STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The moral of the story, thanks to a meal at sleek, new Wasabi Steak and Sushi, is that there is hope for the human race. Indeed, the floor-to-ceiling windowed restaurant on the fourth level of the Empire Outlets sets the stage for such a declaration.
Let me preface this with why we came to this hibachi house for a meal last Sunday. It was our older son’s birthday and he had postponed his little gathering. Long story short, Grandpa wasn’t feeling well. (All will be OK.) And so we communed over his favorite kind of dinner — sushi and seafood. This, and a food show might be a brief distraction. It was.
Sushi and sashimi at Wasabi (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)
The Wasabi meal was terrific. Sushi arranged on a slate was super fresh with blocks of Yellow fin, salmon, squid and fluke. In my book, if the bites of fish are presented cleanly (not a trace of a scale or other indicia related to butchering) and its marbling is respected, then the itamae (chef) has done his job well. And so he did.
And the hibachi was a hoot. Pearls clutched, I accepted the sake squirts and zucchini tosses with the dignity of a Bryn Mawr woman — and our boys patted me on the back for it. The kids got a kick out of water shots from the a puerile pee bottle — Dominus vobiscum — and the chef’s occasional eyebrow-singeing conflagrations on the griddle.
The meal from the hibachi presentation satisfied with enjoyable fried rice cooked to a pleasant stickiness and garlicky-sauced lo mein noodles. Even before the food was sliced, diced and dancing on the griddle, the meat cuts properly sported their grains and seafood glistened with freshness. And the end result of the flashy performance was a nicely cooked meal — tender beef medallions, shrimp sauteed to pink translucence and salmon fillets seared to a moist deliciousness.
I won’t spoil all of Wasabi’s surprises for future birthday boys and girls but I do recommend getting some kind of dessert. Regardless of age, there is nothing more memorable than good restaurant spectacle delivered with a dish. In this case, it meant servers and strangers belting out the “happy birthday” song and a presentation of blowup kitty ears.
Happy birthday, Kiddo.
And now for the final, stunning and spectacular performance of the afternoon, which came courtesy of a fellow customer in the room.
After some whispering among the staff, our waitress told my husband that the gentleman at a neighboring table bought the children their ice creams. How sweet! I thanked him and his family. We were all so grateful — and so touched. But then the waitress brought the check to the table. And there seemed to be a misunderstanding. The man took care of the entire check. I’m not sure why but I didn’t ask questions in the overwhelming surprise of it all. It brought tears of joy to me — and to our Andrew what I can only describe as a sense of relief.
Social media and COVID be damned, there is good in the world, as channeled by a few angels over hibachi in a Staten Island dining room. We are deeply thankful for that.
Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com.
The family of three on the right shared some kindness with our family. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri)
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November 14, 2021 at 06:00PM
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