While
the menu has a few entrees, most dishes are small plates. Many of the
items are familiar, such as tempura, gyoza and the more common sushi.
Then there are items like age-ru calamari ($8), a small plate of perfectly fried squid with a light coating of flour. It has a chili
dipping sauce that is sweet as well as tangy. The menu promises sauteed
asparagus but it is not missed; the sliced shitake mushrooms suffice.
Sunomono ($9), another familiar name, is usually a salad of thin slices
of cucumber with some shrimp or octopus and a bit of vinegar. But
Wasabi changes the rules. There is cucumber, but it is in the form of a
thin sheet used to wrap the other ingredients, similar to how seaweed
is used in maki sushi. The filling is of minced seaweed, cooked shrimp
and threads of daiko radish and beet. Sliced rounds are served in a
bowl with some vinegar dressing.
Wasabi’s “signature rolls”
can be just as novel. The flaming dragon ($18) is a reverse roll. The
rice is over the sheet of seaweed and slices of tuna are placed on top
of the roll. There is a core filling of minced crab salad and pieces of
avocado. A piece of metal foil lies under neath the roll—flaming,
thanks to a bit of Bacardi 151 rum. The rum gently sears the raw tuna
and adds a hint of sweetness. All of the other signature rolls are less
expensive than this one, most around $10. Kushi yaki, a small plate
dish, is skewers of fire-grilled food. The one called maki kushi ($12)
is four skewers, each with a jumbo sea scallop that is wrapped in
bacon. The skewers are presented nearly upright, held in place with a
slice of Japanese yuzu, the citrus fruit used to make ponzu sauce. The
yuzu contributes its unique flavor to the underlying pool of teriyaki
sauce.
The scallop and crab cake entree ($18) offers quite a
large quantity of seafood—two skewers of sliced jumbo sea scallops that
are placed in a thick cake of snow crab flecked with carrot. There are
two different sauces, one a wasabi mayonnaise and the other infused
with hot pepper. Both are a delight with the crab cake. The scallops
are well complemented by a tomato garlic sauce with the flavors of
Sicily. The crab cake is placed over a balsamic vinegar-spiked
vegetable hash of broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, onion and mushrooms.
A lot is happening on one plate.
Entrees include a basic miso
soup and a salad made of field greens, grape tomatoes and threads of
carrot and beet. The ginger dressing is standard Japanese.
It
will require many visits to get to know Wasabi’s menu. Everything is
prepared with skill. Though it does not serve the purest form of
Japanese food, Brookfield is very fortunate to have an Asian restaurant
that is this stellar.
WASABI SUSHI AND SAKE LOUNGE 15455 W. Bluemound Road (just east of Moorland Road) (262) 780-0011 $$$ Credit cards: All major Smoking: No Handicapped access: Yes
Wasabi | Photo by Tate Bunker
