dancing wasabi

ok, i had eaten at dancing wasabi a couple times before, but i was not prepared for what i got last week when i went with brian and patricia. in the past, i had gone for dinner at around 7ish during the week, sat outside, ordered a couple rolls, and read a book or the newspaper. i thought the sushi was good but kind of overpriced, and i was kind of just in it for the al fresco dining. fine, what i was looking for, but not particularly memorable.

well last week when i went it was totally different. we ended up not even getting there until like 10:30 pm, which is way late for grandma (aka me) on a weeknight. when we get there, the place is pretty empty except for a table of drunk koreans (and one white girl) singing loudly and drunkenly to the giant flat screen karaoke mounted up in the back. i had no idea but it turns out this place is open until 2 am (except for weekends when it is open until 4 am) and basically the owner and his friends just get wasted, do karaoke, pass out, and then start it up again the next day for lunch. it was AWESOME.

the food was also way better than i had previously thought. maybe it was partly that i was about to gnaw off my arm from hunger but it was some of the best sushi i've had recently. it was just so fresh and rich and buttery. we got a variety of rolls and some pieces and it was all excellent. i really like the creativity in the rolls. patricia claims that dancing wasabi is the place to go for crazy interesting rolls (and she likes ando for just straight up good sushi). i haven't been to ando yet but never fear, it's on the list and i will write about it for you, my hordes of adoring readers.

anyway back to the rolls at dancing wasabi. they use all kinds of interesting ingredients to make them exciting. cool combinations of fish but also a lot of spiciness from various sauces and spices. i like things spicy so that is good for me but if you are not a fan of spice, you might want to stick to the non-chef specialty rolls.

the atmosphere was ok but i did get kind of tired of the super loud karaoke. of course, it was like midnight and i had to work the next day and i was really tired. so there was that. service was ok but the waitress kept stopping to sing and would then kind of ignore us for a while. but she was really nice and a good singer so we didn't really mind.

i definitely recommend dancing wasabi if you are in the mood for some very delicious and very creative sushi, and/or if you're up for some crazy korean karaoke. also, if you are hungry at 1 am there is really nowhere else to go in this city other than shanghai mama's (which sucks) and skyline (which even i get tired of sometimes).