Five House Wines and a Prayer
Rutherford Blvd · Murfreesboro · Japanese / Sushi · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 1, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine menu here is exactly four sentences long — five options, all $5, done. It reads less like a curated list and more like someone checked a box labeled 'wine' and moved on. If you came to Wasabi for the wine program, you took a wrong turn somewhere.
Five wines. Four of them are nameless house pours — Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and White Zinfandel — the kind of bottles you'd find stacked by the checkout at a gas station. The fifth is a Kikkoman Plum Wine, which at least gestures toward the Japanese theme of the restaurant. There are no bottles listed, no regions called out, no producers named, and zero attempt to match the wine selection to the food being served.
All five options are available by the glass, which is technically the entire list, so the by-the-glass program is also the bottle program, the cellar program, and the wine director's vision. At $5 a pour, the price feels approachable until you realize the markup on these generic house wines runs around 600% over retail — you're paying bar price for something that retails for $9 a bottle.
Kikkoman Plum Wine — $7/glass
It's the only wine on the list with any personality. Sweet, low-stakes, and at least contextually appropriate for a Japanese steakhouse. The markup is still aggressive, but at least you're getting something different from the house Cab.
Kikkoman Plum Wine
Most people skip it because it sounds like a condiment brand — and, well, it is — but with teppanyaki and sushi, a cold pour of plum wine actually works. It's the only option here that makes any effort to belong.
House White Zinfandel
A $9 retail bottle marked up 600% to produce a pink, slightly sweet glass of nothing. It doesn't fit the food, it doesn't fit the vibe, and it definitely doesn't fit your evening. Pass.
Kikkoman Plum Wine + Hibachi Chicken
The sweetness in the plum wine tempers the soy-and-butter char on the hibachi chicken without fighting it. It's not a sommelier pick — it's a survival pick — but on this list, it's your best move.
The Bottom Line
Wasabi is a fun spot for teppanyaki and sushi, but the wine list is an afterthought dressed up as a menu section. Order the plum wine, enjoy the hibachi show, and save the serious bottle for somewhere else.
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One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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