Wassada Restaurant

Went in for dinner with a few friends. Didn’t know they took reservations, we waited by the door awkwardly for a bit since the only table open was reserved.
They serve free cold barley tea!
We ordered the sea urchin and octopus combo, around $ 45. For the experience it was really fun and interesting. The octopus was chewy as expected and the urchin was superbly fresh. We saw them taking them out of the tanks.
The service was also great, they checked on us numerous times.
If you want a fresh seafood experience, this place is great!

When they first opened, like many korean places, the price was good and the service was excellent. Even get some extra side dishes you didnt expect making it a treat when you go. Then they get greedy. Not only higher prices, but you get less food too!
Service is good enough nothing to complain about.
Found a hair in our sashimi platter. Point it out the the waiter. They remove the hair. And we just continue to eat around it. Nothing offered or changed…
Will probably still eat there hahaha but hope they change…

Take my review with a grain of salt, since I’m not a huge sushi fan. My cousin was visiting town and wanted to try the live octopus here. We ordered that and a sashimi combo. The combo also comes with a number of other side dishes, like sea urchin, fried fish, miso soup, among other things, so if the prices look kind of steep to you, that’s probably because there are a lot of sides not included in the description — some that tasted better than others. Even so, I still didn’t feel super full by the end of the meal.
I did muster up the guts to try the live octopus. It helped that it was actually cut up into bite sized pieces (I really didn’t know what to expect here). It was a bit of work picking up the octopus bits to eat since the tentacles would suction onto the plate. Make sure you chew your octopus thoroughly since there is more of a choking hazard with eating these things what with the suction cups and all. I can’t say this is a favorite dish of mine — the taste didn’t really seem worth the effort to me.
Their sashimi in general seemed pretty good to me. Service was decent albeit a little brusque. Seating is somewhat cramped — kind of cafeteria style seating. Street parking was pretty easy to find nearby.

I love their hwaro, I think it’s called halibut. It’s so fresh because they sashimi it right out of the tank when you place your order. There are different size, the large feeds like 4 people. I love their small appetizer dishes that come out when you order a combination. I love the abalone, snail, uni and squid. The egg steam is always a plus with the corn cheese.
I love the live lobster too, it’s so delicious. Who thought you could eat lobster as a sashimi? I wished they didn’t put the alive lobster on the plate though. It’s just not right, but they are trying to show the customer how fresh it is.
They have a lot of seafood options, make sure you order the right combo with the right seafood you want as side dishes. I am not a fan of the sea cucumber or sea pineapple or the sea worm. If you are like me, make sure you don’t order the combo with those!
This place also gives you lettuce, sesame leaves and seaweed for the white tuna. This review is making my mouth water.

Service was really bad and dry. Not good on customer service, pretty ‘unorganized’ and dirty spot, nevertheless had the thrill of trying the live octopus and the guy just got it with his hands which is somewhat unsanitary I suppose. Food was rare, eccentric and not my cup of tea but it was nice trying something wild and new.

If you’re looking for a fun medley of seafood and Korean food, this place will offer a wide variety of different foods in one sitting. You’ll get sashimi, corn-​cheese, oysters and fried veggies and potatoes. It’s a mix of fancy and fun. They bring out dishes one by one so every ten minutes or so.
The quality and freshness is mediocre. The service is satisfactory. The price for all of this is not worth it. There’s not enough expensive dishes to make the meal worth it.

Wassada translates to «Wow! It’s cheap!» :D
I came here a few years ago with my dad and I remember having a good time so decided to bring a few friends here and by looking at my bank account this morning, we most definitely had a good time.
The XL sashimi combo and the medium korean halibut special was more than enough for the 4 of us in addition to uni, oyster and live shrimp appetizers we had ordered. Actually we ordered another medium sashimi combo at some point in the night and this comes with A LOT OF FOOD. It includes tempura, uni, ankimo, hand rolls, rainbow roll, and spicy fish stew. Great quality and fair prices for what you get. Service was great and they even gave us 2 free beers (we ordered a ton of alcohol).
One of the better Korean style sashimi places in Ktown. I generally try to avoid this part of LA but I would def come back here.

Super amazing! We came here when there was no one here at all so the service was on point!
The food and the sashimi here is very fresh and they give you a lot!
This is one of the few places that I’ve seen that offers lobster and octopus sashimi.
Presentation is great, service is good, and the price point is fair
There’s also free street parking if you can find it.

I always enjoy a really good halibut sashimi, but I feel like the quality of service and altogether end-​of-​meal feeling of satisfaction isn’t what it used to be. I’m not really WOWed by this place. Service will get you whatever you ask for, but for the price point, you’d hope that you would leave feeling really great.
The meal is usually spread out in mini courses, and they used to wait for you to finish one course before they brought out the next, but these days they don’t watch their customers and they just woodchuck all the food out. It’s actually a damper on the mood bc you end up trying to keep up with the pace instead of enjoying the food.
I will say, their ankimo was the best I’ve had in years. I can’t remember the last time I had ankimo that rich and smooth, so props to them for that. The days when I really crave this place are over, though. I’ll probably go back for the ankimo, but for the halibut and the experience itself, there’s another place in ktown called Masan.

I’m sad to say that my family and I have been long time loyal customers to this restaurant and tonight we witnessed the worst service. On any other night we’ve been here, the service was great and all the servers were fast and efficient. Tonight, the lady (not one of the servers, of managerial position) who served us brought us our dishes without asking preferences and obviously hastening the course to get us out of there asap. When confronted by my dad, she acted oblivious to her disservice staring blankly at us then leaving without a reply. Otherwise, love the place and the food. Always a long wait but worth. +1 for good food.

Cool experience to eat live (still moving) seafood. I tried one piece of octopus leg and that was good for me. Nothing special but the weird feeling you get lol. The taste was bland and chewy. Lobster was good. Abalone was my favorite. Shrimp was ok too.

Context: I was visiting from the east coast for the first time and ONLY ordered the sannakji (live octopus) because I was on a food run.
Server was nice, a couple banchan, and she gave me a whole pitcher of chilled boli cha (barley tea) to pour myself, which I liked.
I came specifically for the live octopus. It was obviously fresh, still moving on its own but only for less than thirty seconds after the dish was served. I suspect there was some sort of queue and miscommunication at the sashimi table and my order ended up not being processed immediately. The texture was fresh but it was missing that taste of salt water, they either really rinsed out the octopus with fresh water, or the preparation just wasn’t as good.
Price was average, +/​-​a few dollars from New York.

WAHHH! SSADA~
(Wow!!! SO CHEAP!)
You’re ordering a course meal of sashimi and seafood.
Expect a jaw-​dropping bill.
BUT! At Wassada, also expect jaw-​dropping portions.
Actually, more than portions, what I liked about Wassada was that you get so many «side dishes».
We ordered the large live halibut plate. I expected a big plate of halibut with a couple sides of other fish. What we got instead was… a whole load of seafood.
First, small banchan (side dishes) which were okay. We devoured them though since we were starving. The main side dish was a small sashimi salad. Pretty good!
Second, an appetizer plate of oysters, abalone, sea cucumber, sea snails and sea urchin! I am a sea urchin enthusiast and I can say that it was fresh but no good. Fresh doesn’t always equal delicious, especially with sea urchin. The abalone was bomb-​diggity. We didn’t finish the oysters. Sea cucumber has a very strong ocean taste. If you like that, go for it.
Third, HALIBUT, COME AT ME! So good! Not the best quality I’ve ever had but good enough to get kick my cravings all the way to China. Mm mm mm.
Fourth, hot side dishes. Cheese corn! Super random but I ain’t complaining. T’was delicious. Grilled salmon collar and some other fish. Tastes like how it looks. Good but not great. Salmon skin roll. Yum. Tempura vegetables. The BEST side dish! Spicy fish stew. Just what I needed after the meal slapped me in the face.
It was a humongous meal. Holy crud.
What is the best meal I have ever had? No.
But I was given a huge food coma with a satisfying grin.
GOOD ENOUGH.
Large halibut = 3 people left satisfied, maybe even more than satisfied. Around $ 55 each after 2 cokes, 1 Korean wine (bok-​boon-​ja. get it! Unilocal discount 20%), tax and mediocre tip.
(mediocre tip because service isn’t great at all. Still tolerable because, well, ktown and food good, good food)
The bill did not offend me in any way.
I believe valet was $ 3? Or maybe $ 2. Super nice guy!

This place is such a hole in the wall. So many dishes!!! Like ten. We were a group of 7 and each time we were asking each other is this the last dish? It is pricey but you get so much exotic food like sea urchin, «live» octopus, etc.
I enjoyed my experience until I went to the restroom there. There’s only one. It’s also where they keep their mop so it’s kind of like a closet… There was no soap too… So not sanitary then it made me worry about the raw foods we were eating…
Thank goodness neither of us had bad food poisoning.
It was an experience but not returning…

I think the food and service is simply okay. In terms of freshness, I will say I’ve had better. However, for a combination they are pretty generous with their portions and there is a lot of food that they offer. Its like any other Korean sashimi place. but realistically it doesn’t compare to what I’ve had in Korea in any way.
The one thing I had a huge problem with was the oysters. They were not fresh at all and would not eat them again.

Freshness of the seafood at Wassada was average, considering there are tanks of seafood at the front entrance of the restaurant. But it’s a good amount of food for $ 90; about 10 different plates, easily feeds 3 – 4 people.
The dishes that didn’t seem fresh were the oysters (I saw them shuck a couple and not serve them for about 20 minutes, not even leaving them on a bed of ice) and uni (it is presented with the shell, but I’ve seen places that serve it this way and the spikes are still moving – at Wassada, it’s prolly been frozen for a while because the spikes never twitched).
The most fresh was the rock fish, which they pull straight from the tank. For the platter, you have the option of all rock fish or mixed sashimi. We got the mixed sashimi, which also had yellowtail, salmon, tuna, roe, and belly.
The best part of Wassada is that they give you sesame leaves, garlic, jalapeños, and a bean paste sauce to make wraps with the sashimi, just like you would do for kbbq meat.
The other unique dish that I had here, as opposed to some of the other ktown sashimi combos is the plate of live sea snails. They’re slightly marinated in a soy saucy flavor, but the fun part is that you have toothpicks to dig them out, which is slightly difficult since they’re squirming. It looks gross, but it’s good!

***** 9÷20÷15 came back here last night and the service was horrible. Waitress was rude and started walking off while we were ordering because we weren’t all that hungry and ordered a medium portion. RUDE
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Ordered the largest combo for 7 of my friends and I. Was alot of food I give them that. We were all bursting after dinner. Some of the sides were great. Others were a little disappointing. The handrolls I was excited for because I thought it was tuna but I took a bite and it was kimchee. Whomp whomp whomp. We ordered some soju and some beers and the total came out to about $ 50 per person.

Korean style seafood restaurant.
Parking:
Valet parking. I believe it’s $ 3.
Service:
It’s decent. Typical Korean restaurant service level. When they get busy, they are busy.
Food:
Lobster sashimi!
Halibut sashimi!
Huge sweet shrimp sashimi!
Uni!
It’s all pretty fresh and tasty. Their side dishes are not that great though… just because they give a lot doesn’t mean it’s all tasty. lol I like their vegetable tempura though.
Spicy fish soup at the end isn’t really good. It’s way too salty but bland??? It just taste really unbalanced and a couple of times, it was actually really fishy.
When we went, we couldn’t order amaebi because it wasn’t the season.
Great place for sashimi though!

Pretty good Halibut sashimi platter with lots of random dishes, for $ 90. That comes with little side salad, uni in a shell, oysters, sweet potato tempera, fried salmon, hamachi kama and lil fish dish, corn cheese, octopus and small abalone, small spicy fish stew, and variety of little sides that fills you up. For ¾ ppl $ 90 was plenty. We had leftovers.
I haven’t found a great Korean hweh place that i really liked because, if the sides were generous and good, the fish wasn’t that great. If the fish was fresh, sides were bleh. Overall, it was pretty good. OK. I didnt get sick. Im happy.

This place tricks you! But in a good way :)
First glance of the menu, MEDIUM SIZED HALIBUT SASHIMI FOR $ 85!!!
Do not fear, not only does the medium size come with more than enough for 4 people to share, it comes with all these awesome extra dishes they don’t list on the menu!
I went with veterans so good thing we didn’t order as much as I typically would. We ordered the aforementioned medium size halibut, an order of the live octopus, and sea cucumber.
If I came with other noobs, I would def think to order more, but good thing I didn’t, or else there would be tons of leftovers and my wallet would hate me. So, being a Korean restaurant, they give lots of banchan (side dishes) to begin with. Then, they brought out free raw oysters. Next up, came our halibut, live octopus and sea cucumber. Then, they brought us raw (dead) halibut and abalone! Then some uni came out! Then some baked salmon! Then, 3 other fried/​baked fish dishes! Then some kimchi hand rolls! Then a baked salmon roll! Finally, a large seafood soup to share! Let me reiterate that all we actually ordered was the halibut, live octopus, and sea cucumber. Everything else came included! It was a pleasant surprise every time they brought something out. Man, more restaurants need to do this!
Anyway, the food itself was great! All the seafood was SUPER fresh. The live octopus will wiggle around and suction onto the plate to avoid you picking it up. Make sure to chew lots so it doesn’t get stuck in your throat! (This is a real concern, cause you could, you know, like die). The halibut was FRESH, you can dip it in soy sauce and wasabi, or wrap it in lettuce, garlic, and jalapeño like you would do with pork belly when you eat KBBQ. It was my first time having sea cucumber and the taste is a bit fishy to me but my friends like it!
The restaurant is pretty small so the waiters were very attentive. I like to go to these hole in the wall Korean restaurants with an actual Korean, it just makes life easier :) the total bill for 4 people was about $ 200 after tip, tax, and 2 bottles of soju!