Bluemound Road in Brookfield is a magnet for chain restaurants, with new ones arriving every year. But now there is a restaurant that breaks from the chain mold and deserves to become a destinationWasabi, which bills itself as a sushi-sake lounge specializing in rolled maki sushi. The modern setting has a palette of white, black and oxblood. There is a small sake bar and a larger sushi bar with comfortable upholstered seats. Diners can choose from a table in the main room or one of the more secluded booths.
While the menu has a few entrees, most dishes are small plates. Many of the items are familiar, such as tempura, gyoza and the more common sushi. Then there are items like age-ru calamari ($8), a small plate of perfectly fried squid with a light coating of flour. It has a chili dipping sauce that is sweet as well as tangy. The menu promises sauteed asparagus but it is not missed; the sliced shitake mushrooms suffice. Sunomono ($9), another familiar name, is usually a salad of thin slices of cucumber with some shrimp or octopus and a bit of vinegar. But Wasabi changes the rules. There is cucumber, but it is in the form of a thin sheet used to wrap the other ingredients, similar to how seaweed is used in maki sushi. The filling is of minced seaweed, cooked shrimp and threads of daiko radish and beet. Sliced rounds are served in a bowl with some vinegar dressing.
Wasabi’s “signature rolls” can be just as novel. The flaming dragon ($18) is a reverse roll. The rice is over the sheet of seaweed and slices of tuna are placed on top of the roll. There is a core filling of minced crab salad and pieces of avocado. A piece of metal foil lies under neath the rollflaming, thanks to a bit of Bacardi 151 rum. The rum gently sears the raw tuna and adds a hint of sweetness. All of the other signature rolls are less expensive than this one, most around $10. Kushi yaki, a small plate dish, is skewers of fire-grilled food. The one called maki kushi ($12) is four skewers, each with a jumbo sea scallop that is wrapped in bacon. The skewers are presented nearly upright, held in place with a slice of Japanese yuzu, the citrus fruit used to make ponzu sauce. The yuzu contributes its unique flavor to the underlying pool of teriyaki sauce.
The scallop and crab cake entree ($18) offers quite a large quantity of seafoodtwo skewers of sliced jumbo sea scallops that are placed in a thick cake of snow crab flecked with carrot. There are two different sauces, one a wasabi mayonnaise and the other infused with hot pepper. Both are a delight with the crab cake. The scallops are well complemented by a tomato garlic sauce with the flavors of Sicily. The crab cake is placed over a balsamic vinegar-spiked vegetable hash of broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, onion and mushrooms. A lot is happening on one plate.
Entrees include a basic miso soup and a salad made of field greens, grape tomatoes and threads of carrot and beet. The ginger dressing is standard Japanese.
It will require many visits to get to know Wasabi’s menu. Everything is prepared with skill. Though it does not serve the purest form of Japanese food, Brookfield is very fortunate to have an Asian restaurant that is this stellar.
WASABI SUSHI AND SAKE LOUNGE 15455 W. Bluemound Road (just east of Moorland Road) (262) 780-0011 $$$ Credit cards: All major Smoking: No Handicapped access: Yes
Wasabi | Photo by Tate Bunker
