Wasabiya epitomizes the very 1990s genre that has come to be known in Japanese as "dining bars." That means you can treat it as a restaurant, as an izakaya or even as a kind of designer drinking hold; it just depends on how hungry or thirsty you are.
The architecture subscribes to the aesthetic best described as contemporary wabi-sabi. The steep stairs of gray concrete down which you descend from street level are illuminated by washi-look lamps. A miniature garden -- just a couple of lanterns and a slender young maple growing from a wooden tub -- is evinced in a space barely the size of a tatami. A couple of green leaves float in the square, stone water basin that stands by the plate-glass front door.
Inside, the starkness of the walls and ceiling is offset by subtle lighting and the simplest of organic accents: hanging screens, flooring tiles of split bamboo and a few rustic implements. Jazz music plays, but only slightly above the volume of murmured conversation. Wasabiya is quiet and relaxed, chic but understated, and every bit as serious about its food as its mood. Welcome to the world of modern washoku.
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