EVERETT – A Herald reader sent me an e-mail a couple of weeks ago recommending I visit Wasabi Factory Japanese Grill &Sushi Bar. Because I’m always ready to try a new restaurant, I grabbed a friend and headed toward the Boeing plant.
Wasabi Factory, which opened about a month ago, is east of the Boeing campus and near a gravel pit in a new but small shopping center. The restaurant’s interior has a Zenlike feeling where the decor is chiefly black and white. Track lighting, mirrors and an open-area sushi bar give the dining room an open, airy feeling.
The restaurant’s menu includes a well-rounded list of sushi choices with amusing names like spider, caterpillar, dragon, dynamite and volcano. Prices range from $4 for a fresh cucumber roll to $15 for a black dragon. The best choice for one might be the sushi plates – six pieces of sushi and a California roll ($16) or seven pieces of sushi and a tempura roll ($20). There’s also a four-piece sushi appetizer ($9).
In addition to sushi, the menu has udon, which are noodles in broth with other goodies ($7 to $9), plus teriyaki ($7.50) and a tempura plate with prawns and vegetables ($12). The most expensive item on the menu is Kobe beef rib-eye steak ($25).
For our lunch, my friend ordered one of his favorites, chicken yakisoba ($8), which is similar to chow mein. I considered one of the eight salads, albacore tataki ($10), which is made with seared yellowfin tuna, sweet onions in a ponzu sauce, but decided I was too cold for a salad.
On the Friday my friend and I visited, most of the customers, including us, ordered in Japanese, from dishes following traditional recipes. The lunch specials included the chicken bento box ($8). This is one of my favorite choices because a bento box is divided into sections and has a little of everything. My lunch included a bowl of miso soup, two goyza, which are Japanese potstickers, two California rolls, chicken teriyaki, salad and steamed rice.
The California rolls were made with shredded Dungeness crab and a slice of avocado inside rice wrapped with seaweed. The rolls were very tasty and I decided to return and try other sushi selections.
I traded a goyza for a taste (very small taste) of my friend’s yakisoba, which was elegantly served on an oversized platter. Like my chicken teriyaki, the yakisoba was just as good as yakisoba lunches I enjoyed while living in Japan.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.
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