Austin has never been especially good at keeping a secret, but Wasa is at least going to make sushi enthusiasts work a little for this one.
Opening September 18, Wasa is a new 14-seat Japanese dining concept hidden behind papercut, the East Austin cocktail bar recently named one of Esquire’s Best Bars in America. There is no separate entrance. Guests enter through papercut at 908 E. Fifth St., make their way beyond the bar and eventually find Wasa tucked behind it.
The walk-in-only restaurant is built around sushi, nigiri, hand rolls and Japanese-inspired snacks, but the idea reaches beyond another intimate sushi counter. Guests can settle into one of Wasa’s limited seats or order from the menu while having drinks inside papercut.
Leading the kitchen is Executive Chef Elvin Jin, who also helms Austin favorite Tatsumi. Jin brings more than 15 years of experience, beginning in his family’s California restaurant before training in Japan in sushi, tempura and yakitori.
He is joined by Chef Martin Matias, whose résumé includes Nobu Palo Alto, Neighborhood Sushi and Sushi | Bar Downtown ATX. Chef Domonic Candy adds an impressive Austin pedigree of his own, with experience at Odd Duck, Paperboy, Dee Dee, Daruma, Tiny Diner and Otoko. Papercut co-founder Eddie Baty oversees the bar program.
The menu balances serious technique with enough personality to keep dinner from feeling overly precious.
Snacks include Pu-Erh tea-glazed walnuts, sunomono pickles and fruit tomato salad with tofu skin and shiso oil. Bowls feature hamachi, tuna, Ora King salmon and unagi served with rice, shiso, ikura and green onion.
Hand rolls range from negitoro with fatty tuna and pickled daikon to Hokkaido scallop with spicy mayo and yuzu. Wasa also gets playful with sandos filled with potato salad, egg, crab or even a hot dog, because apparently nobody told them Japanese dining had to behave itself.
Nigiri is where the kitchen shows its more technical side. Hon maguro comes with pickled wasabi, hamachi with cured egg yolk and yukari, Hokkaido scallop with yuzu and lemon zest, and otoro with hon wasabi. Snow trout gets an unexpected bacon jam treatment, while Ora King salmon is finished with sesame oil, ponzu and togarashi.
Wasa is ambitious without taking itself too seriously, hidden inside one of East Austin’s most interesting cocktail bars. You just have to know where to look.
Wasa
908 E. Fifth St., Austin
Opening September 18, 2026
Walk-ins only
Sunday: 5–10 p.m.
Wednesday–Thursday: 5–11 p.m.
Friday–Saturday: 5 p.m.–midnight
More information: papercut.bar/wasafood