Waba

I never went to Waba, the entity that used to be in the same location before Rumblefish, so I can’t compare (I still don’t know what this place is currently called, but I’m pretty sure it’s not Waba anymore). My girlfriend and I happened to want sushi one night and saw it as we were on the road, so we knew nothing about it prior to going there.
We were the only patrons in the restaurant. It was New Years evening, so that may have had something to do with it, but I was admittedly nervous because there was no one else there.
I could immediately tell it was new (and as it turns out, under new ownership according to Grisha S.) when the word. doc menus showed up. We ordered two rolls and some udon. The food was amazing. We were both stuffed about ¾ the way through both rolls. We took the udon home.
Like Micah A., I wouldn’t call it a steal, but one must realize that this isn’t your conveyor belt sushi place. Here you can be satisfied that you are getting what you pay for: quality and variety at a fair price. Two rolls of specialty sushi will run about $ 25 (comes with salad and miso; which is plenty for two people), and depending on your drinks, a table for two can get out under $ 30 and leave full and happy.
We have been back a couple of times, and unfortunately, the place is usually empty. Regardless of the amount of people there, the food, service and price is still amazing.
I’ve never wrote a Unilocal!review before, but felt compelled to in this circumstance. The service is great, and it is clear that this is a family owned place, and based on the quality of food and service, it should be full on any given night. The people of Edmonds/​Shoreline/​Lynnwood/​North Seattle need to know about this place. Yes, there are a lot of great dining options nearby, but put this one on the list of places to try.
Next time you go to Costco in Shoreline/​Edmonds, hop across 99 and eat at Rumblefish. You will be pleasantly surprised as I was.
Pros: Great food, Great Service, Fair price
Cons: Needs more people in there, not necessarily the fault of the establishment.

We went there the other night and were the only patrons, and since we love the food, I thought writing a review would help. This used to be called Waba, but is now called Rumblefish Sushi. I think the reason they have a small crowd is that they don’t have good signage and because they share an entrance with another restaurant.
But the nigiri sushi was good — fresh and melt-​in-​your-​mouth, or so my partner says. I ate veggie sushi and I thought the roll was really creative and very tasty!
The ambience is great and romantic, too. They have been good at helping my partner get gluten-​free food, although we have to bring our own wheat-​free tamari.

Before we begin, I should note that I had a 5 star experience at Waba. It only gets knocked down a peg for reasons that will be explained, using words, momentarily. Lets subtitle this shiznet.
Setting
To get to Waba you need to go up these invisible stairs and try your best not to accidentally walk into the Korean restaurant that is right next door. I’m pretty sure there was also a name other than «Waba» outside. For good reason, since Waba is both the first name of an annoying Pokemon character and the way you pronounce the best available Sabermetrics statistic we have for measuring batter contribution. You’re welcome.
The inside of Waba is very impressive. It’s large, clean, well designed, and has these neato booths that look like they would be great for small gatherings. Waba was also completely empty, which was weird, but that’s okay since most people are terrible.
Service
Not only was the server bringing sexy back to the world of braces, but she was outstandingly attentive. Now, to be fair, no one else was there, so that probably made it easy to give my friend and I full attention. We were brought tea, then salad, then miso soup. With my order she also brought a sauce she thought I would like on it. Crazy good service.
But perhaps the winner of the night was when she brought me a lollypop. I tend to cough a lot. My doctor doesn’t know why, since I am in good health and have never smoked, but I have been coughing for like 3 years for whatever reason and it isn’t going to stop any time soon. The cook heard me coughing, and told her to bring me a lollypop that they saved in the back to soothe the cough. It was a tootsie roll pop. How cool is that?
Food
I ordered… The… I don’t remember its name. It looks like a big green caterpillar. It’s a roll, and it’s vegetarian, and it has asparagus which I hate with the fire of a thousand suns but the asparagus had no flavor and did not affect the awesomeness of this dish so I’ll let it slide. This roll was excellent. Lightly warm, crunchy, and other descriptive terms for tasty veggie sushi. It was really, really good.
Why the Docked Star
This was a five star experience, but I have to dock them down for two reasons:
1) Their rolls are a lot of money. A veggie roll for $ 12? It was filling, it was delicious, and I would order it again, but that’s insanely expensive without any cheaper options. Like I said, I would order it again in a heartbeat, but whatever, that’s a lot for veggie sushi.
2) They only had one vegetarian sushi option on the entire menu. In Seattle, in this day and age, you really have to have more options. At least two or three. If I didn’t like the veggie roll I could never go back here. They have a pretty big menu. One roll is sad.
Overall I had a great time here, and I’d really like to give them 5+ stars for the experience. But then I didn’t.

Okay so I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for 7 years and I must say this was the WORST experience I’ve EVER had. There were so many things that kept it terrible. When we first walked in there was only one table in there. The other side is a Korean restaurant, which was packed. We should have took that as a sign and sent there. Being on the Japanese side,
1. they ran out of sushi rice! So they said ALL of their sushi rolls were OUT.
2. We ordered sake, and our waitress didn’t even know anything about sake, which I can kind of understand because maybe she wasn’t trained on sake. But after ordering, about 15 min later she comes to tell me that she can’t serve that because I would have to order the entire 750 mL bottle.
3. They ran out of water glasses, being that we were the ONLY table in the entire restaurant. They couldn’t even accommodate 6 people. We were given 2 tea cups with 5 water cups.
4. We were all given our entrees one at a time. by the time the 4^th person got their food the first person was already finished. It took over 45 min for the final person to get their food. And it was SASHIMI!!! RAW food takes the longest??? OMG. We seriously should have just walked out, I told our waitress that this was the worst experience I have ever had. I am not blaming her because she as a server wasn’t terrible, but everything else was just horrendous.
5. They gave us the same excuse. They were under staffed and the lunch rush just wiped them out. Well, if you’ve already had that then you should be prepared for that!
6. We waited for the bill for another 20 min after we even finished our meal. We didn’t get any check back. When I went to the front the waitress was sitting at a table just talking with the sushi bar worker. WTF!!! I told her right then and there we were NOT coming back and we are clearly not going to recommend this place to anyone.
7. on top of all the terrible experiences, there was NO manager on duty. We should have walked out from the very beginning and it would have been better if we had never even gone here before. If I could I would give this place a NEGATIVE rating. I and my entire family will never again give WABA the time of day nor will we ever recommend this place to anyone.
All in all — TERRIBLE. THE WORST EXPERIENCE I’VE EVER HAD.

AMAZING!!! My husband and I went here last night for date night and were greeted with smiles. We sat at the sushi bar and was excited to find out that we had stumbled upon HH…$ 2.50 Draft beers… so we both ordered a Mannys. Then we ordered the Combo plate and 2 salmon rolls (buy one get one free for HH)…the waitress/​bartender was super sweet and attentive. Included was soup and these salty beans which were very good! We also had the Sake Mojito. The over all experience was AMAZING and I was super impressed! The cheapest good beer HH in town!!! You can not beat $ 2.50 Mannys!!! I plan to be a regular at this restaurant!!!

We went to Waba for a friend’s birthday. The interior design is sleek, dark wood and the private room they have for large parties is great although the large, flatscreen tv was not necessary for our group. Are people throwing football parties in that room or something? Our server was great. She gave us all separate checks when we didn’t even ask. That shows true dedication because we were a large group.
The specialty’s roll are interesting and somewhat unique but definitely minus stars for some of the sashimi tasting a tiny bit fishy — not good. Also, the entire restaurant was EMPTY. Not a single other person and it was a Saturday night. When I went to the restroom i walked by a window looking into the Korean restaurant that shares the space; it was packed! Clearly that was the spot to be, not Waba.

Overall: Good ambiance, okay food.
My gf and I went on a Saturday night around 8 or 9 and it was pretty quiet. I was a little shocked b/​c it was a Saturday night and I thought there would be more action but I was hungry for some sushi so I wasn’t complaining.
I think the first thing that captures you when you enter Waba is the ambiance. Lightly dim, candle’s spread out around the bar and tables, and clean (from what I could see). Now that I think about it, it kinda reminds me of Wasabi Bistro in downtown Seattle, minus the crowd and noise.
Service was great that night, but it was pretty slow (include us, there were only 2 other groups — group of 2 and a group of 4).
We ordered sushi rolls, fried calamari, seaweed salad (oh wait they were out), and then gyoza. Since this was our first visit to Waba and they are still kinda new, I’m going to be gentle and say that the sushi and appetizers were okay. My gf ate the gyoza and said it tasted exactly like the frozen stuff you get from Costco. For the record, I don’t know the difference but I’m sure most places don’t make them fresh and probably get them from Costco. However, the one thing I am going to gripe about is on the spicy tuna roll. I’m not a big fan of the creamy spicy sauce it seems most sushi places use in their spicy tuna roll. I still prefer the spicy tuna rolls at Blue C sushi and it’s almost half the price (just my preference though).
I don’t know exactly how new Waba is, but I would like to see this place succeed b/​c I think it could be a good Asian Fusion place for those in Shoreline and the surrounding area. So having said that, I have a few ideas that could help…
I’m Korean-​Japanese, so I know that if they made fresh Korean mandu, that would be awesome. Also, I don’t think I saw any Korean dishes. I think they should include this on the menu. I’m not talking about full blown dishes, but like small portions of Bulgogi or small bowls of Bibimbap. I get the fact that Waba is sticking with the Japanese theme on the menu, but I’m pretty sure most of the ppl that go know to Waba know that it’s Korean owned and most people who go to Waba are Korean. So I think you should mix it up.
I know I saw a happy hour menu, an ad announcing DJ’s on Friday nights, and not sure how busy it gets on Saturday nights but if it’s been pretty slow I think Waba should (and I know this is a trendy thing to do, but it get’s people to show up) add a few karaōke nights or a trivia night. I’m pretty sure if you had that, you guys would get busy.
Good luck Waba. I really do hope you succeed!

Went here for my birthday dinner. Everything was great besides the waiter messing up our order. No avocados in anything or wasabi touching anything. Wasabi on the side. Our spider roll had avocados in it and there was wasabi under some of the nigiri sushi. Finished our food and the waiter cleared our plates. We then waited 10 mins for our check. It never came so we had to ask for it. Placed our form of payment inside and waited another 10 mins for him to take it. Then we waited another 10 mins for him to give it back to us to sign it! And there was only 1 other table besides us in the entire place!

Never coming here again. .. . Reasons?
1) Made a reservation for 15 – 20: only 12 seats, finally
added more after 20 minutes and having to ask 2 different people
2) NEVER GOT MY FOOD! after waiting nearly 3 hours you’d expect communication from the server — even after 30 minutes of something was wrong in the kitchen let your customers know.
3) 2– 15 tops who were seated/​ordered AFTER us were nearly finished with their meal prior to 90% of my party being
served.
4) False claims: said their kitchen was «down» that’s why we
never got our food. Hmmm so why did everyone in the
restaurant get their food except us? And we
were never informed of this dilema?
5) no comp was offered! Only an apology from the
waiter and his promise to get my food — 3 hrs later? I’m not hungry anymore.
6) sucky way to spend a birthday dinner.
Food is OKAY, But not enough to get me back I’m it’s doors or to recommend to anyone.

I’m going to make this quick because I am sleep-​deprived and have another review to write.
This place just opened up down from my house and I’ve been waiting forever to try it. Dad’s birthday popped up and he offered to go there to appease my curiosity, so on a Saturday night October 2^nd, the parents and I dropped in to a not-​so-​busy atmosphere. The waiter was a bit on his toes, flustered, rushed, and on a paced script– due to what my educated guess was the restaurant being brand new and him being the only floor server on. So, that didn’t bother me… but it set the tone a little uncomfortably. I hate feeling sorry for my waiter. Still, he was polite and didn’t cut me off when I had questions.
The atmosphere is open and cold, which is to blame for it being empty, which is to blame for it being new and not filled with regulars yet. Gah! Turn up the friggin’ heat until some bodies come in! I really like older, more homey Asian restaurants better as opposed to trendy places, but I wanted to try this place out and figured all new sushi/​Asian bars are going to be going this direction. Whatever. As long as the menu has funky stuff on it, I’m not going to bitch!
Well…maybe a little. I didn’t see much in the way of funky. They didn’t have anything you’d see down at Maekawa Bar or any of those interesting little joints down in the International District. You know those long lists of rolls that seem like they give you a bajillion options but really are just the same damn thing with a few components changed, with clever little names? Sexy Time Roll? Crunchy Bitch On a Log Roll? Yeah. I didn’t want to eat one of those and drop $ 15. Waba had tons of those. I started to get a little grouchy.
Then I saw that they had some hot pots, a seafood pancake… but you know, there’s the Kaya Korean joint right next door, so why would I get that here? Everything else on the menu seemed fattening, deep-​fried, and Wasabi Bisto-​ish. Maybe this was a bad idea.
Then I saw the chirashi bowl and remembered that I never treat myself to a chirashi bowl because they’re usually overpriced… and Pops is paying! And it was only $ 13 Here. This sucker came with 6 different kinds of fish, 16 pieces in all: 2 octopus, 3 escolar, 3 salmon, 3 snapper, 3 maguro, and 3 what i think might have been yellowtail (i posted a photo). I was stuffed. This was a better deal than any sashimi or nigiri platter I’ve gotten than most places (if only I could have seen scallops or uni!). The pieces were nice and fat, and whether or not I’m an expert on sashimi I thought it was damn good quality.
My dad ordered some spicy chicken hot plate with onions, which was good… but chicken bores me. Screw chicken. My mum got the seafood and veggie hot pot, which was fairly huge and sharable among all three of us (and for $ 12, that would made a great appetizer for a party of 2 – 3). Fat prawns the size of alien fetuses, clams, twisty octopus legs, mussels, enoki mushrooms, onions… all floating around in a zesty broth. This was filling! I was glad they light the little stove under the pot because nothing is more gross than cold soup.
The server gave us the option of edamame or miso with our meal. We chose the miso, which was yummy, but not very hot (and I should have known better, having worked at a new sushi place before and having to run around with cold miso to waiting tables!). I’ll get edamame next time… because the only way there WILL be a next time is when i am craving a chirashi bowl. I really don’t think there’s much else on the menu i can afford that is worth ordering for me personally. I think i prefer a more adventurous menu.
Hey, Waba! Take some hints:
1. put some sauces/​condiments/​salt & pepper on your table
2. put some napkins and extra utensils on your table
3. get real menus to replace paper ones
4. provide parkas (or turn up heat)
5. expand menu or borrow more interesting, healthier options from izakaya menus from places down in the I.D.
i didn’t hate it, but the fact that it was as cozy as a wet cave made it worse.
*joy

I’ve been hearing about this place ever since it opened. So after a day of sunshine and refreshing weather at the pool, my bff and her coworker and a really good friend of mine went check this place out. It was down the street from where we were at so we decided to have sushi for dinner.
What makes this place really GREAT is that we know the people that works there! You have double points when you know the staff especially they were friendly and waited on you with a smile. The food was awesome. And get this: ladies if you eat there your meal is 50% off the entire bill! SWEET! They also play really good music too so the atmosphere was very pleasant. You can turn that place into a nice lounge area late at night which I believe they do during the weekends. I would definately go back only with females though to take advantage of the half priced sushis.

My friends and I went to Waba for the 1^st time last night and have nothing but positive remarks. Great service, great food, great environment and EXCELLENT music… We laughed, ate, drank, sand and danced all night. When we were there, the waiters informed us about their Ladies Happy Hour. Apparently you receive 50% off all items if everyone in your party is a lady. SWEET! Not sure how long that deal goes on for, but we will definitely go back soon… Also, the waiters are worth the drive! (wink)

Yay! So glad it’s finally open. Welcome to the neighborhood Waba! Good service, great sushi, and lots of interesting side orders, like a true Japanese izakaya. I haven’t tried the okonomiyaki yet, but will next time. Eventually I probably will try everything on their lengthy menu. Also really happy it’s open until 2am. Maybe someday they will expand the soju/​shochu options… right now only three varieties. Kanpai!

If you want BAD sushi and horrible service. Then try this fake Sushi house… The fish was not fresh, they had a sauce we thought was made from ketchup and mayo and our drinks where so bad we couldn’t even drink them. The server was uneducated about Sushi and the menu… Then when we complained to the Mgr… He basically did nothing… They did nothing to make us ever want to go back there or to the Korean Barbque next to Waba

Finally — a trendy Japanese restaurant up for us folks up north!
I had been waiting for this to open because it’s close to home!
I love the interior design! — dimly lit setting and adorned w/​dark wooden tables&chairs…I loved the entrance– they placed large bamboo shoots there, the full bar was set up nicely & has two plasmas — they have a private room to seat a larger party which has a plasma available — & they have booths that are very romantic & cozy — and great if you have party of 2 – 4 & want a little more privacy.
On to the food! Excellent — My bf & I went in & looked at the menu– what to get! They have some selected itms that you can order for a set price– we got «Love Set» perfect for two people– You get to choose a grilled iron plate dish, a skewer, a hot pot + a bottle of soju (kind of like Korean sake) —
We ordered the cheese pork katsu iron plate, bacon & scallop skewer & odeng hot pot… that was more than enough for us! And extremely affordable for the amount & quality! I HAD to get a roll even though I knew I’d be stuffed — so we got the cherry blossom roll– GREAT presentation because it looked like a cherry blossom w/​salmon on the inside and tuna wrapped around the outside… SO GOOD.
I am going back for apps & drinks next time — Happy Hour!
They recently opened, so far so good! I believe they have a website coming soon but currently on Facebook for updates~ Also, they are right next to Kaya — if you are interested in Korean BBQ + food.
PS: took some photos of the food —