Sushi burgers. Sushi pizzas. Sushi burritos, doughnuts, hot dogs and tacos. Sushi shaped like basketball shoes, formula race cars and Baby Yoda. Half a million Instagram followers; nearly 800K on TikTok. Although the bricks and mortar of its brick-and-mortar may not suggest it, when you walk into Wave Sushi, you’ve entered a phenomenon.
Wave (styled WAVE) is the brainchild of owner and chef Jonathan McKinney, whose funhouse of break-the-rules sushi was an escape from the creative limitations of his former family workplace. His first location opened in Mount Dora in 2017 and social media instantly wet its pants — the restaurant’s Wonka-esque mashups of rice and sea stuff are eminently ‘grammable.
Although quirky trumped quality at my last meal in Mount Dora, I wiped memory and palate clean before visiting Wave’s second location in Maitland. The brightly muraled but no-frills cubby of a space is housed in the Maitland Social food hall. It’s fast-casual basic in the most familiar way: counter ordering, bins of plastic utensils and Kikkoman packets, numbered table stands, a soda fountain — elevated sweatpants dining.
In contrast, Wave’s menu is anything but basic, a celebration of whimsical maximalism, a circus of munchie showmanship — and when you go to the circus, you dance with the bear in the tutu. I ordered the “OG” Crunch Wrap ($30), a freakshow of giant thingness and homage to Taco Bell that can be made even more ridiculous by ordering a coating of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Picture a deep-fried Japanese muffuletta with the bread replaced by a thin nori crisp. I grimaced while ordering but grinned while eating, losing myself in its sloppy excess. The goodies inside the nori were fresh, texturally compelling and well balanced, with the correct (restrained) amount of rice, quality tuna and krab with a K, the smoothness of avocado and cream cheese cut by cucumber, and a gentle pop of masago.
A spicy salmon burger ($21.50) also pleased. Even if its loose fish mix didn’t shout fresh-from-the-sea, the interplay of cool, piquant salmon and hot, crispy rice “bun” ate well. Less successful was a softshell crab taco ($14). Although its tempura-fried nori shell held a tasty bite of leggy, sweet crustacean, it remained a one-note tune of fried-on-fried-on-starch with a layer of sweetish seaweed salad that struggled to harmonize.
Wave’s menu also features a smattering of worth-a-go, straight-ahead tastes: gyoza, edamame, shishitos, poke bowls and sushi rolls. Of the normie fare, we opted for a pork belly bao ($9), lifted by flavorful belly, let down by slightly gummy bao; and a “love roll” ($13) surprising in its perfection — the uramaki combo of tuna, yellowtail and avocado undeniably fresh and, like everything we ate at Wave, a wonder to behold.
There is a lot to like at Wave and some off-menu realities bound to aggravate. For instance, a 3 percent credit card service charge will undoubtedly raise some hackles, and parking can occasionally be a problem. For me, both were acceptably priced inconvenience tickets for what were solid meals, and both were hushed by half-price sake Wednesdays.
You likely know the phrase “dirty good.” Queso dip and Funyuns are dirty good, and Wave impresses similarly. It manages to push beyond its gimmickry in the crunchiest, sauciest, tastiest, best-enjoyed-with-a-bong-hit way. And our meals did feel quite epic-sesh, visually surreal, almost Claymation-cartoonish. I half expected an anthropomorphic grumble from my crunch wrap: “Eat me, dummy.” It is all wonderfully weird, marinated in irony, and bound to appeal to those to whom those things appeal (hand raised). Liked, commented and subscribed.
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This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2025.