Waza Japanese Cuisine

Everytime I go to Waza, I leave satisfied. Their Kobe burger is excellent. They have some of the best salmon in town ! About the only complaint I could have about the menu would be the Fried Rice Beef Bowl. The beef is cut too small.. but that's really just my prefence I suppose. The hot rock is always a good treat when you bring a lady friend with you to add to the atmosphere, not that this place really needs much help.

Pros: Location, Fresh Fish

Posted 10/16/09

The positive reviews for this place must be written by the restaurants staff as a marketing ploy. There's no way anyone could honestly like this place. It looks neat, but that's about it. The second you get past the host you get a sudden smell of reeking fish. I tried to ignore it but then when I got my sushi it was not fresh at all and tasted horrible. I found myself sipping my drink just to down it and I am a veteran sushi eater. Service was also clueless at best. I asked my waiter if I could get another roll besides a California Roll with my lunch special and hes aid "no problem". Then when I got the bill they tagged $5 extra. I asked, "Why didn't you tell me about this before?" He replied, "I didn't do it. The manager did." The total for lunch was over $20. Some lunch "special"! This place is extremely expensive and has the absolutely worst sushi I've eaten since Todai (nicknamed in infamy as "To-die").

Pros: Looks cool

Cons: Terrible food

Posted 06/02/09

Fine Japanese dining - beats any other Japanese restaurant in the area. Prices were reasonable considering the quality food, sushi well rolled with fresh ingredients, tempura wonderful and fried rice with quality cuts of meat. We even tried the fried green tea ice cream, and while the tempura was a little heavy on that for my tastes, as with all their desserts it was made in house, and the ice cream had a wonderful floral note to it. Good service, not great but only becasue the wait staff was not as amazing as the chef and sushi expert obviously were.

Originally from Seattle, I am very accustom to wonderful, well prepared japanese food. I was happy to finally find the like here in Houston.

Pros: Low lighting, fresh food, versitle menu, food presentation

Cons: located right off of two main roads and in target parking lo

Posted 03/13/09

just the worst ever . the service was the worst i have ever had. i asked for a double crown and coke in a tall glass they messed it up 3 times. the owner Patrick came over after Summer messed up he just said sorry. they say that alot Sorry . we ordered appetizers, sushi rolls and some combination things .the food comes and its the hot stuffed peppers and the combination s . I thought that appetizers come first then main then desert . then we wanted to get desert to go they said they can't it would fall apart. the worst place on 1960. will be closed in a year . you want a good sushi place go to fish or anyother place this place just flat out s*cks
.

Pros: non

Cons: just the worst ever .

Posted 02/20/09

This restaurant must be the best in town. I dine out 2-3 times a week. I fell in love with this joint when I went in for the first time about a month ago. The zen ambience, posh decor is the best I have seen so far. The varieties on the menu surpassed any Japanese restaurant in town. The freshness of the fish is unbelievable. Try to avoid the weekend because the place gets too crowdy unless you like "people watching". I will highly recommended this place to other people. You can't go wrong when excellent food and great ambience come together in one place.

Pros: Decor, Food, Parking

Cons: Gets Too Crowdy On Weekends

Posted 01/13/09

Took several of my out of town guests to Waza based on the strength of reviews here and close location to my home. Unfortunately we were quite disappointed and I was left embarrassed in front of my guests.

We arrived and put our name on the list to be told that there was a 20 minute wait. The ambience was nice, as was the decor. It was about what I expected it to be given the prices and the other reviews here. After 45 minutes we asked why we had not been seated yet and a different hostess smugly told us that we still had several parties in front of us. By the time we were seated, we had been approximately an hour and 15 minutes. Oddly enough, when we were finally seated we found that the dining area was half empty and that there were plenty of tables to be had. We even noticed that it took the hostess 30 minutes longer to seat the parties behind us to tables that had been empty the entire time!

At this point we thought that perhaps they were just short on waitstaff for this particular night and that we would be given very attentive service by our waiter. Not so! He was hardly around the dining area at all for our entire meal - not even serving other guests.

As far as the food goes, the pricing was about par for the course, but I would definitely rank the "taste" and "preparation" below other Houston sushi restaurants like Fish and Azuma. At least with the other two places I know to expect a wait and I would probably not be told by the hostess that it was an hour less than actuality.

In short, perhaps we went on a bad night.... but my experience was enough for me to stay away from bringing any more guests to Waza.

Pros: Decor, ambience

Cons: Unprompt seating, not as good as other Houston sushi

Posted 01/04/09

If you don't want to drive downtown and you live in the Copperfield, 1960, or Cyfair area this is finally the answer to the problem of their being no good sushi places or late night eateries. Sushi is fresh and delicious. Hours are friendly to those of us that don't like to eat early. Prices are good for the quality of food you get. I usually go to Genji when I want Japanese food late at night, but now this offers me a closer to my side of town option. Wait staff is always friendly too. Decor is lovely.

Pros: Good Food, Nice Decor, Late Night Dining

Cons: Probably too far out for townies to want to drive

Posted 12/18/08

The food is overly ethnic and if you do not have a taste for it, then you will not like it. Even their salad has Japanese dressing, so I ate mine dry. Even if you do not like the food, however, you will like the atmosphere and the decor. The restaurant is beautiful and I give it a 5 for decor. The food is not to my liking so I give it a 1 because there is nothing on the menu I will eat.

Pros: Ambiance, Parking, Decor

Cons: Food

Posted 12/17/08

This place was awesome! We went on a Saturday night. Easy parking and plenty of it! Great happy hour specials! We tried a few different kinds of sushi. My husbad liked the "Volcano". Its a Cali roll topped with spicy crawfish. VERY GOOD! The snow crab roll was also delicious. Some friends tried the "Shaggy Dog" and the "Spider", both excellent as well. Only con would have to be the service. The waiter knew about the menu and recommended the "Volcano". Service was a little slow, that would be our only complaint.

Pros: Great food, drinks and atmosphere

Cons: A little slow on the service

Posted 09/22/08

Went to Waza late on a Monday night. Parking was easy. It is a very spacious restaurant with a nice drink bar as well as a sushi bar - very "cool-looking" place. The patrons were mostly under 30 when I went. They have a lot of menus. There's a sushi menu, a regular food menu and also a drinks menu. ISat at the sushi bar. I opted for some sake ("Mu") which was delicious - nicely balanced, not too dry. The sushi was the highlight of the evening though. The Hamichi and Escolar sushi were very fresh. The edamame was good and the portions generous. The spicy tuna roll was ok but not great that night.
The waitress and sushi chef both waited on me, as it was a quiet night.d The waitress was very cute and very friendly, but a little forgetful. The sushi chef had to fill in on a few things that she forgot (e.g., edamame). This has got to be one of the best sushi places in NW Houston.

Pros: Great food, cool looking place, great sake

Cons: ok service but could be better

Posted 07/29/08

The food here is awesome. We go at least once a week and have only been disappointed once ( they aren'tjoking about the spicy grouper-:( Not edible)I love the fact that there is so much variety even our friend who do not like sushi can find something they like. It does take a while, and the staff is not very well informed. I would like to see more variety in the wine list.Plus there needs to be a better way to serve my favorite crab parfait. Maybe some won tons or something.Also No kids menu so they have to order a ten dollar fried rice.

Pros: parking. ambiance.variety.food quality

Cons: no kids menu. takes forever. kinda pricey

Posted 07/01/08

My husband and I tried the restaurant for the first time and were super impressed. The atmosphere is great with a modern asian look and floor to ceiling water walls lining the entrance. It took our waiter a few minutes to get to us but was helpful. We got the impression that he was new as he did not know the wine list and had no recommendations. The menu had so many great things we had a hard time choosing! Our food was a little slow in coming out and our appetizer was served at the same time as our meal. That being said, the food there is Amazing. Fresh sushi and sushimi with great flavors. My husband decided to order a few additional rolls, and they took a very long time in coming as well. My husband enjoyed his sake and I my wine very much. I had the banana foster for desert, also excellent, although I was disappointed in the lack of chocolate deserts. All in all, we willdefinately be back and will be bringing friends!

Pros: great food, ambiance,

Cons: service was not up to par

Posted 06/04/08

There is finally a nice sushi restaurant on this side of town. I had been waiting for this restaurant to open since the day they put the sign on. I used to go to southwest Houston just for some good sushi but now I can just go to Waza. If you already know sushi, there is no need for me o tell you what to order. Try out some of their special rolls like Green dragon, Sumo roll and the Hook'em roll. Waza has more than just sushi. Crispy calamari, coconut shrimp wonton wrap, steam black mussels are my favorite appt. For dinner, I like the new york strip, crispy grouper, even the Chilean Sea Bass. You get good amount of food for the price you pay for. . . .SWEET!!! While you are there, also try out their cocktails and the big selection of Sake. KEEP UP ALL THE GOOD WORK GUYS. I will be one of the frequent customer as long as I live in this side of town and I will keep bringing more friends.

Pros: food, servise, even parking!!!

Cons: music is kind of loud sometimes

Posted 04/30/08

a friend recommended me to try out waza....So the girlfriend and I decided to try it out this past thursday night. I was amazed to see such a beautiful japanese place on this side of town. I usually go to either uptown or Ra and wow i felt like i was there! It was fairly busy, but i was greeted and shown to my seat in no time! Might i say the menu had a wide selection to choose from. My mouth literally was watering from just looking at the menu. As we were trying to decide what to order, the fellow table next to us order i believe it was called Waza Hot Rock, was very interesting and fun. So we decided to order that. The waitress informed us that they had also Kobe Hot Rock Beef. The waitress told us that the Kobe meat was very tender and that it would melt in our mouths. So we decided to try the 12oz kobe between my girlfriend and i. OmG it was delllllicious!!!! THe meat was so TENDER!! We also order a few rolls.... We tried the Sumo Roll, and the FM1960 and i must say it was delightful. We were pretty full after all the food but our waitress said we had to try our dessert. They had a good selection of desserts but nothing with CHOCOLATE. =( We decided to try the banana foster.. It was a good. But i really wanted something chocolate....=P
The prices are really reasonable and the place is amazing. i will be back for sure! Great service Great Food what more can i ask for =) Our waitress was very prompt, friendly, and might i say CUTE ;-)...ask for margaret for a wonderful dinning experience

Pros: Everything

Posted 04/29/08

Love the place! I walked into the restaurant and was just amazed by the decor. Like others have said, it has a japanese tradition with a modern twist. Staff is great - warm smiles and there to help with suggestions. I love the drinks there. I'm not a big fan of martinis but their lychee martinis are awesome. Another drink I would recommend is their mango mojito. As far as sushi goes, I love the Hook'em Roll. If you're a carnivore and love meat, you should try it. It's spicy tuna inside topped with raw angus beef. However, If you're not into sushi and preferr something cooked, the New York Garlic Steak is an excellent choice. I can't forget to add dessert. Their coconut creme brulee is making me drool just thinking about it. But you should try it out for yourself instead of reading this :) Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Pros: Great drinks, food, staff, and the decor is absolutely gorgeous

Cons: The only dish I don't recommend is the baked avocado.

Posted 04/25/08

Hey ladies if your sick of the crappy bar scene and the creepy guys and the lame wait staff out at P.F. changs or the other bars and restaurants in the area, then you will LOVE waza...its totally fresh and different...me and my girlfriends were looking for a good place to unwind and have some martinis after work and not have to wait like two hours for a table or be shoved around at a crowded bar,when we found waza....well let me tell you,the food is INCREDIBLE!!! You would have to go into the loop and pay twice this to have this experience...The waiters are so damn polite and friendly and so knowledgeble about sushi. If you want a crazy night ask for a waiter named Justin at the front...so freakin funny and cute,an absolute charmer.....he made us so comfortable and relaxed,i didnt want to leave(you might want to have a driver if you imbibe in the lychee martinis...lol)...The manager came by our table and was very receptive to ideas we had for different sushi rolls and really knows how to run a business that works... Well thats my two cents.....Trust me ladies ,you dont want to miss this...

Pros: Beautiful decor....attractive and friendly waitstaff...great food

Cons: no mango tea

Posted 04/24/08

Right when i walk in i felt so welcome the staff were so amazing in greeting their customer...also the place was just breath talking it had a modern twist to it with a touch of japanese tradition you could sit in the sushi bar. booth, or bar there's also a party room for those special occasion....our server was terrific in recommending us great food YOU MUST TRY THE STEAM BLACK MUSSELS they were just delicious so fresh and flavorful also try the waxa maki and volcano roll the presentation was just out of this world oh yea MUST MUST try the WAZA HOT ROCK its so COOL and GOOD =) If your on a budget like me they have happy hour MON-FRI 4-6:30 and also offer special drinks each day I will be back there soon i promise you that you wont regret it

Pros: FOOD, SERVICE, ATMOSPHERE

Posted 04/24/08

I love, love, love the sushi at Waza! My friend and I have been going to this restaurant a few times over the last couple of months and I?m very impressed with the freshness and quality of the fish. The rolls are yummy, especially the Waza Maki, Volcano, and Shaggy Dog. I couldn?t ask for fresher sashimi. I saw a table ordering a sashimi boat once and I was thoroughly impressed with the presentation. I recommend Waza if you?re a sushi lover like me. For starters, try the crab cakes or the coconut shrimp wonton puffs. If you like cold appetizers, try the seaweed salad, or the waza tartar. I don?t recommend the oyster shooter?the sake is a tad strong? The crab luis parfait and the ahi tuna salad roll on the chef specialties menu are delicious! I highly recommend those. And of course, one of my all-time favorites is the seabass?yummmm!! I love the ambiance at Waza. The overall atmosphere is wonderful and the wait staff there is very attentive. If you want to learn Japanese, ask for Cheri ? she?s very knowledgeable about Japanese food. Of course it helps that she?s from Japan? And if you want an entertaining waiter, ask for Kevin or Michael.

Posted 04/24/08

With a fantastic atmosphere, I was able to enjoy a nice night out dining in a restaurant that had everything going right. As the music was keeping the energy of the restaurant alive, the menu was just amazing with a wonderful selection of rolls, handrolls, sushi, and sashimi pieces. With a menu loaded with many dishes to select from it was difficult to find something to order because everything looked great from the hot rock kobe beef to the Roll that had everything known as the Waza Maki. The waiter was a great help to helping me decide what exactly to order and helped me understand the menu alot better to be able to order the right meal for the night. In the end i ended up enjoying the waza maki, which had three fishes tuna, yellowtail, and salmon. A nice blend of fishes together with a nice touch of tamago egg, asparugus, and spicy mayo sauce. With the service as excellent as the food i recommend this restaurant to anyone who is a sushi lover or if it is your first time then you will definately get your moneys worth at Waza. Helpful service, great atmosphere, excellent food, you will find yourself at a restaurant you only experience midtown, galleria area, or downtown, located in north houston.

Pros: Service, Parking, and Ambience

Posted 04/23/08

Where do i start! This place is amazing! As soon as i walked in i was greeted by the wonderful staff.
The decor is wonderful! So much selection to choose from. I've been to many sushi places all over houston and i would have to say this has to be one of my favorites. The service was great. The waiter answered all our questions and recommended us to a delightful Lychee Martini and Coconut Shrimp Wonton puff to start off with. It was DDDLious! We order a few rolls and WOW! was i amazed! The Presentation was GORGEOUS! We had the Sumo Roll, Shaggy Dog, and the Green Dragon... Everything was wonderful. I must say this place made our weekend very enjoyable. I will definitely be back......WaZZZZZZAAAAA!!!!! =D

Pros: EVERYTHING IS TOP NOTCH!

Cons: Music might be a little to loud

Posted 04/14/08

The best sushi place on this side of town! Greeted by a friendly staff, beautiful waterfall to your left, and trendy bar to the right, you immediately know you're in for a good time! We started out with the hamachi ceviche chef specialty which was recommended by our most helpful, and beautiful waitress. Served on a banana leaf, its 5 pieces of the most succulent yellowtail juiced with a special yuzu sauce, it hits your taste buds with a slight kick with the jalapenos and onions, and then it just slides down your throat leaving you craving for another piece immediately. One of my favorite appetizers. I also had the black steamed mussels and oyster denboyaki which was a chef specialty. The Shaggy Dog and Green Dragon were delicious my friend had the Chilean Seabass which was yummy she said and the Ahi Tuna Steak with the garlic sauce was "fork licking good". We also had the the Lychee Martini and Mojikyto from the bar and it was a good choice to go with our Banana Foster's dessert that we had while we chitchatted and people watched until we were ready to leave. Great waitstaff! delicious food and and overall goodtime! My expectactions were met and surpassed. We will definetly go back! maybe for the Happy Hour that the waitress told us about on weekdays from 4-6:30.

Pros: ambience, service and food

Cons: music was sometimes off and loud

Posted 04/14/08

We tried this on a whim last weekend and we were thoroughly impressed. The wait was short, even though it was packed and the service was very friendly and knowledgeable. The food was terrific and very different from the normal sushi plates. The atmosphere was a great mix between a traditional sushi restaurant and a club feel, and they had a fantastic sake and drinks menu. Ladies, try the Moon Rabbit sparkling sake ... it's delicious!!!

Pros: Great sake menu, good location, large building, easy parking, fun food to try.

Posted 04/11/08

The quality and freshness of the sushi is why I gave 5 stars. The food was absolutely fantastic, the fish was fresh and delicious! The presentation was very creative and we felt they gave us very generous servings! The service was great - the staff is not pushy or overbearing, but nonetheless quite attentive. We are definitely going back for more!

Pros: Fresh Sushi. Friendly Staff. Open Late Nights.

Cons: None

Posted 04/03/08