Wasabi Express

My wife just picked up Vietnamese bun from Wasabe Express, and it was barely edible. They used the most foul tasting shrimp I’ve ever had from a restaurant, and I can imagine that this shrimp is equally as disgusting in their Japanese dishes. Top this off with the fact that my wife was there for twenty extra minutes beyond her call’s estimate, and I would say that this is one of the worst multi-​Asian fare restaurants in Augusta. I really wish I could get Atlanta quality Vietnamese food here, but there aren’t any restaurants close to Buford Highway (any of the restaurants on it) quality.

Always a favorite spot to come for lunch. Quick and friendly service. Plus the food is consistently good. I’ve had both the Japanese and Vietnamese fair and I’ve alwys been satisfied.

Best PHO… me and my bro in law ate the hell out of PHO here. I totally recommend everyone trying the #3 it had everything in it and it was bomb.

I’m surprised that nobody commented on the weird smell that wafts inside this location. That’s the first thing you smell as soon as you enter. It smelled like old rubber and smelly feet! I came here last night and dined in with a friend since she highly recommended it. It was just OK. Not the greatest Japanese/​Vietnamese fast food restaurant I’ve been to in this area.
I ordered the steak and shrimp combo and it came with fried rice (more like Chinese style fried rice, meh), steak, veggies and shrimp. I just don’t understand why fast food Asian restaurants seem to incorporate sliced sweet carrots in their dishes?! It’s gross! Everything did taste good, I just wish the fried rice was a bit better. I’m Asian, so I’m picky on my rice damn it!
The amount of food you receive is plentiful so no complaints there. If it weren’t for the weird odor, I would have enjoyed it. I kid you not, my clothes and hair reeked of that smell even after I left! Not cool.
I may give this place another try to check out their Vietnamese menu but I will order through their drive-​thru. Service was fairly quick and the staff were polite.

Oh yeah, i am now a fan of this place. From looking at the pictures of the teriyaki fish and fried rice, it had my mouth drooling. I came here as quickly as possible. My stomach was eating itself. The staff told me it took 30 minutes to cook the fish and that it is pretty fresh. Well, It came out less than 10 minutes. The smell of the fish on my plate had me drool for more. It was so good as i dived in there. The portions were huge. The price was pretty cheap for $ 7. I will come back here again

This place is a mish mash of varying asian cuisine. They serve japanese style hibachi entrees and vietnamese phở. The place use to be a long john silvers and is redecorated with small chinese assortments with a casual dining experience. Its fast food style, you order your food up front and they bring it out to you.
There are TVs in each of the 4 corners but wasnt on at the time I was there. I was surprised to see Free WiFi available!
Reasonable priced with a good helping of the small phở. I like to ask for the rare steak on the side, so it doesnt get overcooked and become chewy. I had requested the same, but when the order came out, the steak looked partially cooked already and barely any pink.

Not bad for fast food thru drive thru window.
Great chicken teriyaki. Big chunks of chicken. And great fresh and crispy light spring rolls!

It’s definitely not the best phở I’ve ever had, nor is it the worst. The restaurant also definitely does not score any points for style/design…it still looks and feels like an old Long John Silvers.
However, the affordable price point and friendly service make up for any other shortcomings. They had my to-​go order ready within 10 minutes of ordering. It was still warm and delicious when I got home. The large phở is a good amount of food… so much that I was able to save some for lunch the next day.

A good friend of mine introduced me to this restaurant about 4 years ago and I keep coming back because of the friendly service and great food. My personal favorite is the hibachi steak (low carb option — no rice, more vegetables — it’s worth the extra $ 1) and my wife likes hibachi shrimp. The «dipping sauce» they serve with both is second to none. Their soups are very good too.

They have a very extensive menu that ranges from Japanese/​hibachi and Vietnamese. I was told to check out this place by recommendation from someone I ran into and have been back a multiple of times. Upon my first visit here, I was confused at how their service was. You decide what you want, order, and pay up front BEFORE even getting to eat. Which sucks in my opinion because if you dine-​in and paid with a card and don’t carry cash, you can’t tip on their customer service. I ordered chicken phở and I was told you can order ONLY a large bowl, which is kind of weird… but sure??? Their customer service could be better… they don’t come around to ask how you’re doing and on multiple occasions wasn’t refilled on my drinks. I’d probably like to take-​out here more often than dine-​in to be honest but so far this has the best phở that I’ve had in Augusta, topping even Phở specialty restaurants! I tried their fried rice, it’s alright… quite bland and didn’t wow me enough to want to order it again, but I’ll definitely be back for their phở and possibly to try other items on their menu!

Phở was tasteless and no greens with the baby beans, summer rolls were tiny and pork inside tasted like a mush, service was bad got attitude from lady because I asked for more lime.

Ambience. C+
Service. B
Food. B
Price. A
Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine.
They cook Japanese hibachi style and also have Vietnamese phở and bun. I come for the phở as they offer tendon and tripe as options!
Not much for ambience with bright fluorescence lighting, but clean. 4 tv’s setup in each of the 4 corners in the dining room. I’ll assume you can request to change the channel if you ask nicely.
Service is friendly and accommodating if they don’t get too busy. The nice lady explained options on how to order. There’s also a drive up window. She was nice checking on us and helping to bag up leftovers if she wasn’t busy. Otherwise, go back to the counter to get any requests.
Today I ordered the large Phở #2. Rare steak, brisket, flank, tendon and tripe. $ 8.29. And comes with lime, bean sprouts and jalepeno. Hmm. Where was the fresh basil? I forgot to ask.
Very flavorful broth and needed to stir the noodles as they clumped together and needed to loosen them up.
I also like the fried fish entrée. It was a good portion with fried rice and steamed carrots and broccoli. Like the mayo dressing that accompanies the meal. $ 7.99.
Price is good for what you get.
I’ll come back.

I love this place for just about every reason you can love a place like this.
I love the cold spring rolls, the teriyaki chicken, the hibachi chicken and the hibachi shrimp. Usually I will order the hibachi chicken with a side of broccoli– but last time I was in there the lady behind the counter asked if I wanted the broccoli cooked into the whole thing, and that was EVEN better!
They have great portions, on a good day I can eat all the meat and most of the rice that comes in an order. When I order the extra broccoli I end up taking home enough for another meal, which is fine by me.
I have also ordered the phở with no meat in the past. It is flavorful and a HUGE portion for reasonable prices with meat but practically free ($ 2.25 I believe) for the no meat version. I loved every bit of it.
Another note, for people who are particular about it, they have GREAT sweet tea, almost always. I have recently given up caffeine but every time I go in there I still think about ordering a sweet tea before I remember I’m off of it.
Depending on when you go, the dining room can be anywhere from half-​full to completely empty but the food always comes out quickly and the drive-​thru is always doing a steady business.

Former roommate used to work here, therefore my review may be biased. She told me that their phở soup is cooked with a special recipe using beef bones for a really long time, which is why they are very flavorful. She also told me that their butter fish is really good. (I’ve tried one bite from her order, and agree.) They prepare those to order, and takes 15 minutes to cook. Therefore it’s best if you call ahead and order. By the time you get there, it will be ready for you to take out or dine in.
More often than not, my friend and I usually end up coming here when both of us are too lazy to cook for dinner on a week night. It’s not very far from where we live, the price is very affordable and food is definitely more healthy than some of the other places at this price point. My friends normally get the spicy beef noodles, but I have a very low tolerance for hotness and instead order one of their phos. I’ve ordered their teriyaki chicken once, pretty sure Sarku in the mall has better quality and bigger portion size.
The phos were filling for me but nothing special, hence the three stars. If I need a quick Asian fix of soupy entrees and am not willing to spend lots of money or drive very far, this is the place I would go.

We ordered two drinks, two medium phở’s, one order of egg rolls, one order of spring vegetable shrimp roll. All under 25 bucks. Portions are great.
My only complaint is that the egg rolls are smaller than what I am used to… But they are the best I have had here in Augusta. Idk if they were 3.99 or 2.99, but I’d gladly pay either for the two little fried rolls. Packed with meat and flavor in a thin crispy outside.
The goi cuon (cold spring roll) came with two to an order as well, but they are hugeee and packed with freshness and flavor. The dipping sauce was delicious too.
The phở broth was perfect. Very tasty, aromatic and just damned good.
We ordered medium bowls which to me were what would normally be a large. We ordered the #2 which had all the tendons and two different cuts of beef and tripe I believe. Lots of meat and lots of noodles. They served us out food immediately so the noodles wouldn’t get soft. They give the usual bean sprouts, peppers, basil, and lemons too.
These people must love to cook and care about the people who eat their food.
We were the only customers dining in and we could not believe why that would be. However, the drive thru was (yes they have a drive thru) busy with people mostly ordering the Japanese side of the menu. Everyone else was ordering teriyaki beef and chicken. I am curious to try their Japanese fair, I am definitely going to be a repeat customer.
Even though the dining room was empty, it didn’t alter the quality of food or service we received. We heard about this place from a friend who is from the east coast and we were very skeptical about this place. But we are glad we went.
That’s about it I guess. I hope y’all enjoy.
Oh and the interior is very cute, Asian theme deco and very clean. The bathrooms are very clean as well.

Ditto what Greg said edited;
«Kind of a run down place prob cuz it was an old Captain D’s. Mediocre food. With a name like wasabi I was expecting sushi or at least Japanese food. But no, its Chinese /​Vietnamese food so its a little misleading restaurant name, Service was ok. I went once when I was visiting the area and don’t think I’d go back since there are so many good places within walking distance.»
Plus I found a couple more Vietnamese Phở restaurants.

I hesitate to give this place four stars based on the quality of food alone since as someone else before me had aptly pointed out, the fact that this is one of the two places in the CSRA you can get half-​decent phở bumps its rating from a 2 – 3 star ish to a four. That being said, the phở being served here is not without its merits.
I came in here on two different occasions; once was for lunch with a supervisor from work who claimed that this place looks like a hole-​in-​the-​wall (which it totally does) but serves awesome food and suggested that we eat here. I noticed the identity crisis as soon as I entered the store:
There’s a sign on the wall by the main door that was issued by the Chinese government about what foods to not associate with each other to avoid health complications; the girl who works the counter and walks in and out has a very heavy Northern Chinese accent; there’s a Vietnamese menu next to the teriyaki/​hibachi menu; for a restaurant that’s obviously staffed by Chinese people, they serve «Japanese» and Vietnamese cuisine but no Chinese whatsoever, etc etc.
Anyway the first time I came here I ordered the bún bò Hue to go thinking this would be like one of those places in the touristy part of Chinatown in SF where Chinese people cook some awful hybrid version of mixian and phở. Well, ten minutes later when I started eating my soup’n’noodles out of a giant styrofoam soda cup, it turned out I was dead wrong.
To confirm my suspicions, which is that I may have found a semi-​decent phở restaurant closer to home, I decided to revisit the Sino-​Nipponese-​Vietnam noodle house the next day and try the phở in house. Here’s a breakdown of the two bowls I’ve had here so far:
bún bò Hue: not as spicy as I hoped, but it definitely passes as bún bò Hue. The meat was a little too chewy for my taste, but not at all inedible. No pig’s blood that I can see. They did make an effort to not give me the thin Southern Vietnamese noodles, and instead gave me the round linguine-​looking vermicelli. Close enough.
dac biet (#2): if you order the large they give you the atlantic ocean’s worth in noodles; not entirely enough meat and I didn’t see the «sausage» inside. They initially brought it out with no cilantro but the cute waitress girl brought me a small bowl of it when I asked for some (take that, Ricky W!). After adding the cilantro, Thai basil, some hoisin and sriracha, I was able to achieve phở-​vana.
spring rolls (added bonus): about 80% filled with spring beans. they do give you a geneous amount of shrimp and some pork+lettuce, but all you can taste is spring beans due to the sheer amount of it. Wouldn’t recommend it.
In summation, two and a half stars for the food, plus one star for being 2630 miles closer than Turtle Tower (the Little Saigon location, not the new Geary one) in San Francisco, and finally plus half star for the amazing pricing (6.50 for the large bowl is a steal)
Edit: damn you Unilocal for fuxoring my accent marks. damn you.

This is only based off of one thing on their menu but… I am sooo happy to find this phở gem, hidden inside an old fish-​stick slinging façade. Upon tasting the broth of my very reasonably priced bowl of combo phở, I think it was easily on par or better than any of the phở restaurants in heavily SE Asian-​populated cities I’ve patronized over the years (and this was before adding all the hoisin and sriracha, of course). Clean, aromatic, perfect tang and balance. Did I mention that they serve 3 sizes of bowls and you could walk out of there with a $ 5 tab with the «small» size? BTW, I use quotations because I ordered the «small» and it was more than enough. Peace out from Mrs. Obvious.
Also, service isn’t über-​friendly but holy crap, they get their job done well and give me great food, I’ll take that over a peppy personality encounter any day.

This place used to be a Long John Silvers, hence the interesting setup inside. Anyway this place has Vietnamese food. My dad and sister usually get the phở and I get the chicken teriyaki. I remember the phở being pretty good, especially if you add the basil in the soup. I usually stick w/​the chicken teriyaki though. The orange sauce is amazing — probably some kind of thousand island/​mayo combo or something. The dish has broccoli, carrots, fried rice, and chicken. It’s only like $ 6.00 as well.
My parents are familiar with the Chinese owners and they’re pretty nice.

Was looking for Phở, and it looks like this is the only place in town. Thankfully the Phở and the spring rolls are excellent. The only negative from the food is that I really like cilantro with my Phở and they did moot offer it.
While the building is a little run down, and I am not a fan of the «Golf Channel» on tv, the people were friendly and they had a constant stream of business both inside and at the drive thru.
The only other issue I had was that no one came back by to check on me or refill my water while I ate.
Overall a good experience and I know I will eat here again soon.
— — — — — — — — –
11÷7÷11 — second visit.
Flavorful and filling.
They did let me change the TV so I could watch the Bears game.
Note that once again after I got my meal, they never came bak to check on me to see if I needed any more water. So keep that in mind if you eat here.
I will be back here to eat again.