Wasuta Pasta: Japanese pasta in Richmond

Wasuta Pasta is a new restaurant specializing in Japanese-style pasta in Richmond. We came here for date night back in October. This review is based on an in-dining experience.

Interior

The interior of Wasuta pasta is a pretty decent size – I wouldn’t consider it a small restaurant space. The interior is very homey and casual. They had a cool wall art along the side.

We were a table of 2 so they seated us near the entrance by the window, facing a view of the Fraser river. The table space was a little small since we ordered a lot of food, but they were fast at replacing our plates and taking away dirty ones so it wasn’t an issue.

Food

We order a lot of food for 2 people… as usual.

Wagyu beef carpaccio ($16)

We are a sucker for wagyu so we order the wagyu carpaccio. I believe they may have raised the price to $17 now based on their online menu.

The wagyu carpaccio is thinly sliced and they give you 3 baguette like things to eat with. I really wish they gave us 4 because we are sharing this appetizer and we always have to fight for the 3rd one lol. It is tasty and easy to eat – they use truffle oil so the scent of that is quite strong.

Burrata fritter with focaccia ($24)

We LOVE burrata so we were super excited to try this appetizer. Burrata is a very creamy and milky/light cheese. They batter and fry this cheese like a normal fritter and serve it with tomato sauce and focaccia bread (they gave us 4 pieces of bread this time… yes!!). Based on this dish, I suppose the previous baguette things from the beef carpaccio are also slices of focaccia bread actually.

We were slightly disappointed by this burrata fritter because we felt like it actually took away from the taste of the cheese itself. The tomato sauce, while a great pairing, overpowered the subtle taste of the burrata. For $24 (a little on the pricey side), we were hoping for a better use of this ingredient.

The frying of the burrata was done really well though.

Crab cream coquette ($14)

So we are also suckers for coquettes… anyways, we order the crab cream coquettes even though we already ordered 2 appies lol. The coquettes are quite small and they only give you 2, so this appetizer is on the pricey side. The inside of the coquette is VERY creamy and filled with a strong crab taste so that was really nice. I also liked the orange sauce they had on the outside.

Sakura shrimp & shirasu spaghetti ($21 + $2)

My boyfriend orders the sakura shrimp and shirasu spaghetti and adds on an extra $2 to change the pasta to squid ink pasta. The pasta noodles are black so that is interesting and we’ve never had pasta where they use the small little Sakura shrimps. There is also a soft egg in there too that you mix it up with.

My boyfriend thinks the pasta is interesting and made well, after everything is mixed up, the toppings all kind of disappear (like a spaghetti aglio). It’s also not super saucy, which we find common in Japanese style pastas.

Fettucine scallop uni cream sauce ($22)

I order the fettucine with scallop and uni cream. It is a big bowl of pasta and comes with a lot of scallops (like a lot)! The uni cream is very savoury and makes the pasta dish more creamy/saucy than my boyfriend’s pasta. We both like this pasta much more than the sakura shrimp one.

Matcha Kinako tiramisu ($9)

We are excited to try this matcha tiramisu. Half of it is matcha and the other half is a soy bean powder, so that is interesting. The tiramisu is soft and fluffy and yummy and quite large portions so you can share between 2 people. The only weird part is that there’s quite a lot of powder on the top so that part can be a little dry.

Yuzu posset ($7)

I had no idea what a posset was so I had to google it. Google told me it is a hot British drink made of milk curdled with wine or ale, but what we got was more similar to a panna cotta texture/pudding. It was a nice balance of sour so it actually ended our meal really well because we were really full lol.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

We had a really nice date night at Wasuta Pasta and we were really full! The standout dishes for us was my scallop and uni fettucine and the matcha tiramisu. We also enjoyed all 3 of our appetizers, but found them to be a little pricey. Out of the 3 appies, I think the wagyu carpaccio would be the most worth your buck. Overall, the food was all tasty and unique and we love the Japanese spin they have on some Italian dishes.

My only non-positive comment would be that their drinks selection is quite limited. Service was great and prompt.

Sincerely, Loewe