A high quality seafood at real Japanese restaurant, and I mean, REAL Japanese restaurant can be pricey. The best time to go have some tasty meal is during lunch time. This spot came under my radar, with their delectable lunch specials. But, it is not always to have lunch during the weekdays when you work full-time. Luckily for us, they are open for lunch on Saturday!

The inside was really beautifully done, modern and sleek, with minimum decoration. The light fixtures were really interesting, simple yet chick. The high ceiling made the space to look and feel much bigger. We arrived few minutes before they opened for lunch, and they let us in a couple of minutes early, since the restaurant was all set up for incoming customers. Thanks!

We were greeted by energetic “Irasshaimase” which is welcome in Japanese. The hostess was non-Japanese female, but most of other staffs were Japanese. We could see the kitchen on the back wall, and I could see the sushi chef (?) there, who was Japanese as well. I was in for some authentic Japanese food! Yes!

And they come with a huge, fully stocked bar. It was perfectly organized, like a piece of art. Everything about this place was meticulously designed and organized, paying great attention to every inch of this space.

As we were settling in, I saw one Japanese staff carrying some seafood items to the front of the restaurant. He started to set them up in the iced showcase by the entrance. I went to take a look, and to my surprise, they are more than just a restaurant. They also sell seafood too!

They had all sorts of fresh seafood, from whole fish, caviar, sashimi pieces, dried fish, etc., etc…. If we were going home right after our lunch, I would’ve bought several items… Well, now I have another reason to go back to Wokuni.

 

After we placed our lunch order, the staff brought us complimentary hot tea! Nice! Always the best to have hot tea with delicious Japanese food…

Our lunch order come with salad, soup, and small appetizer. They brought the salad and appetizer first. The appetizer was edamame.

Salad was super fresh and very chilled, which made it super refreshing. It had minimum amount of dressing, instead of salad swimming in oily dressing. Just the right amount of dressing, which I believe was sesame dressing. Tasty! The edamame was plump and fresh, not too salty which allowed us to taste its natural flavor.

I ordered Bara Chirashi ($18) for me. It is made with four kinds of diced fish, Ikura and tobiko over Sushi Rice.  Just look at this beauty, like a sparkling jewel box (or a jewel bowl?). It definitely had the “WOW!” factor, from the size, colorful look, freshness of ingredients…everything. I was in heaven…

But way, could this really taste as good as it looks? First of all, it came with REAL grated wasabi! Not one of those powder or tube kind, but real wasabi. Awesome! It had lots of fresh sashimi, avocado, masago and ikura. I also found some cooked unagi, fluffy eggs and crunchy cucumbers in there too. The container is very wide, but not so deep. It still is a lot of everything. Sushi rice was really nice, just the right amount of sweetness. Crunchy cucumbers and creamy avocado added refreshing texture and flavor. Loved every bite, from beginning to the end. It was a total party in my mouth, my taste buds were in chirashi heaven!

Miso soup and side dish were nice too. I can taste it was not some instant miso soup.

 

Side dish had fried salmon with veggies, cold dish, tangy and tasty. It was very comforting.

For my hubby, he wanted the special item that is only offered five a day! That is the reason why we got there before they opened for the day. And guess what, the next three customers who came in ordered this dish. It was gone within half an hour of opening! It is called Wokuni-Don ($24), and is made with assorted sashimi with shrimp tempura in one bowl. It had a generous amount of super fresh sashimi pieces, fluffy eggs and some tempura pieces. It was like the king of lunch donburi!

The tempura pieces were really great. It had sweet potato tempura in there too, cooked perfectly to be soft, yet still keeping nice firm texture. I could taste its natural sweetness. The tempura batter was thin and light, crunchy and fired just right. Shrimps were huge and super plump! It was juicy and packed with flavor! Simply amazing dish… A different kind of jewel box, but as precious as the other one.

I had a small issue with my miso soup bowl, it was cracked a bit, so the soup was leaking. In order to avoid a serious issue or accident with their next customer, I notified the staffs at the end of our meal. They thanked me for letting them know, and they threw away the bowl. Then, our server brought Matcha Ice Cream on the house! They felt bad about serving me their soup in a leaking bowl, they gave us a free dessert! I didn’t expect this at all, so it was a nice surprise. The ice cream had a real deal matcha flavor, creamy and tasty!

Bathroom is all the to the back to the right. As I walked towards the bathroom, I saw a private room back there too. They have one female bathroom and one male bathroom.

The bathroom was very spacious, handicap accessible, and had the same decor in here as well. Simple yet artistic and sleek. Nicely done.

Our server was not overly friendly, but very polite and efficient. He was tall and handsome Japanese guy, more “cool” than friendly. We were well taken care of, we had a great lunch here. The food was high quality, beautifully made, delicious and very satisfying. I would definitely go back for more!

 

Wokuni – 327 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016