Wabi Sabi

I decided to try this place after seeing it mentioned on Eater.com’s list of best places to eat at EWR. The article stats that Wabi-​Sabi is «Inspired by New York City favorite Nom Wah Tea Parlor». I had eaten at Nom Wah two days prior and it was fantastic. So I decided to give Wabi-​Sabi a shot. Wow, what a mistake that was. I ordered the Dim Sum Sampler with the pork bun, shumai, and gyoza. Three pretty safe options that would be hard to mess up, or so I thought. What I received was a colorless, tasteless, pile of rubber that was vaguely shaped like the dishes they were called. It was so bad that it is a crime to call this Dim Sum. The frozen dumplings at the supermarket are dozens of steps above this garbage. I would not feed this food to my dog or my worst enemy.

Waited 20 minutes to be told that the item that I ordered not only isn’t available, but IS NEVER AVAILABLE. Rather than update the menu, or at least notifying customers at the time they order, they simply allow the customer to WAIT AND WAIT AND WAIT AND WAIT. Then, after they notify you that your food won’t be coming, it takes 10 minutes to find a supervisor who has a card to override the order and issue a credit for the meal you’ve already paid for. This entire concept at EWR is a FAILED concept. The food is poor. The service is non-​existent. The food is expensive. It’s slower than a regular fast casual restaurant. And the tablet ordering concept is horribly implemented. Over half of the orders that are placed require some type of manual intervention by an associate. And now I noticed that the Jamba Juice — the last non-​OTG restaurant in the terminal across the aisle has been replaced by some shitty tex-​mex restaurant. There is only one solution — #boycottunited

Received the poorest dim sum I’ve ever had for an unreasonable price and size. My «shrimp» sui Mai had a tiny piece of shrimp on top and NOTHING in the center. My pork bao was runny? Workers were more interested in chatting than serving. Felt slightly sick afterwards as well.

I really think the food selection at EWR has gotten noticeably worse in the pass few years. This place certainly didn’t impress. I ordered tofu lo-​mein & got something pretty bland and unexciting. If I were paying $ 4.95 for it at some corner Chinese take out place I wouldn’t have minded, but my order cost $ 11.00. For some reason everyone also has to use a clunky iPad ordering system that does nothing to improve the customer experience.

Really bad breakfast. Congee was like water. «Scallion scramble» was unseasoned, burned, and the English muffin wasn’t toasted!

Oh God, that was dreadful. Everything in Concourse C had terrible reviews and Wabi Sabi’s seemed least-​bad, so that’s where I went. I had the General Tso’s chicken. It was a mountain of unseasoned rice, plus fatty/​gristly chicken in a spongey breading, a few chunks of overcooked vegetables and a sliver of ginger. I ate about a 10^th of it. Utterly dreary.

Got the general tso’s chicken and wasn’t sure what to expect but it was just alright. It looks like a decent establishment and it was $ 12 which isn’t the cheapest Chinese food you can find by any means, but the taste was a little underwhelming, the chicken was more real than a lot of other GTC (whether that’s good or bad…), and there was too much rice. I did think the few pieces of broccoli were cooked nicely though. The service was also a little slow, even though it wasn’t nearly as packed as the burger place next door. Overall I probably wouldn’t get it again but it did fill me up when I needed it. If I had to go back I’d probably try their noodles instead of the stir fry.

I wasn’t looking for sit down dining so I made my way over to this food court and found Wabi Sabi. I was pretty hungry so I ordered the Chicken Fried Rice and an the shrimp and pork dumplings off the dim sum menu. Wasn’t a big fan of the dim sum but the rice was a huge portion and I really didn’t even need the dumplings on the side. To be honest, the rice was a little bland at first but I asked for some teriyaki sauce to drizzle over it and that made a huge difference. I would definitely do the rice again.

If you’re watching your salt intake, try another place.
Don’t expect a lot. Service is slow.

I was not expecting much from Wabi Sabi, but I was pleasantly surprised. I balked at paying that much for veggie fried rice, but it did not disappoint. Plenty of flavor and a decent size portion. I will definitely try more of their dishes based upon their fried rice.

The chicken fried rice was mediocre. A medley of onions, carrots, and peas were undercooked. The meal overall had good portion considering it is located in an airport, but quite oily.

Unexpectedly, it is not bad for airport food. Ordered the hot soba with chicken, they were actually not stingy with the amount of chicken.

Pretty bad. Eat somewhere else. The owner is clearly cheap.
But, it’s an airport, so we’re supposed to accept it.
Go eat somewhere else. Seriously.

Surprisingly good, especially for airport fast food. I had Lo Mein and my husband had Pad Thai. Semi cooked to order, nothing is sitting in a steam table.