown location.

Absent someone chiming in, I'll shut this thread down, and mark it as closed. It sounds like they really figured out a way to shun non-profitable business models and make some pretty serious coin in the process in large shopping centers.

Let me know as you can, please. Just trying to keep the dining guides current.

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