Wajima Japanese Restaurant

This is real Japanese food. A thing which is not very common in New York. I lived in Tokyo about a decade and I have only found a few Japanese restaurants in Manhattan are authentic. I actually think you might not care whether a place is authentic or not (and you may not even like it, being used to American/​Chinese Japanese food) and that’s fine, but for someone like me who is looking for the nostalgic feeling of being back to my second home, this is a nice place.

Smaller restaurant, fine dining décor. My friend and I ordered the Spicy maki combo special for $ 17.50. It came with 18 pieces with spicy mayo on top of each piece. (not mixed in like I usually see it). It didn’t come with soup or salad. Pieces were small, fresh, but tasty. Although, the yellowtail tasted a little fishy. Staff was attentive and polite.

I came here specifically for the lunch set, which is $ 12.50. You have to come early or else you will have to wait in line. I’m not a big fan of waiting in line when i’m hungry. The set has 5 different things — chirashi-​bowl of rice with sashimi and egg, tempura rice bowl, soba noodles in soy saurce, egg custard and miso soup. Lots of variety and just enough to fill up my tummy. The food was okay, nothing stood out that would make me come back here. Food came out very quickly. For the price, you get a decent amount. I’m a fan of Japanese lunch sets.

Best soba /​bento in the city! The bento lunch set was $ 12, very affordable. Sashimi was fresh, and the service wasn’t slow.

lunch special is an excellent deal. friendly service. food is top rated. lines can be long, so if possible, call to snag a reservation (otherwise it is first come, first served)

When I lived in this area, Wajima was the most authentic sushi spot nearby. Their menu and offerings are not Americanized, so don’t go in expecting that. You can expect very fresh fish, and a friendly, albeit timid, staff.

I visited here at lunch time with a friend. The lunch menu for weekday is very good. You can have sashimi, chawan mushi, shrimp tempura and cold soba under $ 15.
Definitely will visit here again.

Came here for a Friday dinner at 7:30 pm. I waited for 20 minutes for a table. The restaurant was somewhat busy for tonight.
We sat near the back, near the kitchen. Personally, I dislike sitting next to kitchen, so it distracted from the experience. The staff is also always in a rush running back and forth, which detracted from the atmosphere as well.
We ordered two hot dishes, but you can only have 1 at a time due to safety, so we decided to eat the two meals sequentially.
Sliced duck breast with udon noodles. The plate is presented raw along with the on table cooking set. It includes spinach, udon, duck breast, carrot, enoki mushrooms, Chinese lettuce, onion, and string beans. They cooked it in front of us. The broth was good. The duck breast was okay, but watch out, may overcook.
The sukiyaki was similar. The broth was a lot more intense with a sweet and salty play. The meat could have tasted even better if it wasn’t overcooked.
The servers were pretty nice and accommodating. However, I feel that the meal was a tad overpriced at about $ 27 per meal. Most of it was vegetables, you only got a few slices of meat.
Overall ok, but probably a better deal for lunch.

Very cute lunch special sets and came here to try it. I had the sanmizen ($ 12.50) set, it comes with:
1. Chirashi, which is a sushi rice bowl. Small bowl with thin slices of sashimi and egg.
2. Tendon, a tempura rice bowl.
3. Cold soba, buckwheat noodle.
4. Chawanmushi, egg custard. This was delicious, very smooth and delicate.
5. Miso soup
Love all the little stuff it came with. There’s a little bit of everything and leaves you satisfied, just the right portion for lunch. Very casual spot like most Japanese restaurants, plain wooden décor. Perfect place for lunch, but fills up fast. Quick service.

came here on a whim while looking around the area for spot to have dinner/​drinks. happened to come upon this place since the interior looked extremely minimal yet nice, so I decided why not.
Ordered the maki combo 3 along with some sake on the rocks? My meal really didn’t taste any different from what I could have ordered from a place that serves take out sushi, was extremely disappointed in what I felt was average if not slightly sub par sushi, for above average prices.
to be fair I did not try anything else on the menu, but if what I ordered here on my first go around is an indicator of the quality of the other items here, I really don’t expect to be blown away by the other menu items as well

I enjoyed my meal here, especially its quaint atmosphere and friendly staff. The prices aren’t that bad if you consider that the portion size of the sukiyaki was enough to feed 3 girls. If you get the sukiyaki, do ask for a raw egg to dip your beef in (makes it taste more tender and just all around better). Unfortunately, having had some of the best sukiyaki in Japan, I found myself a bit disappointed with the quality of the beef, but I should have tempered my expectations given the price point. I also don’t really like the tofu they use, but the other veggies turned out quite nicely.
We also ordered a side of beef tripe, which was good, but not quite as good as I remembered from a previous trip.
All in all, one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in the city, and despite what other reviewers mentioned, actually not that overpriced for dinner. Of course, I still want to come back and try one of the lunch specials!

In terms of price/​quality, nothing in this area could beat Wajima, which could be perfectly explained by the long waiting line even before the restaurant opening.
Three lunch prex-​fixe can be chosen with set A and B priced at 12.5 and set C at 14.5. For 12.5, you could get egg custard, miso soup, tempura shrimp rice bowl, Chirashi bowl and a small cold soba. Such a good deal! For 14.5, you could substitute with sukiyaki beef and soup udon/​soba and fried tofu. Our waitress was also very attentive and kept filling our cups with green tea.
Well done! I would try the sukiyaki next time visiting!

I love this place! I came here upon a recommendation from a friend and found it to be one of the best tempura udons I have had in the city. It is quite pricey at $ 20-​$ 22 per bowl (I ordered the thinner udon noodle at $ 22/​bowl) but it’s quality for what you pay. The broth is delicate and flavorful, and I’m 99.9% sure — they should be for what they’re charging for it — the noodles are hand pulled. FYI this is the only thing I have ordered from the menu so I can’t speak to other menu items. I will be back for some hearty udon though! :)

I can’t believe how good this place was. Literally shocked.
The service was superb and the quality of food was amazing. Yes, very pricey, but honestly worth it.
My friend ordered the shrimp tempura roll, and it was delicious. I ordered the spicy tuna roll «with crunch” — the tuna was SO FRESH. I couldn’t believe it.
We both ordered the hot udon. It definitely had a miso style broth, and normally, I’m not the biggest fan of miso but it was absolutely mouth watering good. It’s very basic (only noodles and some seaweed) but goes a long way.
As we were leaving I noticed other tables had a hot-​pot looking hook up. I would definitely come back and inquire about that.
A must go to for this neighorhood!

LOVE!!!
I’ve only been here for lunch and only ordered their lunch specials. They are such a great deal, especially when you take into consideration their regular and dinner prices. Ok, aside from their lunch prices being affordable, the food is so good and high quality. Honestly it is one of the best traditional, no frills Japanese restaurants in NYC. Their service is very attentive and extremely quick. I honestly don’t expect chit chat during lunch hour rush, but their hostess does a really amazing job to check in on you when she gets the chance.
All 3 lunch options are great and each one serves a purpose. The first option you’ll get everything — small portion of chirashi, tempura, cold soba, miso, and custard. Second, you get a larger size salmon sashimi bowl, tempura, miso, and custard. Third, you get all hot options with soba or udon soup and a beef sukiyaki/​agedashi combo. If you’re craving hot noodles, cold noddles, sashimi, tempura, there’s a combo to fix it for you.
It can get busy during lunch but your food comes out quick and its damn good!

Cheap lunch sets– about $ 12.50
Since the portion sizes aren’t huge here, you won’t go back to the office with a food coma. I’m sure your boss will be happy that you did not go pig out during lunch and come back sleepy and slow.
There are only 3 lunch sets to choose from, I tried the salmon zen which consisted of salmon sashimi on a bowl of rice, and tempura. You also get miso soup and chawamushi.
Unlike those fake generic Japanese lunch spots where they deep fry your siumai, make you watered down miso soup, and serve you horrible japanese, this place was pretty authentic. Even the chawamushi was pretty good.
Highly recommended for lunch.

Wajima is a no-​frills but clean and decent Japanese place near Bloomingdales. It’s good for its $ 12.50 lunch specials. I always get the Sanmizen set: Chirashi, Chawanmushi, Cold Soba noodles, Tempura and Miso soup. Service is fair, depending on who waits on you.
The Chawanmushi — steamed egg custard– came in a tea cup, which is traditionally what it’s served in. The custard was smooth & light w/​scallion bits, slices of mushrooms, small slices of fish cake & shrimp bits (And I would’ve enjoyed it more that one time, if not for the mushy shrimp shell that was accidentally mixed in). The egg mixture is lightly flavored with soy sauce, dashi, and mirin — a typical way of making it. Wajima’s version is a bit bland and could’ve used a bit more flavor. IMO, taste for chawanmushi should be delicate and not too overpowering but should have enough flavor to perfectly accent the taste of the custard and the contents.
Just as enjoyable is the cold soba (buckwheat noodles) steeped in a light & cold tsuyu (a mix of dashi, sweetened soy sauce, & mirin) broth w/​wide shreds of seaweed, scallions, and wasabi. Soba was perfectly cooked al dente & went well with the taste and texture of crispy & flaky seaweed. The wasabi added a nice, sharp kick to the broth.
Miso soup was quite standard: w/​tofu & seaweed bits.
Tendon was excellent, though I wished there was more oroshi (grated daikon radish) in the tempura sauce poured over the 2 crispy & lightly battered & fried pieces of shrimp. It is probably one of the better tempura’s I’ve had in the city. But again, I wish they would give you more sauce & oroshi on the side, since I decided this went well w/​my bland Chawanmushi.
The chirashi bowl had generously sized, thick pieces of sashimi: 2 salmon, 1 yellowtail, & 1 egg (a little egg overkill esp since there’s the cup of Chawanmushi). Fish was okay but nothing spectacular. I wouldn’t come here just for the sushi but I keep coming back for the $ 12.50 Sanmizen lunch set.

My boyfriend made a reservation for 730 pm for four (him, me, brother and dad) but we arrived around 715, which threw off the hostess. She tried to recover but that didn’t go so well. She was scrambling to put us at a table…
We ordered a lot of appetizers: green salad with carrot ginger dressing, fried chicken, some rolls, blue fin fatty tuna, tofu and the yellow tail collar. Every thing was delicious. The salad was fresh and crunchy. The dressing was fresh and slightly tart. The fried chicken was perfectly fried with a moist center.
We ordered three entrees to share: udon, sushi and teriyaki black cod. The udon noodles were different kind of like angel hair spaghetti. It was delicious and chewy. The broth was seasoned perfectly with a sprinkle of scallions and seaweed. Must try! The rest of the entrees were pretty standard.
For dessert we had the green tea ice cream with red bean. The ice cream was different than store bought because there was a strong green tea essence which was a perfect ending to the meal.

A great Japanese option around Bloomingdales. For some reason, they are generally quite empty and filled with mostly regulars. That’s a good sign for me.
The sushi and sashimi combo is simple but fresh. Price is vey reasonable as well, $ 25 I think. And from what I saw from other comments, lunch is a much better deal.
Service is very Japanese. Very soft speaking waitresses and slight nodding adding to an authentic experience. They also didn’t rush us. We were chatting away until past 10 and they happily refilled our water and green tea.
I’ll come back when I’m around the area.

Gosto mto do lunch box! Preço amigável! Tem que chegar bem cedo tipo umas 11:50 em ponto! O restaurante faz reserva! Esse é um lugar para comer rápido e ir embora, não é um lugar para ir com a família ou amigos… O atendimento é bem rápido! Adoro o wajima! Sempre peço sanmizen

La cucaracha, la cucaracha … (sing it!)
bacqui bullae (korean)
gokiburi (japanese)
That is all.