At this point, you may be thinking something along the lines of:
“Man, this guy really likes eating Japanese food.”
If you are, than I would like to say thank you for actually reading my blog for you to realize that pattern. Another thing I would like to say is, it is true, I LOOOVE Japanese food. I’m not about to make this a Japanese restaurant only blog, it just so happens whenever I eat out to a place blog worthy, it just so happens to be Japanese.
That said, today I decided to follow another tip from the people I follow on Instagram and go to a place called Wa’z, which I still have no idea how you’re supposed to pronounce that (I think it is like the word “was” but a bit longer). They are located on Cedar Street in downtown Seattle; practically hugging the Space Needle. Their menus are a standard 10 course tasting menu situation, a kaiseki if you will, $110 per person as well as numerous sake choices. When you call to reserve, which I recommend, you are given the choice of table or counter. If you are ever at a Japanese restaurant and they give you the choice to sit at the sushi bar, always go for it.
Anyways, when we arrive, they were serving things on there July menu; which in it of itself is interesting because it’s not July anymore. In other words, by the time you read this and decide to go, you most likely will have something different than I did. They give you a standard hot towel to clean your hands and let you sit and relax as they prepare the first course. The first course is a salmon tartare, which to me is less tartare and more cubed salmon (like poke) and mixed with something called mountain yam, which is like this hard white kind of thing, and topped with this jelly thing. It tastes fine, fresh fish taste and the jelly had a hint of yuzu; the thing is, the soft texture of the salmon and the toughness of the yam contrasts with each other greatly.
The second course has SEVERAL things. Upon a bamboo shaped plate, there is a grilled rockfish, an okra tempura stuffed with shrimp, an Aji sushi, and this lettuce kind of salad in ponzu sauce with fish eggs in a tiny bowl. As you may remember, I have an aversion to fish that has been cooked, so I didn’t like the grilled rockfish; which incidentally had a texture that felt like it was both raw and cooked at the same time. The okra I liked. Fried, crispy exterior with a bit of a spicy kick and the shrimp gives it a bit of substance; almost like a Taiwanese dish that my grandma used to make. The Aji sushi, out of all four of these dishes, was my favorite. Made in a ball shape (which is kinda odd to be honest), the fish, fresh and the rice was well prepared. The last dish, the lettuce, I didn’t know what to make of it. It just tasted like lettuce in dunked in a sour sauce.
Next course, according to the menu, is a soup course; and what the serve up is….noodles. To be fair, the noodles were in the soup, and quite honestly, it did add an extra kick to it. The soup was very light and had small slices of tomatoes and lime it. It was a chilled noodle soup, so it was perfect for the blazing Summer heat outside. Afterwards, is the sashimi course, which also had some confusion. Instead of fish, they served us….beef, but it was Wagyu beef. The Wagyu beef was garnished with uni, or sea urchins, and a bit of caviar. They told us, before eating, to mix the uni in with the beef; I know, weird right? The beef was really soft, not the melt in your mouth kind mind you, but almost there. Mixing the uni didn’t really add anything to the beef, that or I didn’t mix it well enough. Either way, I felt like this dish could have been eaten without mixing.
Next is the sushi course. There was only one sushi, which made me kind of sad because I would’ve like more. They served a seared fatty Bluefin tuna nigiri topped with actual wasabi, and oh boy, was it fatty. Because they seared it, the fat melted into the sushi, making the whole thing really oily, but also intensifying the flavor. Next is this kind of fried takoyaki-like ball in thick sauce with mushrooms. Like a takoyaki, this ball had stuff inside but instead of octopus, it had scallops and crab. Of course, if you didn’t know that going in, you would probably not have noticed the crab and scallops, because there wasn’t a lot in there. Kind of dissapointing, to be honest.
After that, we had grilled duck breast with eggplants topped with a red miso sauce. I can tell right now, the sauce was sweet but not overpowering. The duck, like the beef but not really, was soft and tender. The eggplant was there to add supplement for the sauce, as it kind of soaked up that flavor. The last dish before dessert was a rice dish. It was eel on top of rice and with it there was a side of scallions, minced shiso leaves, wasabi, and, in a pot, a clear broth they called dashi soup. The chef told us to first, take one bite of rice and eel plain, then add the greens into it, mix well, and take another bite. Thirdly, they told us to pour the soup into the rice and finish the dish that way. So that is what we did.
The first bite, it was just a standard eel with rice, nothing special. The second bite, after adding the scallions, shiso leaves, and wasabi, yields an earthy taste from the shiso leaves that is immediately overpowered by the wasabi, as it tends to do. After adding the soup, it adds a light, savory taste that neutralizes the overbearing flavors of the wasabi. As my mother stated about this dish, it greatly demonstrates the traditional ways of eating unagi (eel) rice.
Finally is dessert. Dessert is there twist of a dorayaki, or two pancakes stacked together with red beans in the middle. They added a matcha cream as well, so when eaten with the red beans and the two fluffy pancakes, it yields a light sweet taste, as neither of those things are meant to have strong flavors. In addition to the dorayaki, there is a bowl of jasmine tea ice cream topped with a cherry; but not just any cherry, an actual Rainier cherry. Now, I’m allergic to cherries (I know, shocking right) so I didn’t eat the Rainier cherry; although, it is a cherry, what more do you want to know. The ice cream had a really strong and really creamy tea flavor. It is as if I was consuming a thick milk tea, which I am still deciding whether or not that is a good thing.
Also, this is slightly irrelevant to the dinner, but if you are celebrating something, they will take a tray, paint a message (like happy birthday) with some kind of glue, and pour a metric ton of salt on the tray, leaving a white, salty message on the tray and serving your dessert on it.
Wa’z is a place you would go if you want an experience. It is a place for you to sit down and see what a multi-course meal from Japan will give you in a modern and western style of serving. I would recommend you to going there at least once, if not two eat, then to take advantage of their sake list. Just a word of advice, it is downtown Seattle, so parking is hard.
Seattle's/Taiwan's food lover 