Wiki Wiki Teriyaki

Wanted to try Wiki Wiki but they are still closed! Thank goodness there are other lunch options close by!

I never had any problems with Wiki Wiki, but I went there today in search of a Salmon Teriyaki Bowl. No such luck, it’s closed!
Judging from the note on their door, the locks were changed because they didn’t pay their rent.

Pro: this place is never busy. Even at high noon in the middle of the work week, stepping off of Congress into Wiki Wiki is like a gentle respite from the harried masses rushing about outside. It’s a little dark, very quiet, there’s a fountain burbling in the corner, nice and chill. Con… well, not really a con but definitely not a pro: the food is just ‘ok’ at best.
I get the yakisoba noodles or the rice bowl. If you’ve ever had stir-​fried or teriyaki anything, then you know what to expect. It won’t change your culinary world-​view, but throw some sriracha sauce on there to spice things up a bit, and you got yourself a passable if not outstanding lunch. Go here when you need quiet more than flavor.
Also, I see some of the reviews complaining about the service. I don’t know what that’s all about. I’ve never found the lady behind the counter (the owner?) to be anything but super nice.

If a quiet, healthy lunch downtown is what you seek, pop in here for a brown rice veggie bowl. This place is never crowded («never a wait!» may be an appealing description to the impatient set), and the piped-​in classical music creates a tranquil vibe. Yes, it isn’t cheap, but the brown rice veggie teriyaki bowl is laden with broccoli and tasty sauce and is just under $ 8. Call it near-​monastic temple eating at indulgent prices.
The wi-​fi in here is a little spotty, but given that the place is so quiet, think of lunch here as a chance to detox from noise and and the laptop.

After having such a crappy day yesterday, the boyfriend picked me up on his motorcycle to get out and get some air. We ended up downtown and wanted to grab a bite somewhere we hadn’t tried before. He really liked it his teriyaki bowl, but I thought my teriyaki beef in the teriyaki box tasted like warm beef jerky. Not good. The rest of the food was relatively cold or overfried. The service wasn’t that good either. I won’t be back… But my boyfriend might be? :)

Just don’t do it.
I really wonder how this place is still in business. The food is mediocre and incredibly overpriced. You can actually watch them microwaving your food in the back. The service is worse.

Dang, what a surprise to see such lame reviews… Guess I’ll need to try the dishes the others have dumped on to see for myself because I was all set to give some good marks. Perhaps my sit is in a different context.
First off, I’ve been there twice and a big fan of Asian lunch from prior jobs. New to the downtown area on my latest gig, I have been a little mystified from what is walking distance and trying hard to get a feel for the lay of the land.
On one negative note, I do admittedly have the debit card cashiers love to dump on. OK, it takes a few swipes, get over it. I’ve never had anyone go into quite a tailspin over this as I have had there and will not go back till I get a new card. It’s really due, I know, and I will do it because I actually like this place.
Now, I have not done this place as an after hour spot nor for dinner so this is completely a lunch review — ie I am not interested in atmosphere nor other clientele as I am during those other times.
Both times, I had 2 versions of the Yokasoba dishes and both were quite nice.
I should point out that I also am not capable of detecting the default level of «bland» (as I have seen mentioned in other reviews) due to an addiction to chili paste in large quantities. All food is bland. I know, it’s just me… So that in mind, I found those dishes to be both fulfilling and delightful — for «lunch» that is (which for me at least, sets the bar a bit lower).
I should also mention that I don’t typically order the same thing more than once (until I get around the rotation at least) but the bento boxes and other dishes pictured on their menu seemed a little slight which is I happened to order roughly the same thing both times.
If you trust the other reviews, I might suggest trying the Yakasoba (and bringing a properly working debit card or cash).

I’m visiting from out of town and wasn’t feeling like wandering too far from Congress Avenue, because I was tired and don’t know the area well. I happened onto Wiki Wiki Teriyaki because it was probably the only thing left opened at the hour that was quick and cheap. It was fairly quiet inside, but on the upside that means my meal came quickly. But as other reviewers said the food was mediocre and bland if it wasn’t for the fact that it was salty. Also, the rice in the bottom of the Teriyaki bowl was mushy and was more like eating paste than rice.

I’m gonna jump on the bandwagon. I’ve been here twice and been unhappy both times. The pictures in the window look good, but the food is just blah. Bland except for the saltiness, and not very well cooked.
Empty both times I was there, and I hate when you order at a counter but the people you order from aren’t friendly. If I can get better service at McDonald’s then your restaurant, it’s not a good sign.
I promised I would never go again after the first time, but found myself downtown, hungry and with a time-​crunch, so I decided it wasn’t as bad as I remembered. It was.

If you compare Wiki Wiki to Yoshinoya, then this place is great. If you take a closer look at what you get for the price, not so much.
Reasons I eat here: Close to work. They do not serve sandwiches, pizza or Mexican food.
Half an hour after eating their beef bowl, my lips are still shriveled up due to excessive saltiness.
If their location were another block or two farther away from work, I would probably never eat here again.

There aren’t many medium-​priced Japanese food options in downtown or South Austin. Zen is about as low-​priced as you can get, but it is far from authentic.
This is written after the second, and probably last time I visited Wiki Wiki.
Now, I don’t have as much hate for this place as the statue across the street does (she’s been pointing an armed cannon at this place for years), but I don’t feel much love for it, either.
The décor inside is awesome and quite peaceful. The lack of people inside to enjoy it — not awesome.
The sushi bar — empty.
The menu is decent and has many of the things I want from a Japanese restaurant. Yakisoba, Udon soups, inari. However, for some reason they charge the same for tofu dishes as meat. Tofu is cheap.
The Udon says its in a vegetable soup, but its not clear if the broth is meat-​based. I ate it hoping that it was vegetarian after this realization after a few bites in. Vegetable soup does not necessarily mean vegetarian soup.
They had some interesting spices in the soup, but overall it was lacking and certainly not worth the money for an order-​up-​front restaurant. My friends felt the same about their orders.
The place never got close to full during lunch time on a weekday downtown. Bad sign.
I’ll keep on looking for my inexpensive, authentic Japanese place. This isn’t it.

I went to this location about a year ago & I thought it was awful but I thought I’d give it a 2^nd chance since it is only about a block from my work for lunch.
To sum it up, yucky!
This is the poor man’s Zen or Koriente. I was craving Koriente when I went but it was too far to walk for my 30 minute lunch, boy did I regret it.
I ordered the terayaki box with the bulgogi.
It came with a small garden salad with okay dressing but wilted and browning lettuce. Yuck!
Also included were some tempura veggies & shrimp. Some of the items were not all the way breaded like they haphazardly threw the breading on. The shrimp still had its crunchy tail and much of it ecoskelteon when I bit through the semi-​breading. The sweet potato was ok. But still overall, Double Yuck!
There was fried dumpling that was ok until I tried to bite into the edges of it and nearly cracked a tooth, it was so hard. Triple Yuck.
The rice was edible but rice is pretty easy.
Finally, I end with the quadruple Yuck — the bulgogi. Chewy, over seasoned. Too sweet and too salty all at the same time. I may be spoiled because of Koriente but this stuff was like chewing on a brown rubber band coated in Asian seasoning.
Plus for my quadruple yuck, the total came to a whopping $ 10 for lunch which is a bit pricey for bad food.
I will not be back for a 3^rd chance. Yucky!

When I didn’t bring my lunch to work, I would eat at Wiki Wiki Teriyaki about once a week. I always get the same thing – a tofu or salmon teriyaki bowl with brown rice. The food is not great, and I would never come here for dinner, but it’s a perfectly serviceable place to get lunch. It’s convenient and quick and the food is consistent and good enough to keep me coming back.

Although I’m no longer much of a fan of Zen, this place makes Zen look really good in comparison. My rice bowl was very salty and pretty tasteless. I couldn’t finish it, which is saying a lot as I’m not big on wasting food. I hear the bulgogi is good but I think I’ll make the trek to Koriente for some quality Korean, thankyouverymuch.

Two stars. Two words: Solid mediocrity. They don’t do anything particularly outstanding at Wiki Wiki, or even *well*. The food is expensive, bland, AND they skimp on the soy, even when asked for extras. I don’t *like* eating here, yet, I keep going back. Why? I get these cravings every once in a while for a ricebowl and this is the closest (and I think, ONLY) thing in the vicinity to satisfy that craving when I get tired of Thai.
Today is one of those days where I got tha craving and am cursing the lack of options, and as I was paying $ 14 for a teriyaki bowl and crappy pack of california rolls, I was reminded that I should whine and complain and just let everyone know how annoying this is. So annoying, in fact, that I just chunked my pack of crappy california rolls because I’ve just had enough mediocrity today.

This place is way not deserving of a two-​star rating which it has right now.
It’s not spectacular, but as someone who eats downtown lunch several times a week it has a few notable strengths and is thus deserving of this upgrade review.
— the bento box, while a little on the pricey side, is a pretty good multi-​course option
— it’s very fast and consistent
— it’s rarely busy
— it’s one of the VERY few lunch places downtown that you can make a phone call from because they have quiet seats without blaring music
— I would not recommend it for dinner
— if there was a Zen location within walking distance, I wouldn’t go to Wiki Wiki nearly as much, but there isn’t.

The Good:
: location. it’s great for people who work downtown off of congress
: pretty fast service. i think they are used to accommodating the lunchtime crowd rush. i get my meals to go usually in about 5 – 10 minutes
: the miso soup. it’s not amazing but it’s consistently reliable
: the gyoza. they are small dumplings that are actually really tasty, especially with the vinegar/​soy sauce dipping sauce you get them with.
: the seaweed salad
: the bento/​teriyaki box. it’s got a great combination of offerings. you get california rolls (2), some kind of salad with a light vinegar-​based dressing, shrimp and vegetable tempura, rice, and your primary thing to eat with the rice. if you get the meats, you won’t have to add soy sauce, since the sauce that is on the meats is salty enough to mix with the rice
: the yakidori. it’s meat on skewers. pretty hard to screw this up
The Bad:
: it’s a little expensive for what you get. the fact that miso doesn’t just come with the main meals is kind of silly. every other place throws it in. i mean come, it’s freaking soy paste and like 3 tiny cubes of tofu. how much can that possibly cost???
: the yakisoba bowl. carrie c was right: it really does taste like ramen thrown into a salty goopy sauce. ugh. the woman also said the dish comes with carrots. i didn’t get carrots. i barely got any veggies in it… a few strips of cabbage, onions, and a few pieces of broccoli.
: any of the dishes with meat have been really really salty. i don’t want to feel like i just drank a bottle of soy sauce. blech.
: the tempura is hit or miss. sometimes it’s light and crispy, and sometimes it’s floppy and oily as hell.
: not particularly friendly service. i’m not wanting to be their new best friends and all but my god… don’t look like you are going to be executed after you serve me my goopy lunch!
: the salmon bento/​teriyaki box is not very good. stick to the regular meats and you will be fine
: the california rolls are grocery-​store quality.
: the cost of the yakidori. it’s $ 5 for 2 sticks of meat
The Ugly:
: all the salty goopy food makes me fart. a lot. my toots give a whole new meaning behind the word «deadly» in SBD.
: to get to the bathroom, you have to go by the kitchen and sometimes it smells kind of funny back there. and i don’t mean funny haha funny. i mean like cleaning solvent or poop funny. blech.
Would I go back? Probably but only for specific menu items that are going to be low-​risk of getting messed up (e.g., miso soup and bento box). The Arboretum location is MUCH MUCH MUCH better and tastes SO GOOD. Even though they are slower in service, the food you get is really tasty, unlike the location here on Congress. Something is being done right there and not being done very well down here.
This place is IN (but baaaaaaaaaaaarely).

Eating here is like opening a Barbie shaped box on Christmas morning and finding the Suzette doll you pointed to on the dollar rack at K-​Mart while telling your mom, «I DO NOT WANT THAT ONE.» Only the dollar fashion doll, while disappointing, is at least cheap. Wiki Wiki has no such redeaming quality.
This is pretty much how the price breaks down on the rice and noodle bowls:
$ 7 — veggie bowls
$ 8 — meat bowls
$ 9 — tofu bowls
Since when is tofu more expensive than chicken, beef and fish? On top of that, if you want tempura or dumplings expect to pay about $ 5 — $ 7 more for tiny portions (judging by the table next to me). They even charge $ 2 for miso soup and I don’t think I’ve ever paid for miso. That’s insane to me. But not quite as insane as paying $ 10 for a bento box composed of a little teriyaki chicken, a couple of pieces of sushi, a couple of pieces of tempura and rice. I can’t help but wonder who thought up the prices here and if they were high. Nothing makes sense.
As for the food, I’d eaten here a few times after they first opened then abandoned it until today. As soon as I saw the menu, I remembered why. The selection is not that great and you either get crazy big or crazy small portions depending on what you order. Today it was a veggie bowl on yakisoba noodles which pretty much tasted like ramen drowned in soy sauce and dumped with old cabbage. Not only did it taste weird, it smelled weird. I would have loved to try their tofu but why in the world would I try their tofu when it’s $ 2 more than a plain old veggie bowl? The size of the bowl was big, but I couldn’t finish it not because I was full, but because the cabbage was starting to weird me out by about ²⁄₃ of the way through the bowl.
Wiki Wiki seriously needs to reexamine their menu. They have a nice little space on Congress and it’s a clean, bright little restaurant, but their color scheme seems fresher than their food and their prices are cuckoo.

I have a feeling that Wiki Wiki is primarily a lunch spot. We went for dinner and were the only people there. The only employee asked us if we would mind taking our food to go. I wasn’t sure how to react to this. I’ve never been asked to take my food and leave. Hm. In the end, the woman was accommodating, but it left me wondering how they make rent on Congress Avenue.
Aside from the completely dead, hauntingly quiet atmosphere, the food was quite tasty. I got the stir fry noodles and veggies bowl and Corinne got the tofu with veggies bowl. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed our hot, flavorful meals. Decent portion size, moderately price. I also tried a pork egg roll which was appealing, but a bit heavy on the grease. I’ll definitely try Wiki Wiki again.
Wiki Wiki is worth a Visit Visit.

I like the concept. Healthy, fast-​food Japanese. It was a 15-​minute walk from work, so it was rather convenient, especially on a nice day.
I ordered the Teriyaki box that consisted of charbroiled teriyaki meat with salad, gyoza, shrimp and veggie tempura, California rolls, rice. I went with the tofu option. But it just didn’t cut it. The tofu was very dry. The veggie tempura consisted of one scrawny string bean and one half-​dollar-​sized sweet potato chip. The 2 tiny pieces of California roll did not have crab. The salad and rice were okay.
All in all, not worth the $ 7.95 or the 15-​minute walk. Zen’s is a far better option for fast-​food Japanese.