It’s good to find something in a trendy area that’s not overhyped and so unique. No Wabi Sabi is not a salon, it’s a smallish restaurant on the often skanky Smith St. But Wabi is all the good things about Smith St and none of the freaky and scary. One thing that shines through is it’s a real Japanese restaurant in a warm, convivial atnosphere that’s perfect for an intimate night or to take your friends for after work drinks. Even the waitresses are cute!

This place quite simply just rocks. For about $18, you get a 3 dish main course. Their sashimi is fresh and top notch. Servings are generous and just plain hard to fault. For two of us, we spent approx $65 (no alcohol purchased) and had a far better experience than Taxi at some four times that! The only thing you could fault is they could perhaps have a better wine list, but the sake list was reasonably compreshensive.

If only there were more places like this. 5 out of 5.