My wife and I had gone back to the Des Moines area to participate in a surprise significant birthday party for my sister this past fall. We were going to stay in downtown Des Moines for the evening and we had planned on going to get sushi. My sister's boyfriend said that we needed to go try Wasabi Tao. "It's the best," he said. "Oh, yeah," my sister said agreeing with him. "It's our favorite." We had planned on going back to Akebono which we thought had great sushi. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Akebono.) But from the conviction in their voices pretty much convinced us to go to Wasabi Tao that evening.
Actually, I was somewhat familiar with the Wasabi family of restaurants since the 2011 opening of Wasabi Chi on Des Moines' northwest side. Jay Wang was born and raised in the Fujian region of China which is known for having some of the finest culinary experiences in that country. Wang and his friend, Tony He, both went to Japan to learn the art of Japanese cuisine before heading to New York City to work in restaurants there.
Wang eventually ended up in Philadelphia before he came to Des Moines - how he ended up in Des Moines, I just don't know. But along with partner Jimmy Zheng, they opened the first Wasabi restaurant with a focus on "New York-style" sushi, as well as variations on Thai and Chinese food. It was an immediate hit with sushi lovers in Central Iowa and got a number of great reviews in local publications - not only for the food, but for the feng shui decor of the place.
Things were going so well at Wasabi Chi that Wang was recruiting sushi chefs from both coasts. His biggest recruit was his friend, Tony He, who was still a sushi chef in New York City. Making He a partner in his new restaurant, Wang then opened Wasabi Tao in the former Zen - then Centro - spot in the Kirkwood building (home of the former Kirkwood Hotel) in downtown Des Moines.
Wang expanded the Wasabi empire to open a third location - just named Wasabi - in the northwest Des Moines suburb of Johnston in the spring of 2016, while a fourth location - also called Wasabi - opened in west suburban Waukee about six months ago. (Wang and his minority partners also own Teriyaki Boys, a fast casual Asian restaurant with locations in downtown Des Moines and at the new Outlets of Des Moines shopping complex near suburban Altoona.)
It was after 9 p.m. when we pulled up to Wasabi Tao on Walnut Ave. in downtown Des Moines. (see map) Walking into the place we found a sort of darkened space with a number of booths in the dining area. Earthtone walls helped keep the brightness down in the space. Some of the walls actually had fossil shells from the nearby Des Moines River incorporated into the surface.
The bar area in the center of the restaurant was much more bright and vibrant. Although there weren't a lot of people in the place at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, they had two bartenders handling drink orders. But mainly, they were just passing time talking between themselves and a couple people seated at the bar. There was kind of a weird "we don't really care" vibe going on with the staff as a whole that evening. Even though they were open until 11 p.m., we just sort of got the idea that we were making somewhat of an imposition on the staff after we walked in.
Across from the bar was the centerpiece of Wasabi Tao - a large statue of Buddha sitting majestically overseeing the restaurant. Wang and He found this Buddha in New York City and had it shipped to Des Moines. It reportedly cost $2000 just to ship it, and when it got to the restaurant they found that it wouldn't fit through any of the doors. They had to literally pull out a window - as well as some of the wall surrounding the window - just to get the statue inside. It's big and pretty impressive.
We took a seat at the small sushi bar off to the side of the bar and we were given menus to look over (even though we pretty much knew what we were going to get). Since it was a somewhat cold and raw night, my wife ordered a green tea and I ordered a Sapporo (only after finding out they didn't have Asahi).
My wife also started out by ordering a Kani salad. We also wanted to try the Salmon Toro tartar - diced salmon toro - the best part of the salmon - along with diced mango mixed with crunch and tobiko (flying fish roe). It was served with yuzu miso (a citrusy Japanese sauce) along with a spicy momiji pepper sauce that really gave it a quick. While my wife really enjoyed her Kani salad, I could have eaten four more of the Salmon Toro tartar appetizer - it was that good.
We didn't think we'd be eating all that much, but we did get one each of the spicy tuna and the spicy salmon rolls. Quite honestly, they were pretty average - at best. They were good, but I guess we were thinking that we'd be getting some that that would just pop in our mouths. But they were big and definitely well-stuffed with both the spicy tuna and spicy salmon. I think I liked the spicy salmon just a little bit better.
While I didn't think that I'd had enough, I wanted to try some of their nigiri sushi - the smoked salmon, the be exact. At Akebono, they have a wonderful Tasmanian salmon on the menu there that is just to die for. The smoked salmon at Wasabi Tao wasn't in the same ballpark in taste quality with the Tasmanian Salmon at Akebono (about six blocks away). It was good, but - once again - it didn't knock my socks off, either.
One thing that I learned after the fact about the Wasabi restaurants in the Des Moines area is that there is a distinct difference in the levels of rice that sushi places use. Just like how the best Italian restaurants use doppio zero (00) flour in their pastas and breads, there's sort of a top rice in Japan - Tamameshiki - that is a hybrid combination of Koshihikari and Yumegokochi rices. All the Wasabi restaurants in the Des Moines area use Tamameshiki rice, but not a lot of places in the U.S. use that kind of rice. And to make it even more enjoyable in taste, the Wasabi restaurants cook their rice in a seaweed dashi (broth). Quite honestly, I'm not certain I could tell any difference, but it would be fun to focus on the rice the next time I make it to a Wasabi restaurant.
And I'll probably go back. I need to give them another chance, given how my sister and her boyfriend talked up Wasabi Tao, plus all the glowing reviews I've read on their restaurants over the past five years or so. I did think the Salmon Toro tartar was outstanding and my wife really thought her Kani salad was very good. But we thought the spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls were pretty average, and we weren't all that impressed with the smoked salmon sushi. I'd like to go back and try some of their varieties of tuna sushi at some point, but until then let's just say we were oversold on Wasabi Tao after our first visit.
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