Wasabi Bilbao – Japanese Restaurant | Review

While in Bilbao, Spain, I had the opportunity to eat loads of traditional food from that area. Soon, I took a break to try some of my favorite food; Japanese. Nearby the Guggenheim Museum, there was a restaurant called Wasabi Bilbao- featuring a beautiful looking menu that I just couldn’t pass up. This, as it turns out, was a very good choice when it came to some very delicious food.

Edamame, Miso, and Chicken bite

The first, and most simple item we ordered, was edamame, as these beans really do need to be a starter at any Japanese meal. The edamame we got was nicely salted and tasted a bit of garlic, it was a very good start to our food. We were also brought out a little chicken bite appetiser, which was in a slightly sweet sauce. The chicken was coated in pinko and fried, tasting like a very upper class chicken nugget. We were also brought our miso soup, in a fancy pod-bowl, which had loads of tofu and a nice amount of sea weed in it. Miso soup is another staple, so it tasted nice and worked well.

Wild Tuna Tataki

Our next starter was a wild tuna tataki – tuna medallions crusted with sesame and chives, with a touch of smoky oil. This tuna was perfectly seared on the outside, nice and raw on the inside, and came with a small side of pickled onion to clear your pallet between each bite. The tuna was thick and well cooked – it almost melted in your mouth, leaving little sesame seeds for texture. I am not the biggest fan of fish, it’s not my first choice, but I ate this tuna happily as it tasted so delicious.

Vegetable Tempura

I love vegetable tempura and order it whenever it’s on the menu. At Wasabi Bilbao, they had a seafood and vegetable tempura on the menu, but I opted for just a side order of the vegetable tempura. We got a large pile of this! Onion rings, asparagus, mushrooms, eggplant and red pepper stacked up tall. This came with a sauce on the side, that was a sweeter tasting soy, which you could dip your large bits of vegetables into! The batter was light and airy, a perfect complement to the delicious and lightly cooked vegetables beneath it. I love tempura and this was really lovely.

Beef Teriyaki

For our mains, we both ordered the beef teriyaki, which came with huge chunks of beef, a side of vegetables – mainly bok choy – and a small bowl of rice. The beef was tender, melt in your mouth delicious and soaked in a sauce that was so lovely to eat your vegetables and rice out of. This food was lovely thus far, so it was no surprise that our main course was perfect as well. I enjoyed the beef just as much as the bok choy and used that rice to soak up as much sauce as I could.

Wasabi Bilbao isn’t a cheap place to eat, but it’s not the most expensive place I have had Japanese food at either. Everything was utterly lovely and well presented, so the food I got was well worth the money spent on it. Courses did not feel rushed and came out after they saw we were finishing the dishes on our table, which meant that eating was relaxed, not so crowded, and just good. After I left, I felt very full. I hope to eat there again next year!

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