WaBa Teriyaki Grill

WaBa Teriyaki Grill is a fast-casual restaurant concept built around customizable rice bowls, plates and salads featuring grilled proteins, fresh vegetables and house-made sauces. Guests choose from options like chicken, steak, shrimp, tofu and plant-based proteins, then pair them with rice, vegetables and lighter-style sauces that appeal to health-minded diners who still want speed and value.

The brand was founded in Southern California in 2006 with a simple idea: offer a grilled, fresher alternative to traditional fast food that fits the time and budget of everyday customers. Early restaurants clustered around Los Angeles and nearby counties, where the concept gained traction with commuters, students and neighborhood workers looking for quick, grilled meals. From there, WaBa Grill grew primarily through franchising, sharpening its operations, streamlining the menu and building out digital ordering, third-party delivery and loyalty tools to handle higher volumes in compact spaces.

As of March 2024, WaBa Grill operates more than 190 restaurants across California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas, with its heaviest presence in Southern California. In the last five years, the company has shifted from a Southern California-centric chain into a broader Western U.S. player, signing multi-unit development agreements, entering new states and leaning into drive-thru and off-premise friendly formats that reflect changing guest habits. Recent openings in markets such as Phoenix and Dallas–Fort Worth, along with new development commitments in Central California and additional Southwestern metros, show how the brand is extending its footprint beyond its original core while continuing to fill in existing trade areas.

For landlords, brokers and developers, WaBa Grill brings a recognizable, health-oriented fast-casual name with a relatively small and flexible box that works in neighborhood and community centers, endcaps, inline spaces and select pads. The chain favors visible retail locations in dense suburban and urban corridors with strong residential and daytime populations, and it has been adding more drive-thru locations in commuter and suburban settings as franchisees respond to demand for convenience and off-premise dining. A mix of new-build opportunities and conversions of second-generation restaurant spaces allows WaBa Grill to plug into both new projects and existing centers, supporting occupancy and co-tenancy in grocery-anchored and high-traffic retail environments.

WaBa Grill is owned and franchised by WaBa Grill Franchise Corp., which supports the system from its corporate office in Southern California with real estate, construction, marketing and operational resources for franchise partners. Over roughly the past five years, the brand has evolved from a regional fast-casual concept into a multi-state platform with an active franchising pipeline, a clear focus on Western markets and formats that can adapt to a range of retail settings as new sites become available.