Dining Review -- Kathy Mader

I think Japanese food in general, specifically sushi, makes for great

summer fare. It’s cool, light and always interesting.

Some friends introduced our parents, who in turn introduced us, to

Wafu of Japan, a restaurant and sushi bar in an obscure little strip mall

on Bristol Street across the street from the Country Inn. This is

definitely a word-of-mouth-kind of place. Thank goodness our friends, the

Chinns, opened theirs.

Wafu is only about 10 square feet larger than my bedroom -- it’s

actually the size of my dream closet -- but it serves up some colorful

and creative sushi, as well as all your old favorites. Little wooden

lanterns with rice paper shades hang above the several small booths and

tables that surround the heart of this tiny restaurant, the sushi bar.

Clearly it’s all about the sushi.

Wafu actually means “Japanese style” in Japanese, which is about as

Japanese as you can get. So is the sushi. Owner and sushi chef Hideto

“Harry” Arimizu and his wife, Mei Ling, both born in the south of Japan,

will celebrate their restaurant’s third-year anniversary next week and

will be printing up menus with some new appetizers in honor of that.

Each day, Wafu has several appetizer specials. We had the gyoza

appetizer ($3.25), better known as pot stickers, which are always

delicious, and the fried calamari ($4.25) in a sweet and light garlic

sauce with shaved green onions. Remembering that dish is making my mouth

water.

Wafu has a long list of traditional sushi that you can order by

checking off what you would like, but you can save about a bazillion

dollars by ordering the combination plates, which vary nightly.

Brian ordered the dinner combination ($9.50), which included chicken

teriyaki, shrimp and vegetable tempura, six pieces of California roll, a

salad with a tasty sesame dressing, white rice and miso soup. While I am

not a big fan of teriyaki chicken, I realize that most people are. Brian

liked it a lot. I liked his tempura a lot -- it was crispy and light --

and the miso soup was outright hearty, if such a word can be applied to

Japanese cuisine.

I ordered the sushi special ($9.50) with a total of 16 pieces of

sushi: four California rolls, four spicy tuna, four rainbow rolls --

shrimp, ahi and salmon, cut diagonally so that each piece of sushi has at

least two different types of fish along the top -- and finally, my very

favorite, four crunchy rolls. I could eat good crunchy roll till my head

fell off, and this would qualify.

I said before that Wafu has a long list of sushi, most of which I

recognized, some of which I will never try in my lifetime, but that’s not

their fault. It’s just that quail eggs do not belong in my mouth, that’s

all. However, they did have something called the sexy roll and, of

course, I had to ask. There is no rice in the sexy roll. It is salmon and

scallops wrapped in soy paper with crab and shrimp on the outside. I

guess that could be sexy -- either way, I bet it is good and you can bet

I will soon find out.

Wafu has several popular (and large) Japanese beers and a small

selection of sake, but when have you ever needed a large selection? You

must try the funky mochi dessert, which is ice cream wrapped in a sweet

rice cake in flavors of green tea, sweet red bean, cappuccino or

strawberry. Once you get familiar with the texture, the taste is great.

Let this be known: You can get a heck of a deal at Wafu. All in all,

Brian and I ordered two appetizers, two combination dinners, two desserts

and two large Asahi beers, and our total bill was $38.62, to be exact.

That’s a good Japanese-style deal any way you look at it.

* KATHY MADER’s dining reviews appear every other Thursday.

FYI

WHERE: Wafu of Japan, 320 Bristol St., Suite G, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Lunch hours are 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Dinner hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The restaurant is

closed Sunday.

HOW MUCH: Inexpensive

CALL: (714) 641-7321