Wakasan

J's dad's birthday dinner was definitely the highlight of this weekend's trip to LA. Eight of us descended on Wakasan, hungry and ready to do some damage. We ordered four of the $96 set menus, two of the $40 set menus, and supplemented with a la carte items. I did not take photos of every dish eaten, and the dishes below are a miss match of the various set menus, but you can get a sense of the artistry and quality of the restaurant. It was really a fantastic meal, just under $100 each after tax, tip, and two pitchers of beer. 

The sashimi plate: nothing too out of the ordinary, but very good. The ebi, I thought, was especially fresh this weekend.  

My favorite dish of the night was the scallops topped with toro tartare and uni, atop a lightly briny seaweed paste. If I could approximate this at home I would be one happy camper.

Torched live uni, served in their own shells with a bed of shiso.

Closeup! It's not every day you see uni this fresh.

Abalone in a light broth, with watercress seed. I'm not much for fresh abalone, so the watercress seed was the most interesting part of this dish. They're kind of slimy and salty, not exactly tasty but definitely different.

The fish roe porridge was surprisingly delicious. The broth tasted of dried bonito and sake; I could have had a big bowl of just the soup, it was so soothing.

House special ramen. Again, this broth was stellar. The noodles were excellent as well. Why can't more places do ramen right?

Mini hot pot. Precious, isn't it? There was a lot of hot pot at the table, since it came with all the $95 menus and with one of the $40 menus. The $40 menu came with regular beef shabu shabu and a plate of assorted vegetables.

The $95 menu beat that by a mile by serving prime rib shabu shabu. WOW! Our server emphasized that we should pull the meat out of the broth just as it turned pink. I followed instructions to a T, garnering a compliment from our server as he walked by.

I was rewarded with possibly the best bite of shabu shabu I've ever had in my life. It was so meltingly tender I almost didn't believe it was beef. I'm never overcooking my shabu shabu again.

The other $40 menu came with grilled beef, which of course smelled amazing as it cooked at the table.

Almost done...what's in the pot?

My second favorite dish of the night was this pot of rice. Among other things, it had uni, salmon roe, abalone, and really fragrant rice. We suspect it was cooked in a dashi broth, but who knows what goes on in that busy kitchen of theirs? In any case, this could easily have been a meal in and of itself, but we had two to share at the table as a savory last course.

After all that food, it would have been hard for the dessert to impress anyone. Ice cream filled crepes are nice, but it really is the rest of the meal that shines at Wakasan. I highly recommend going, whether for an a la carte meal or the $40, $65, or $95 omakase menus. I don't feel the quality or creativity drops off at the lower price points, you're simply trading expensive ingredients for more budget friendly alternatives. Either way, it's a fun meal.