Wakame Sushi & Asian Bistro

One of THE best sushi restaurants in town. We are repeating customers sometimes twice a week. George is very nice and customer friendly, along with the staff. If you go at 9pm Happy Hour starts so the rolls are reasonably priced. Oysters are 2.75 per piece but def. worth it. Ambient and atmosphere is perfect. Worth trying and waiting in line otherwise arrive after 930 to avoid waiting. Definitely worth a shot, great service, staff and location!

This place is awesome! Great sushi, great happy hour deals! I highly recommend it!
I love love love the steamed gyoza and the hot spicy girl rolls!

One of my favorite sushi spots in town — definitely in Uptown. The food is always good, service is solid and the atmosphere is fantastic.
On this particular trip, we had the Hot & Spicy girl, Spicy Tuna, California and Whitetail roll. I’ve tried almost every roll on the menu and they’re always good, tonight was no exception. We also had white rice and miso soup — both were great!
It is usually crowded, especially on nice evenings but they have a great reservation/​message system. We grabbed drinks at the bar and sat outside — Wakame texted us when our table was ready.
Pro tip: after 6, park in the office parking lot east of Wakame (by Calhoun), and walk over.

First of all, the atmosphere of Wakame is awesome. The restaurant has such a cool vibe to it and the décor is modern and sleek. Second, the owner George is so nice and hospitable! He’ll make sure you have a great experience. Oh, and did I mention that they have a free parking lot? That’s hard to come by in Uptown so bonus points for that!
This is the place to be for Happy Hour and it is insane in many aspects (in a good way) — they have it twice a day, between 3 – 6 pm and 9:30 pm to midnight. The 3 – 6 pm timeframe isn’t as crazy but It’s absolutely packed during late night happy hour. If you want to be sat down before you get hangry, I suggest either make a reservation ahead of time or go early!
Wakame has the best happy hour deals! My personal favorites are the BMW Roll and the mussels — don’t leave without trying them! Other good apps and sushi rolls to try: Hot & Spicy Girl Roll, Crazy Monkey Roll (personally don’t like it but my friends love it), Spicy Basil Chicken Wings, Pork Gyoza.
My only complaint is that the past couple of times I’ve visited, the sushi didn’t taste fresh and that made me sad. However, that won’t stop me from coming back — if anything, I’ll be back for those delicious mussels!

I think about this place at least 10 times a month and I probably go every time it comes to mind. If I don’t fulfill my cravings for it that day I definitely do as soon as possible. It’s great pricing. (Especially during happy hour) the appetizers are Great!
But the sushi truly tops it all. It is seriously the most fresh delicious tasting sushi I have had in along time. I would recommend this place to anyone and everyone. I LOVE IT!!!

Wakame is wonderful and George (the owner) is the man. Ya gotta stop by and find this out first-​hand.
First off, you’ve probably heard about their crazy ass happy hour — yes, it’s every day from 3 – 6 and 9:30 — midnight, and the HH menu is extensive. It includes cocktails, wines, beers, appetizers, and sushi specials. They have a free parking lot too, but it’s shared with several other businesses, so worst case you will have to walk over from Whole Foods or something. When you walk in, George greets you with such a smile, I swear I heard «Walking on Sunshine» start playing.
I totally can’t remember the details of what was ordered during my last visit, but here are some items I remember: the Jeremy Roll, Hot & Spicy Girl, Spicy Tuna, Rainbow Roll, Escolar Nigiri, soft spring rolls, pork gyoza, spicy basil chicken wings, and edamame. And cocktails. Definitely cocktails. We loved every single thing we tried, and they were all off of the HH menu. The rolls were fresh, colorful, and balanced. The wings were tasty but not too spicy. The gyoza were some of my faves in the Twin Cities and the Spring rolls were much meatier than I expected (that’s what she said?).
Thank you, Wakame, George, and team for another great meal.
PS — be sure to grab a fancy cocktail with an edible flower — it’ll make you feel like a fancy AF.

It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this review… I think I am breaking up with wakame.
Me and my fiancé come here quite often and we were actually here 2 weekends ago and it was fine, we came without reservations and sat at the bar since it was super busy… and I tried the spicy vegetable miso for the first time and it is seriously the bomb dot com!!! I’ve also written 5 star reviews for here previously… But I don’t know how I feel anymore. I feel so let down.
So here’s what happened…
I made reservations for myself and 4 girlfriends this past weekend (Friday) and have never had such a series of events?!!
First, we made reservations for Friday at 7:00 pm. We arrived right at 7!!! However… We ended up waiting about 30 minutes for our table, which ok… It’s busy, that’s fine, were chatting anyway., We finally get a table and order drinks, drinks came and we ordered dinner pretty quick. I usually get the chirashizushia, and nothing new, I ordered it again… and my girlfriends got a few rolls and one non sushi eater got the teriyaki chicken. And we waited… And waited and waited. Over an hour later, no drinks anymore and no food, we got worried. Waitress tells us the sushi is backed up and drops off my friends chicken. So my friend is waiting to eat. About 10 minutes go by and no one else food shows up. We tell her not to wait, no biggie, our food is already cold so no sense on her letting her hot food get cold. She eats, she finishes and we still don’t have sushi. Waitress tells us it’s on the way. Another 30 minutes later, our food finally shows up.
Almost 2 hours after our reservation we finally get to eat? It was nearly 9pm when our food was dropped off? Sushi takes 1.5 hours to prepare? I could have caught something in Calhoun, cleaned it and cooked it in that time frame. What the heck? That is completely not ok.
I’m a little sad about the variety of fish in my chirashizushia… I only had 3 pieces of tuna 1 piece of yellowtail, 2 pieces of tilapia 1 piece of snapper which the skin was still on, I guess I must not have usually gotten snapper because I’ve never had the skin left on. Then 2 pieces of salmon. I also had 3 big slabs of tofu which I’ve never had in this dish before. This was a total of 9 pieces of fish and tofu. I don’t like tofu and if you’re going to sub my fish with tofu, let me know because that’s like going out for steak and getting spam. It’s not expected and meat substitutes are not ok in lieu of… If your expecting meat.
I guess I’m not really mad about the reservations, I don’t care that there was a lot of waiting, waiting is fine when it’s worth waiting for… tofu… Not worth waiting for.
You don’t mess with my meat… Wakame, in case you don’t understand our breakup, you were very tardy and fed me fake food but still charged me full price for a dish you really messed up Friday.
#tofusfault

Happy hour!!!
This is my late night spot for sushi in the Twin Cities. I never seem to get a craving for it until AFTER 9pm. Go figure.
It’s not the best sushi ever (as I’m spoiled and hail from the East Coast) but DARN if they don’t try.
The rolls are fantastic. My partner and I fight over the last piece of the Crazy Monkey Roll every time.
Great prices, great drinks, super fun staff!

How have I not reviewed Wakame already? I have been there a handful times now, and enjoyed consistently great service (at the table and the bar), delicious cocktails (try their dark and stormy!), entrees (my fav: chicken thai spicy basil), and the BEST of all: Wakame Roll (rock n roll is a close second!).
If you’re headed there on a Friday or Saturday, I recommend making reservations for your party. I waited an hour in the cold for my first meal at Wakame and it was totally worth it!
Love the consistent quality of food and service here enough to keep going back every week.
Location tip: it’s right next to Whole Food Lake Calhoun, easy parking

Great happy hour deals for some yummy sushi in Minneapolis! You can choose from apps, sushi and drinks.
An easy ordering sheet, where you pencil in the quantities of what you want. Service is great. Beware that it does get pretty busy around 5… Beat the rush if you can!
Located in a convenient spot. The parking space right in front of the restaurant makes it all the better!

Came in with the family on a Wednesday. Our servers name was Caitlin. The food was FANTASTIC! Sushi, curry, starters. Everything was absolutely incredible, including the service. Enjoyed so much I can back with a friend and sat at the sushi bar. The food was still delicious but the service was terrible. The server would literally be running around, never introduced herself. Would slam the food down in front of us then run away again.
Will never be returning, and if I do will definitely never sit at the sushi bar.

Excellent happy hour with drink, appetizer, and sushi specials.
Two of us had a wide variety of delicious sushi, a few drinks, and a couple of appetizers. No economizing at all yet the bill with tax and tip was $ 72. A comparable meal at this or another Japanese restaurant during non-​happy hour pricing would have been at least $ 100 and probably $ 125.
The sushi was great. We had half a dozen rolls. Most had a tiny bit of tempura flakes on them, which lent a nice crunch. The rice was warm and soft, just as it should be. Production line sushi that is kept cool gets that hard, cold rice that becomes borderline ice cream. Cool rice isn’t cool, if you know what I mean.
We will definitely be back.

One of the bf’s coworkers has been talking up Wakame’s Happy Hour since we moved July ’14. Fast forward to a year and a half later, and I pass Wakame everyday to and from work. It’s totally a sign, or at least I can pretend it is so the bf and I can hit up their happy hour, finally. It was awesome.
The restuarant is gorgeous and really romantic, so that was a plus. I’ve been wanting some romantic dinners, and this will probably be my go to place for that feeling now. We started with a large hot sake each, since it was chilly out. It was yummy and did the job of warming us up for our whole meal. For apps we tried the crab cheese wontons and edamame, delicious! The wontons had two great dipping sauces that I recommend mixing. We split a few rolls, spider roll, spicy tuna roll, crunch roll, hot and spicy girl roll, and maybe another one but I’ve forgotten. They were all super yummy. I think my fav was the crunch roll and the bf loved the spider roll. We also got dessert, I forgot what it was, but there’s a strong chance it was banana tempura in a roll form. Whatever it was, it was delicious. I’m already planning our next happy hour excursion.

We happened on this place based on a recommendation from someone at the airport (yeah, I was running to my plane while taking to someone about sushi, don’t hate). When I returned that evening from my very short trip to Chicago, I stopped on in. I was greeted with a 65 minute wait. Well, unfortunately I don’t have that kind of time, so I placed an order to go and hoped it would be good. I ordered the crunch roll, the hot&spicy girl roll, and the crazy lobster roll (yeah, it’s a lot of sushi, don’t judge). I waited about 25 minutes for my food and when I it was done, I was out. I safely but speedily drove home, so I could devour this beautiful looking sushi.
I pulled into the garage, ran into the house, and opened the packaging as fast as I could (I was so excited, it was like looking into a Louis Vuitton bag filled with cupcakes). I tasted the hot&spicy girl roll first and it essentially melted in my mouth, it was absolutely delicious. I had no complaints about any of the rolls (well besides the crunch was a little too crunchy, but I survived). The fish/​seafood was fresh and the rolls were delicious.
Will I be back? Yes I will be! Hopefully this time the wait to eat in wont be as extreme, but either way I’ll still leave with sushi.

Ummm, yes, yES, YES!
I can’t believe I’ve never been here before. I don’t know what I’ve been doing with my sushi life.
Okay, so first of all, I’m a heathen and didn’t have any sake here. I know, failure, I’ll do better next time. However, I did have (what I believe was called) the Minnesota Mule. It had fresh ginger in it. Fresh ginger! And it was a clean, smooth cocktail that was super-​easy to drink two of accidentally. Plus… lunchtime happy hour ON THE WEEKEND. Yesssssss!
The appetizers were our main orders, as we couldn’t decide on anything, so we went with Vegetables Tempura (yummy, but more sweet potato than other veggies), Pork Gyoza (*drools*), and Kalbie (pretty standard version of Korean short-​ribs).
The salmon nigiri was really good, but could have benefited from a hit of wasabi between the fishy goodness and the rice. The Sunrise Roll has that illusion of health (tuna, cucumber, salmon, avocado, rice, and that’s it) that made me feel like I was doing a Good Thing for myself after the previous four orders of food I’d shoved into my face.
The rolls all look like interesting combinations, they have good nigiri, and the cocktails are on point. Hello, new favorite sushi joint!

Came here for happy hour, which I highly recommend. It’s good sushi, but not the best I’ve ever had [insert food snobbery here]. At happy hour, there are drinks specials and food specials.
They give you the regular menu and also the happy hour menu, which is a sheet of paper and you just tick off the amount and what items you’d like (it could go crazy, but it’s fun and awesome). We ordered a lot, there were six of us.
Some of the highlights:
spider roll (this is rarely on a happy hour menu) — recommended
BMW roll — recommended
squid nigiri
tuna nigiri
scallop nigiri
spicy tuna (it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t exactly amazing)
spicy girl — recommended
soft springrolls — definitely get this (at least one order if not more)
edamame
chicken skewers — good, but not necessary
…and then we got a few more rolls…
TLDR: great place for happy hour. they have an outdoor patio and a front walk area patio… and the sushi bar… and «bar» area and a dining area… lots of options. great service

Chriashi is my jam. I order it everywhere I go now. It’s my new favorite. I don’t even have to check menus. I was excited to come here because I have a friend who comes here a lot and he hypes it up big time.
It was very busy at 5:30 pm when we arrived, and the only spots were at the sushi bar. That’s fine, I enjoy watching them make the rolls. It’s like artwork. I also like seeing all the food come up so I can see what the other dishes look like.
The server was very nice and knowledgable. He helped my friend order his two rolls based on what he likes, and I of course went with my chirashi. Also had a saketini, which was good and strong, as it should be! The food was beautiful and delicious. It practically melted in my mouth. Amazing. The salad was great too, and he liked his rolls.
The owner was walking around talking to tables and working, which I thought was a nice touch. I can’t wait to come back and try their sashimi salad.

Wakame is good. I usually sit at the bar by myself at lunch and look at the tv. They are usually very busy since they have happy hour lunch specials on food.
Service is always friendly and consistent. I haven’t had any issues here besides parking. Since they share a very small lot with many businesses it is a nightmare. Whole foods takes up most of the parking. I have waited and left because there has been no parking in the entire lot.
I recomend the rainbow roll. The friend shrimp tempura and rolls are very fried– hard crunchy just FYI. I wonder what they use or if it is used so much it is just so hard– idk.
Delicious nonetheless. THank you Wakame!

I’ve heard for months now how great the happy hour and sushi are at Wakame, so I had high hopes, but was quite disappointed in my experience.
Pros: happy hour on the patio, large happy hour sushi list, cheap drinks
Cons: inattentive and slow service, sushi rolls were mostly rice (see pictures of both specialty rolls and regular rolls)
Maybe my experience was a fluke? I’ll give it another try, but for now, I’m sticking with Origami and Shag.

I love their sushi a lot, especially the Hot and Spicy roll. They always have amazing service! But here are a few things I don’t like:
1. Parking is always packed. The location of this place is in a busy area so looking for parking is always a problem. Next time, I should bike there!:)
2.It is always crowded inside. Yes, a lot people like myself love happy hours and this place offers great a one! The space is big but not big enough for a quiet talking. I would not recommend to bring a date here if you want to hear what he/​she want to say.
3.I can’t tell who the host/​hostess are because they wear regular clothes! We walked in and a girl wearing a black sweater zipper helped us with a seat.
Otherwise everything is great, I definitely recommend this place. Once you stuffed yourself with sushi, go take a walk around Lake Calhoun (3 miles).