Wa Restaurant

This place is such a hidden gem of Orlando! Tucked behind universal studios, and in the middle of a brand new, mostly empty (when i went a few months ago) business complex.
The food is outstanding. Its known for its quality sushi, which i had and liked, but the CHEFS SPECIAL menu is what i fell in love with. The best is the PORK BELLY! IF you like bacon, you WILL love this. it just melts in your mouth. my gf who is not a fan of fatty meats can’t get enough of this dish. The monkfish liver is the only thing i’ve ever ordered from there that i didn’t like. Dessert, get the green tea crème brullee, we get this everytime.
When you enter, you are greeted by a great staff, modern décor, and a hot towel and your choice of cool style chopsticks. its funny how the little things places do really stand out and make it a special experience.
The prices are fairly reasonable, the chef special dishes are priced about $ 15 but the portions are the «top chef» chiche small portion style. You can tell the chef puts a lot of heart and thought into each dish.
Check it out! you won’t be dissapointed.
ACTUALLY you will be dissapointed. I just found out they went out of business. That’s what you get for going to Olive Garden you local S.O.B’s!!!

Wa’s interior is beautiful and the owner or the manager (not sure) is very friendly. Our server was really slow though. The truffle fries were good but nothing spectular but my salmon entrée was good (especially the bok choy).
Overall, it was just okay food wise.

We arrived here late on a dead Monday night. The place was empty and we thought it was closed. Fortunately, we were wrong. The atmosphere is modern Asian, with sleek dark wood table tops and trim, soft lighting, and ambient music. The food here is amazing Japanese fusion, served in small plates so you can sample multiple different delicious flavors. The waiter brings you a selection of various chopsticks, not the cheap wood or bamboo ones in a paper packet, these are nicely lacquered fine works of art. Same as the sake glasses, you get to choose your own fine crystal vessel from which to imbibe your favorite junmai ginjyo. The best dishes were on the special menu: the quail and the pork belly. How can I describe it? The pork belly was unctuous, melt in your mouth, close your eyes and say mmmmm… delicious as tears stream down your face. The quail was perfectly cooked, tender, and with bacon! You know how I feel about bacon! Service was extremely attentive (given we were the only customers there) and the food came out hot and fast. Almost too fast, like the chef was bored and wanted to go home. Still, we were hungry and didn’t mind having all the delicious plates on the table to choose from.
In summary, go here. Yes, it is hard to find. Don’t let that discourage you. It’s worth it. (PS: Save some bucks with a restaurant dot com coupon, $ 2 for $ 25 off.)

Tonight we ventured to WA, a most interesting place. We arrived early– 7pm. The parking lot was empty, but we were happily entertained by the folks screaming on the nearby roller coaster at Universal.
Why is WA located in an empty office building? Who cares?
The interior décor is minimalist, sleek, and very comfortable. Our party of four chose a booth, which was spacious and private.
We especially enjoyed the sake sampler. We snacked on the truffled potatoes while we studied the menu.
We choose a combination of small plates, appetizers, and main courses.
All the food was good and some was excellent. The highlights were the endive salad with pistachios and blue cheese and the chicken teriyaki. The chicken was perfectly cooked and the sauce was amazing.
The service was excellent — our water glasses were well tended. In addition to the sake there is a good wine list and a variety of beers available.
Overall, we had a great meal even though we are not eaters of sushi. I noticed a plate of sushi at a nearby table and it looked scrumptious.
Prices were very reasonable considering the high quality. Get over there and give them a try. Orlando needs more places like WA.

The décor is lounge like and romantic. The capacity is big and needing people to visit. Its in an odd location and at an office type building off Turkey Lake/​Production Plaza blvd. The food is amazing and has thoughtful presentation. The prices are pretty good and they’re specials are inexpensive and next time I will try, but I had the teriyaki salmon. It was delicious and perfectly cooked. I love salmon. The shaubu shaubu salad is good. They’re rolls are a pretty good size. I love the lechi sake wine. You must try it! Sake is my favorite and now I found my favorite cold sake. I normally like it hot and drink shots of it. Its the only way I can eat more esp the rolls. Japanese beer is the best and smooth if you never had it. I will have to bring my mom there next. This is a cool place!

Wa is the sound my brain made after a night of sampling some of their delicious offerings with a couple of my friends!
First off, this place is tucked away right behind Universal. You can actually see both the Rip, Ride, Rock It coaster and Harry Potter World from the parking lot. A little tricky to find and there aren’t many other businesses in this office building, but sooooo worth the adventure!
The three of us arrived around 6:15 on a Friday night and the tables were all reserved so we sat at the huge bar. Chris the bartender was really great at explaining everything to us and helped us pick out some excellent sake for the night.
The food is what knocked our socks off so let’s not delay:
Truffle Fries — a pile of tasty potato slices drizzled in truffle oil and covered with parmesian. A nice simple item to start your gastropub experience with.
Lobster tempura — Delicious and cooked just right.
Sunomono seafood salad — A sampling of vinegared raw fish atop seaweed salad. Delicious except the imitation crab probably could have been left off.
Toro — Rich, thick, beautiful slices of this delicacy. If you are a sashimi fan, I highly recommend you try this.
Gyoza dumplings — These were fairly standard. Good but nothing out of the ordinary.
Quail (appetizer) — This was tasty and in a delicious sauce.
Pork belly — This melted like butta folks! A strip of pork belly lightly fried and packed with flavor sitting on top of a bed of sweet kimchi. If you like bacon, this is the dish for you.
Shrimp & Scallops (special menu) — This was the star of the night for me. Shrimp and scallops drenched in a creamy herb sauce atop… buttery amazing grits!!! Yes, grits! I even brought one home for the hubby and he almost cried it was that amazing.
Green tea crème brûlée — Soooo creamy. This was a wonderful twist on a classic and didn’t disappoint!
Frozen chocolate pot de crème — I didn’t personally order this but the presentation was insanely cute and my friend said the texture and flavor was divine!
Even though it seems like we sampled the entire menu, I can assure you there is plenty there still waiting to join the party in my tummy… So yummy… so yummy! I will definitely be going back for more experiences!

Overall Great Restaurant! Freshest sushi in Orlando. We had 3 entrees from the special menu; Pork Belly, Truffle fries and lamb — Amazing! Kind of hard to find but well worth it. Extensive sake selection. Décor is modern and clean. Not to busy, i don’t think people know this great place exists.

Waaat the fudge? How come I didn’t hear about this place sooner?
The food was delicious — I had the Shi So roll and beef tataki — yummers!
My friends had the teriyaki, which came highly recommended from a regular at the bar. All three were impressed with the portions and taste.
We also sampled the spider roll, which was quite tasty.
Service was outstanding — our server really made the extra effort to answer all of our questions. I was not sure what Shi So was exactly, I knew I liked krab salad and apple, which were the other two components of the Shi So roll. Not only did she describe it, she brought a sample out for me to smell and see before ordering. It really made the difference!
This is kind of tucked away, behind Universal, but well worth the effort to get here.
Especially if you like sushi AND karaōke, the restaurant turns into a lounge at 10 and the karaoking begins!
It’s a fun spot for girls night out or date night!

I found Wa from the other reviews while down here for business. I was able to talk a bunch of colleagues to join me for dinner. The restaurant was able to accommodate our large party without much notice. Unfortunately, it’s such a new place that only two of the three taxi drivers even made it from our hotel to the restaurant, and only then because we had directions and gps. :)
But despite this challege, it was well worth the effort. We enjoyed a variety of excellent fresh sushi. And they have toro on the menu nightly, such a treat!
The special menu is great also, and have a wide variety of great small bites. I had the pork belly with scallop, and sweet kimchee, which was outstanding.
I also tried the pumpkin custard and it didn’t disappoint.
They were having a slow night, and the owner offered for us to try a upcoming menu item, sushi pizza, which was pretty tasty and a nice touch as a customer.
If I’m back in the area, I hope I’ll be able to make it back to Wa!

This is the of restaurant Orlando has been waiting for. Honestly. Wa brings together modern presentation, techniques and ingredients and does well with a fusion menu.
Whatever fusion means is up to any given restaurant. There it means a standard sushi menu (with the inclusion of toro), mostly Japanese appetizers and a «Special Menu» which usually paired a mostly-​Western set of ingredients with Japanese cooking or the reverse.
The onus for my going was a certificate from restaurant dot com which got us $ 25 of a $ 35 or more food purchase and all the usual conditions.
Mind you, it is not an easy place to find, it’s on Turkey Lake in between Vineland and Universal, but in a building that’s essentially empty and the restaurant faces its inside courtyard. Definitely needs more than a small sign at the turn into the building.
First impression upon entrance was a dinner lounge: low lights, couches and a plasma in the front room, high banquettes and a sushi bar in the back.
After getting drinks we were served an amuse bouche of leek soup that was good and a surprise choice. Next came appetizers: bagel roll, tuna roll, veggie tempura roll and kara-​age chicken. All of the sushi was good, pretty standard stuff and the kara-​age are crispy fried chunks of chicken with a spicy citrus flavor. Everything was right around $ 5 per.
For dinner, we had the option of Japanese regular meals like salmon teriyaki and pork tonkatsu which came with soup and rice. The Special Menu comes as is and was described as tapas-​style. Made sense as most of the items are $ 12-​$ 14.
She had a red snapper dish and I had the highly recommended pork belly. The fish was cooked perfectly. Extremely light and nothing blocking the taste of the fish. The pork belly was a juggernaut in a small serving.
The square served alternated between lean (ish) meat and the belly fat, with a texture that was fork tender. What surprised me was how rich it tasted, even beyond the norm for pork belly. Slow cooking makes sure that it doesn’t get tough or stringy and allowing the belly to set again after slow cooking, and then reheating enhances the flavor. It’s like meatloaf or a stew like that, getting better on the reheat after the initial cooking.
It was served with a coleslaw that I’d like to have more vinegar as really fatty and rich foods need a sour/​sharp counter to balance things out. Maybe a piquant citrus sauce with yuzu.
Let it be said that we were pretty full at this point and half of the fish and pork went home.
Lastly, dessert. She was full. So was I. But I didn’t figure this was an all the time kind of dinner, so we indulged. I had a chocolate dessert of which the name escapes me, but know that it was finished and the plate returned looking fresh out of the dishwasher.
Please, please try Wa. It’s the type of restaurant that Orlando has needed for a long time. It’s innovative (also has a huge sake selection), visually pleasing, puts emphasis on the quality of their food and has a staff who really seem to like working there and making a great experience for their customers.

The newest hot spot for Japanese, Sushi, Sake. A Hidden Gem & certainly one of the best looking restaurants I have seen in a long time. I found out they have fresh seafood flow in from Japan & Hawaii… WOW Located off Turkey Lake Rd behind Universal Studios. A great date restaurant.

WOW! Frank knows how to run a place and no wonder Sarah (our waitress) «loves her job!» This place is a must try and I would suggest doing it immediately. As soon as the word continues to spread about this place you will need to make reservations days in advance for sure.
Currently, you would not guess that there is an amazing restaurant when you drive by the building it is in as the building looks deserted. Don’t let this deter you from finding it an endulging in a calming, relaxed, beautiful atmosphere while enjoying an amazing beverage. (They have Woodchuck Pear Cider) OMG so good!
The food here is phenomenal! We ordered tapas to share with our party of 3 and everything was just so fresh and bursting with flavor. The food hits every sense within your body. Amazing presentation, wonderful smells, the textures were all over the board and the flavor… I could sit here for days explaining each flavor but I would rather you go try it out for yourself.
I am not a sake girl but I have to say… the cold sake trio tasting sampler is where it’s at. Also, you must get the truffle fries to start. They are potato chip like, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. A pleasure to nosh on while perusing the amazing menu.
The lamb and pumpkin dessert was my favorite. Both so memorable I can still taste each of them!
If you don’t check this place out you are MISSING out. Trust me. I wish I had move photos but my phone died as soon as the food started arriving =(We chose to sit on the couches instead of taking a table and it was so relaxing and just a lovely way to start the weekend. I would have not had it any other way.
I can not wait to go back… Anyone want to take me on a date here? #JustSayin

It’s been quite sometime since I’ve experienced such a «coup de gras».
The food presentation and preparation were spot-​on. The «top-​flight» service (thanks to Sarah and Frank) as well as the eclectic digs were nothing short of culinary mojo! Tonight, I discovered I DO LOVE a Great Saki bar: o)

I had the best Steak Teriyaki I have ever had!
Everyone I was dining with was extremely impressed.
Everything was fresh and delicious. Service was exceptional.