Wasabi

I ate lunch here like 4 times whilst I was at my London office, since it was 20 steps from the office foyer.
You can get all kinds of Japanese food in here, from hot bento boxes to a la carte pieces of sushi, to go (or «Take Away» as these silly Brits say).
Clean, quick and they give you a shit-​ton of delish fare in the bento containers.
Me, I tore up the Japanese ruby murray. Who knew Japanese people made curry… wow.
The queue gets long so you better be ready to pay, bruv.
The wave-​upon-​wave of people coming from Liverpool Station can be overwhelming when you are walking here… but luckily, I’m built like a brick house.
Let’s ‘ave it!

Wasabi has taken over Liverpool Street station, with a big branch across the road, a van outside the main entrance, and this take away on the main concorse. Come 10pm only this one remains open, offering a healthy option for those on the late shift. Well, at least I think sushi is healthy, the hot meals on offer probably aren’t quite so.
I currently work in the area and haven’t been keeping regular office hours which is how I discovered this pick’n’mix. While I like the idea that you can select your favourites and avoid the ones you hate, the individual packaging is rather off-​putting. Very necessary and welcome though, by 10pm the neat piles are no longer and everything is jumbled up. Prices are OK, the charge for mini sachets of soy sauce and massive ones of wasabi a bit of joke.
The queues are ridiculous and so is the level of service, or lack thereof. Only one of the two tills is manned at that point and staff beyond caring.
Still I’ll carry on queuing for my not-​so-​guilty secret midnight snack while in the area — but wouldn’t make a special journey.

I don’t quite know whether Wasabi operates under a franchise model or not. But this particular Wasabi seems to beat by a different drum.
I had the chicken katsu curry, the same one I’ve had many times at other Wasabi stores. And it was frankly speaking pretty awful.
The rice was clumpy and bland, the sauce was watered down and worst of all was the chicken. Now I know this store is in a station and space is limited but you CAN’T microwave deep fried chicken, else it loses its crunch — the very thing that makes chicken katsu curry so good is that contract of textures.
So what you end up with is a piece of soggy fried chicken, watered down sauce and rice.
I can’t speak for the other dishes but do avoid the Katsu.

I returned to this place.
Now I eat there almost every week.
But I only order Tofu yakisoba with lots of tofu specifically.
I am probably the one responsible for finishing off all their tofu in the tofu yakisoba.
I apologize shamelessly.
But I have to admit that I love the tofu yakisoba. I’m addicted to it.
I know it is oily and heavy. But I tend to eat it only for the tofu. Quite often I end up throwing the yakisoba away.
I wish they had a special tofu item in the menu which.
Tofu is supposed to be among the best sources of protein.

This Wasabi in Liverpool St Station is my «local» one. I say «local» because there are no less than FIVE Wasabis within a quarter mile of my work. Five! Wasabi is an unstoppable machine. And here’s why.
The sushi isnt bad here. I quite like the cones you get, and often go for the £7 tray if I’m particularly craving it (dont tell my wife), which has a good mix of differnet types. I’d say the sushi is better than Itsu which, thanks to some cleverly placed bikini girls on marketing posters, seems to have marketed itself as über-​healthy (Note: have you seen the salt content of their soups?). Anyone I prefer the sushi here.
If you’re really hungry, cold, hungover, lining your stomach for a boozy session or generally in a massive rush, then you cant go wrong with one of Wasabi’s bentos.
Healthy it is not, the bentos are often quite oily, a tad creamy and I think the sweet chilli sauce glows under black light, but it does hit the right spots when they need hitting.
Tip: You can mix and match bentos for an extra 50p :)

I really loved it when I lived in London. fresh seafood every day at a right price. very often it was my lunch or dinner!

Everything one might expect of reasonably priced sushi, and hugely popular with City and commutey types my only real qualm is the hot food. I say that, but I do feel the sinister draw of the (day-​glo) sweet chili chicken on a fairly regular basis; it’s probably one of the best value meals to be had in this neck of the woods, as essentially it’s a bucket of rice and retro-​guilty pleasure for a shade over a fiver.

Great bang for buck!
I first began to like sushi when I was about 12 years old, where I went to my first sushi bar that was all you can eat. Ever since then I have been in love with sushi, and I do like to try it everywhere in the world as they all of the sushi makers can put a different twist on their rolls.
Today, as I am in London, I needed to grab something quick. Walking down Broad street I see Wasabi, its well lit, nice and bright… its quite an inviting place. They had a lot of different sushi trays you can buy, but also by individual piece, or cone. The have salad, the sell edamame beans, stir-​fried food, and all sorts of skewers and fried dumplings. I got the «Hana Set» and a couple fried octopus balls with a small salad. I didn’t care much for the salad, it wasn’t very good for greens anyways. The sushi was very good, especially for a quick bit.
If you need a quick bite, and you like sushi there is not much better than you can get. This I’m comparing to other sushi-​on-​the-​go type places in Montréal where I am from.

As good as it gets for a grab and run when you are heading to catch that train with a minute to spare, easy and quick. Likewise just as enticing when you return from that journey home (usually a mare as Sundays are track fixing days) so when I return to Liverpool Street Station, I grab for the last leg of my journey home so I don’t have to cook when landing.
Fab!

Well priced Japanese cuisine. Quick and excellent service. Food tastes great. Only downfall is there is not much of a selection for Vegetarians.

The cool thing about London is that their train stations not only act was transportation centers, they also act like mini shopping centers or food malls.
I’m in London for a business trip and pretty much stuck to food options near the train station since I wasn’t too familiar with the area for the first couple of days. Also, after flying in from San Francisco, navigating the London Underground, and trekking it to the hotel I just wanted to get something quick to eat and crash at the hotel. So, when I saw bento and sushi on their signs… me and my luggage kinda just sorted levitated towards Wasabi.
Wasabi is located on the lower platform level of Liverpool Station. Essentially, it is pretty much the «Japanese-​like» version of Panda Express. Quick, ready made food for you to grab and go of dishes trying to pass as Japanese food. Good try, but no cigar in this case.
They offer a selection pre-​made onigiri, nigiri sushi, sushi combos and rolls are ready made and set out for you to pick up, put on a tray, bring it to the casher and pay and then go make your train and run to the office. Those items range from £1.50 for onigiri to £7 for sushi combos. They also have hot food items such as noodle soups, a-​la carte items like tempura, chicken katsu, yakisoba or bento items like chicken katsu curry. Those run £4−5.75. Overall, their menu items are pretty cheap.
If you order the hot food, it’s just sitting there underneath the heat lamp. When you order they put everything rice, meat, curry, etc. into this soup pint like container throw it the microwave for 2 minutes… wait…wait…beep…they put in the a bag and off you’re merry way.
However, in terms of food quality… it’s okay. Not gourmet or the best food over but it’s basic fast food to hold you over til the next meal. I had the chicken katsu curry and the rice is rather clumpy and sticky which I don’t like. The katsu isn’t the usually katsu strips but rather chicken-​nugget like pieces dumped with watered down curry sauce. On a second visit, I got their beef noodle soup. I didn’t like that at all. It was pretty much beef bouillon central with uninspiring noodles and pieces off pre-​dried beef that was brought back into square shape with hot water.
Overall, if you’re looking for a quick meal and don’t want to get McDonalds or Burger King or a pre-​packaged sandwich from Tesco or M&S…this is a good quick hot food alternative. Just tone down your expectations a bit. So, again, the meal wasn’t great, but for the convenience it was okay.

Wasabi is to sushi as McDonald’s is to hamburgers. They fill a defined market niche and they do it well. Fast sushi, ready for take-​away and portability. It’s not haute cuisine, but I think it’s more than acceptable for what they are trying to achieve.
This location on the platform level of Liverpool Street Station has two coolers are prepared and wrapped sushi and a small hot bar of the usual Anglicized Chinese foods — teriyaki chicken and other dishes with noodles and fried rice.
Grabbing a nice box of sushi and sashimi for a train ride to Norwich, I was perhaps not very considerate of my fellow passengers. However, I was pleased to find that it didn’t smell fishy and was probably way less stinky than the burgers and other foods being consumed on the train. I felt that the quality was good. The rice wasn’t sticky and was the right level of al dente. The salmon sashimi was tender, nearly as good as something that might be freshly prepared moments before eating in a sit down restaurant. The «california» rolls in there were also pretty good and held up to a few drops of soy sauce without collapsing off my chop sticks.
Note that the already assembled bento boxes already have packets of ginger, soy sauce and wasabi in there. You don’t have to purchase any of the ala carte ones.