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As far as Japanese restaurants go, the quality of dishes here are fairly mediocre, and not particularly authentic either (see previous reviews for rants on authentic Asian cuisine Downtown). I've been to Koji twice now, with the place being rather desolate on both occasions. I went the first time around on the suggestion of a coworker, after having craved ramen for several days. Unfortunately, the chashu miso ramen I ordered did nothing to appease that craving, being downright mediocre. While the serving size was decent, it was lacking in flavor, with chashu that was far too tough (think pork chops).
Second visit was better, where I decided to go with one of their lunch combo boxes, opting for the broiled mackerel and pork tonkatsu. Being rather wary as a result of my first time here, I was happily surprised at how much tastier the combo box dish was. The broiled mackerel was done well (though the fish itself could have been fresher), and the pork tonkatsu was rather tasty too.
While the second visit helped redeem Koji a bit in my eyes, it's still keeping the other Downtown restaurants company at the bottom of my list. Price is a bit on the higher end around $12 for the combo boxes (average for Downtown though), but serving sizes are decent. Just remember to stay away from the ramen and stick to the combo boxes if coming here and you should be golden.
Koji Osakaya is on my regular rotation of downtown lunch spots. Generally, this where I go when I'm craving a big bowl of non-pho noodles and broth. Koji's udon fills that craving pretty well. Big, thick udon noodles, pillowy puffs of tofu to soak up the broth, giant bowl big enough to drown a puppy... Mmm. Fortunately it's close enough to work that I don't have to waddle far afterwards.
The hiyashi kitsune cold soba noodles are also pretty awesome. It's beautifully arranged with each ingredient mounded separately, so that the dish looks like a pie chart. I'm also seriously impressed with someone's knife skills. Eggs, green onion, and sweet bean curd cut just so into matchstick pieces... I realize that this is a sushi place, so you expect a certain level of obsessive compulsiveness, but not from a dish like this that I'm totally going to wreck in 2 seconds flat by mixing it all up.
Not that this place really hits the top of my best Japanese Places Ever. Yeah, they have okanomiyaki, but it's not great. The decor and space is fine for a lunch place - lots of windows means lots of natural light, which is great after being in an office all morning - but it's also not really nice enough to justify dinner prices here. If your lunch time is shorter than an hour, you also might have trouble getting in and out of here on time, as sometimes service is a bit slow. I've never had an issue getting in and out on time, but then, I've got a full hour.
Wow, what a pleasant surprise! My family and I were wandering around downtown Seattle after 9 PM looking for a place to eat. Most places were either closed or too expensive. We finally happened upon Koji and with 30 minutes left before closing, walked in half expecting to be turned away. The place was still packed and we had to sit at the bar. We did have a wait a little bit, but they were playing sumo wrestling on TV so that was pretty entertaining.
I usually don't order sushi unless I know the chef is Japanese, totally capable or some combination of those two. The sushi chef here was Japanese and seemed totally capable as well. I decided to order the mackerel box sushi since I haven't had that since I was last in Osaka a couple years back. At $9.95, it was a bit pricey, but I definitely wanted to give it a try. The fish was fresh and beautiful-looking. I wish it was a little better compressed since one of the pieces of fish fell off when I tried dipping it in the soy sauce, but the freshness of the fish (we were on the harbor) made up for it. My family ordered nigiri sushi and udon--all delicious. If I lived here, I'd definitely return. Thumbs up!
It took me 30 minutes to get my Tempura udon, and that was only after I reminded the waitress that I had not yet received my food on two separate occasions. I got to sit and watch while everyone in my group ate their food (including one person who got another type of udon. WTF?) and sat waiting for me to even GET my udon. When it finally came it was cold, soggy and disgusting. I was so let down I just said I wasnt hungry and had them take it off the bill. I we
Out of all the results for searching yelp for soba near my office, Koji looked the most promising and I wasn't disappointed. I got Kitsune and Hiyayako.
The tofu in the Hiyayako was medium firm and a little grainy and probably just House brand or something. I'll give it a miss next time.
The Kitsune was pretty darn good though. Fairly large portion with agedofu, negi, tamago, kamaboko, kyuuri, daikon oroshi, and nori. Broth was savory with decent dashi flavor and not just shoyu taste yet not so strong that it overwhelmed the taste of the toppings.
I'll go back next time I have a craving for cold soba for sure. Might even come back when it gets cold and try out the Ramen.
Decent food, funky smell, horrible service -- disappointing use of a great location. After an okay visit for happy hour I went back for lunch with a coworker. We were promptly seated but waited for obscene amounts of time for anything else. How long does it take to make a rainbow roll? 45 minutes, apparently. Furthermore, we felt completely ignored as two tables who ordered their food after us got their food before us, and our waitress (and the owner) never said a word or apologized for the wait.
As far as I can tell it was a matter of complete ineptitude as to how to run a restaurant.
This is an occasional lunch spot for me, offering good, fresh sushi at fair prices. The $10.95 sushi assortment is a good portion of nigiri, a roll, and a cup of miso. The place is fairly small, so get there early to get seated quickly. Parties larger than four might have a wait at any time, but you can watch sumo wrestling on the little TV over the host desk to pass the time.
The only thing that makes me pause before settling on Koji for lunch is that the service is almost always slow and largely inattentive, even when they are not that busy. I have waited several minutes for water upon being seated, and just last week my dining companion and I sat there for maybe 15 minutes with empty plates and sake cups before going to the host desk to pay our check. We likely would have ordered more sake if someone would have dropped by our table even once after bringing our food and the check (at the same time).
Bottom line: Good food at a reasonable price, but lackluster service keeps this from being a more frequent destination.
Above average Seattle Japanese joint. Not in the top 5, but probably in the top 20 out of 50.
The traditional and modern sushi were fresh and delicious. Their bento was above average, but I've had better. They have box sushi which is sort of like musubi. They have sukiyaki, shabu shabu, tempera, gyoza, donburi, sashimi bowls, ramen, udon, etc.
Long menu. Good service. Great view of the Harbor Steps and Sound. Not so great atmosphere inside though. And it was a little pricey.
Should I eat close to work or should I go for a walk? Ahh, let's go for a walk.
I remember awhile back Harbor Steps had some eateries in its shadows. Sushi sounds good; Koji it is.
I had the Teriyaki Salmon and halibut nigiri. The salmon sure looked good when it came out, the rest of the stuff in the lunch box looked normal. I thought I'd taste the salmon skin---ohh bad bad Daren! hahah, ew ick blahh. Toss that aside. Overall, it was good. Good? Yep, good. Halibut was nice.
Located in the cool-lookin' complex of Harbor Steps, it can seem like a gem. Facing the stairs, nice area, music, Yes, it is a bit tight walking through. Service wasn't bad at all. 2 gals and a guy during the lunch rush. The manager (i'm guessing) came out greeting folks. Once the rush passed over, you could sense server # dipped.
But even though lunch was rather busy, the servers seemed pretty composed for the most part.
Wouldn't mind going back to try other items.
I'm still deciding if I like this place. We stopped in for dinner before a concert at the showbox. I ordered a roll of the specials board, it was a dreamy rainbow roll. I though it would be like a normal rainbow roll with something added. But it wasn't. It had tuna, salmon and white fish rolled inside with avocado, cilantro and a spicy red sauce drizzled on top. It was yummy.
Then we decided to share another roll. We must have ordered right before this person came in for take out. It took them over 30 minutes to put together his order. We were thinking about forgetting about our roll and asked for the check. Then they brought our roll and said they didn't have one of the ingredients so they would take 50 cents off the bill, 50 cents like that's even worth it. I had asked the waitress what she recommended and we choose that roll based on the ingredient that was later missing!
I had loved my first roll, the crappy service of the second roll made me very disappointed. I don't know if I want to go back. The waitresses were friendly but waiting over 30 minutes for one roll when we could have just left and then finding out it was missing a key ingredient when they finally served it sucks.
I finally found a Japanese place that serves some really good ramen and makes gyoza the way I like it. If you have only had the instant variety then you should give it a shot. I recommend the pork bone or miso with cashu.
Finally I found a place where I can find some good ramen outside of Japan.
Went to Koji's for lunch with my mom the other day. The prices were reasonable at lunch, but the dinner menu seemed a little pricey.
I initially decided to try this place because they had Okonomiyaki on their menu. The 'yaki was good, as was my Oyaku Donburi. No complaints there.
Growing up in Japan, my mom is a ramen aficionado. She judges Japanese restaurants based on the quality and authenticity of their ramen. The broth was rich and opaque. The pork was prepared just as in Japan. The noodles were equally good. It looks like we found a winner.
I did not have any problems with their service, as it was very prompt...even with a full house.
FIVE stars for the Hat Roll!
I love me some hamachi anytime and the combination of hamachi, avocado and masugo was done excellently with the Hat Roll!
Service was really bad though. We felt so neglected. We were seated fast, orders taken promptly, but soon after the food came out... it went down hill. Never got checked on again, took forever to get our check. I had to you know, get up...put my coat on, stare! Finally we get the check... and another 10 minutes later they take the credit card.
I saw a sign that said, "Now hiring" someone please help those waitresses out!
Luckily the sushi was good...cheap too.
ughh summer now... i hate summer ! 0-0 but heyyyy... this is the best time for eating Zaru soba and Hiyashi Kitzune at Koji. The Zaru soba and Hiyashi Kitzune are the best of the best cold soba in seattle to me. believe me, i've been around and around looking for cold soba in every summers (2005-now) but i couldn't find the one that can beat THIS ONE. if you like sweet, i recommend to try Hiyashi Kitzune. if you in love with the taste of japan and wasabi lovers, i r ecommend you to try Zaru soba. if you are donburi eater i recommend to try:
my list.... yeahh
my number 1: miso katsu donburi
2: salmon teriyaki donburi
3: beef curry
4: Tanin donburi - (basically is a beef bowl)
when it comes to appetizer, try the softcrabs and ika tempura. they're the best here! they used to have the sweet crunchy fried chicken skin. its to die for, but unfortunately it was discontinue since 2years ago.. F**K!!!!
This place is NOT for SUSHI FREAKS, their nigiri sushi and sashimi ain't than fresh! so, yeaa... if u wanna eat sushi, go somewhere else!
but they're maki/ rollsushi are ok. especially ANGRY DRAGON ROLL and HOUSE.
when it's come for the desert, green tea tempura ice cream is my favorite :) yuuummyy but eat it quick!!!! don't let it melt on the plate!
good luck guys!! happy eattinggggggggg
The service here was really good. Friendly people. But thats where it ends. I was not impressed with the food here. I ordered a tuna roll that was very bland and overpriced. The combination lunch was priced well, but the food was not very good. I have had much better sushi at the same prices.
Very good food! Yummy rolls and the food came out very quickly.
Unfortunately, after that, the serviced slowed down and we had a hard time getting any follow up drinks or even a check.
I was only here for a bit last night getting a beer and an appetizer while chatting with an old friend. The food was tasty enough, the beer was cold, and the service was flaky. The waitress, although friendly, tried to bring us the wrong food and the wrong check, and I kept having to stop her from filling my beer glass with water.
So based on my brief experience all I can really say is they have decent food and friendly, flaky service.
The food's only ok.
The service is super slow - how long does it take to run 2 credit cards? 20 minutes, evidently.
The food is not cheap enough for me to want to come here.
It is in a convenient location downtown tho...
I worked down the street from here for about three years - the Sumo on the TVs (I guess it was tapes) and the Katsu Curry Don were a Jap-tastic escape from the hell that was my job then. When I lived in Japan, I really had no business being there and seriously couldn't afford to be there. I was in the position to eat cheap diner food - things like Katsu Curry. I love that shit - it's just so wrong.
Oddly sweet, gravy like curry found only in Japan (not remotely like Thai or India) topping Panko breaded slices of pork over rice and garnished with these red sweet, pickle like things that I can never remember the name of. True comfort food and Koji's is the one of the only places I have been able to find anything that remotely resembles what I had in Osaka proper. It's spot on there.
Totally worth it just to watch Sumo. Takes me back to the public bath in the blue-collar neighborhood I lived in: a bunch of scratchy throated old ladies, hanging in the changing rooms, all nakey, taking rides in antique villainous looking massage chairs, chain smoking and talking smack. I had no fucking clue what they were talking about for the most part; but chilling, watching the Sumo and smoking with the Oba-chans was the SHIT.
I ate LIVE UNI here! That alone has to be worth at least four stars. (The uni was delicious - it can't get much fresher than live!) Unfortunately I wasn't that hungry when I came here so all I had was a rainbow roll and the uni, as well as some sake and edamame. I'm not usually a roll person but a rainbow roll is a good way to sample several types of fish when you're not that hungry. Everything on the roll was very good. The chefs were very friendly - I felt a little bad that I wasn't hungry enough to take most of their suggestions.
All in all, this was a very pleasant sushi experience. I'd happily come back next time I'm in Seattle.
No star.
Try the hepatitis A roll or the udon-feces soup. If you enjoy uncontrollable bowel eruptions to rival Vesuvius, by all means, dig in. This place is filthy and they let the dish staff make sushi rolls between services. Also, the ventilation sucks and you will reek of cooking fats.
Shhh! I cheated on my husband.
It wasn't even worth it.
These are the gory details. I ate ramen without him. I never eat ramen without him. I didn't even go to his favorite ramen place (I'm the ultimate traitor). I went to Koji Osakaya instead. Got the lunch combo of (miso) ramen, fried gyoza, salad, rice.
Miso ramen is my favorite.
Just not here.
Now I feel icky.
The waiter was cute, tho.
(No, I didn't cheat on my husband with the waiter!)
First one to review this place.
Koji is an interesting place. It's both good, and not good, all at the same time. The food is pretty good, but the selection seems to diverse. Maybe I'm such a Japanese food snob that I'd rather a restaurant focus on one type of food and get that right than a bunch of types of foods and get them mostly right.
The sushi there is a pass. Don't bother. Sushi is definately one of those things that you should go to a real sushi (and only sushi) restaurant to enjoy. Koji's sushi isn't _bad_, but it isn't good and not worth it.
So what should you get? The katsudon is good (katsu over rice with egg and onions and such). One complaint is too much rice, not enough everything else.
There are combo-ish plates with teriyaki and the sort. I tend to stay away from those if I'm trying to eat Japanese food, since the American form of teriyaki (that you get on those plates) isn't really authentic, but an American version. I'm not saying that American style teriyaki is bad, but if I'm going to a Japanese restaurant... well, that's what I want.
So stick with the katsudon, the ramen is pretty good too. The beer only comes in bottles (why, oh why, can't Japanese restaurants at least have Asahi on tap?). The sake list isn't that great (no place in Seattle is that great, not even Sake Bars like En or Umi).
So why does it get 4 stars? Because I couldn't give it 3.5 and it's one of the few places that has ramen, the wait staff is pretty friendly, and it's open kind of late (especially for that area).
Oh, and word of warning: When I first moved to Seattle, my car was broken into around that area. I'm always a little wary of parking around there now, and I definately wont walk around there late at night.
I think it depends what you're looking for when you come here.
I like ramen houses and it seems to be the case that the dirtier the decor, the better the food.
So this is a clean ramen house. It has an interesting menu that caters to people who know what they want to eat at a noodlehouse. It is mentioned almost as a by the way that they also have sushi. If you are not familiar with traditional japanese fare, do not expect a bunch of gaijin handholding at this venue.
I tried the house nigiri when I was there which was a three egg trio with avacado; smelt, quail, and flying fish. Not bad. They got the quail eggs right, which can't be said of a lot of places.
So if you want katsu, donburi, udon, or other traditional things, this is a good place.
If you're looking for a place that is going to cater to your american palate, you had best try one of the more popular places.
My first time here for lunch on a Saturday w/the hubby as we were both craving some noodles while shopping in the downtown area. We normally go to Sushi Gourmet (sp?) but wanted to try a new place and found this based on fellow-Yelpers.
There wasn't too many people there and we were seated right away, there orginally were 2waitresses but the second one disappeared right after we were seated. However the service was slow to get water and our orders in especially since everyone else in the restaurant had apparently ordered already so I don't understand the delay. And the were out of Sapporo on draft, there wasn't even any other Japanese beers offered,how can this be?
I ordered the Tempura udon and hubby had the Chicken&egg udon, both which were good but I saw that our order actually sat on the counter for almost 10minutes before only MY dish was brought to me. It looked like there was a mixup with hubby's order and the waitress sent it back before even bringing it to our table.,
My tempura was already soggy because it was on the counter for those 10minutes and I waited for hubby to get his dish another 5-7minutes later so my udon wasn't as good as it could've been.
Kind of disappointed that our waters also never got refilled after I clearly pushed both of our glasses to the edge of the table so that waitress could see they were empty.
Nevertheless, I am willing to give this place another try as the other dishes that the waitress brought to the other tables looked really good. I just hope they get more help on the wkends or at least provide faster service. (Our transaction for the bill was the fastest part of the meal).
I came with a large group of mostly Japanese people with a very famous All Japan 8th Dan Kendo Champion Sensei. It's kind of a big deal. We ordered ahead and gave them plenty of time to prepare for everything on a Tuesday night when there were maybe 3 other people in the whole restaurant.
Hmm...how was my experience there? Let's see....
No A/C, warm beer, shoddy service, entree sizes were all over the place, no salad dressing on the wrinkled and dry pieces of lettuce, dry ass katsu, cheapest pieces of crap sushi came with the sushi platter, plain spaghetti noodles with no sauce whatsoever, cold food, no soy sauce on the tables, no WATER or TEA offered, errm....what else?
Anyhow, it was a fairly large sized group so I can't say that everything would be bad if you went in a smaller group, but bad service and bad food = bad experience. Nothing about the place compelled me to ever want to go back.
Nothing stood out and I'm sure the rent isn't cheap which reflects on the price of sushi. Bleh, if I could give no stars this would be the first place I'd give it to.
I always order the Grilled Salmon bento here and it's pretty good. Also, I've had the green tea tempura ice cream (btw, you can pretty much share this with 2 other people unless you feel like eating 3 pieces on your own) and I liked it too.
I would stay away from the okonomiyaki though, it's just not the same as the ones in Japan.
Believe it or not, it's harder than you might think to satisfy lunchtime sushi cravings when you work downtown and have a half-hour lunch. There are one or two food-court-type sushi places, but so far nothing that I've been at all impressed with. At the other end of the scale are joints like Wasabi, which is both too expensive and too far from my office to be a practical choice. So after listening to me whine about my sushi cravings all morning, an exasperated coworker dragged me to Koji Osakaya at the Harbor Steps for lunch to shut me up.
The restaurant is smallish, but well-lit and has a nice view of the steps for people-watching. At one o' clock, it was pretty empty and we had no trouble getting a table, although the sushi bar didn't seem open for seating. Our waiter was pleasant, but seemed distracted, and often forgot to check on us - we had to pounce on him as he dashed by to ask for our check, and then he kept placing the bill in front of my (male) dining companion even though he had seen ME put down my credit card, which of course has my (female) name on it. It's minor, but a little touch of sexism that always bugs me.
While they do have a decent, if not overwhelming, sushi selection, the menu seems geared more toward home-style Japanese food: curry and rice, katsu, soba, and the like. The menu isn't very user-friendly or pretty to look at, and the takeout menu is even worse, but I eventually located the lunch specials. The sushi lunch combos weren't very enticing - they went from too-small to super-deluxe without anything in between - so I ended up getting a bento box with grilled mackerel, rice, salad, and miso ($9), which was tasty and well-prepared. My dining companion had the same thing but with tempura ($9), which he said was good. Lunch specials run from $8-15, and the dinner versions are $14-21. Oh, and what they call "green tea" is nothing but hot water, so don't bother.
I still haven't had the sushi, but looking at the menu, it seems on the pricey side - most nigiri orders are $4 and up. They offer the usual selection of not-so-authentic rolls, but also some more exotic-sounding things like plum paste and mint, daikon radish, and fermented soy rolls. They do have a happy hour with $2.50 sushi and $3 sake, but I haven't tried it myself. Overall, Koji Osakaya seems decent but uninspired - nothing about it was particularly memorable or made me want to go there, rather than some other place. Still, the downtown sushi pickings are pretty slim, so I might have no choice next time those cravings hit.
Their sushi was very good, so I can't complain. Everything was made quickly, had wonderful flavors, and was incredibly fresh. However, after taking our order, our server completely abandoned us. We saw him serving others, but he never once came by our place again. We had a flight to catch in 90 minutes, so we ended up giving our bill to another waiter, paid, and left. I understand it was lunch, and that he didn't know we were pressed for time, but still, not cool. However, their sushi was good enough that I'd be happy to return the next time I'm in town.
So while on vacation, we decided to eat at this restaurant. It was a Thursday evening and there was really only one server on hand (there was another lady but she didn't do anything but consult with the other). It took our party about 15-20 minutes to get seated and then another 15-20 minutes to actually get our orders in. She brought our waters and our teas but did not bring enough for everyone and it took her forever to get the remaining out. We ordered one appetizer. The appetizer came out with one of the entrees and then five minutes after the rest of the entrees were delivered. We asked if the meals came with miso, which it did and she said she would bring them out. We were already about half way into our entrees before we even saw her so I went up to find her behind the service wall getting drinks for another table and the soups getting cold behind her. To her credit it was extremely busy. However, she never apologized for the wait or anything. And instead she came by the table and handed one person at the table a little dish with shrimp heads as if that was to make everything better. It was a sad attempt. But this was not even the worst. As we were eating she asked if we wanted out tab and we just said yes (ok, I think one of us was done eating). And then the check came. After all of this, she wrote on top of the check "18% gratuity added for 6 or more." Now, usually that is expected and understandable. However, it was not written on the menu and had we known about this we would have divided our party and have received faster service. But after the truly piss poor service received, there was no way we were going to cough it up. She talked to the manager and got it removed but explained that it was standards and such. I bit my tongue from telling her a little bit about the standards of serving. The food was mediocre and I suggest dining somewhere else because the experience was definitely not worth it. And we did tip her, but did not feel that we had to be forced to pay her 18% from a service not worth anything. Food is just ok, service sucked, very small restaurant, prices not that great either.... pass on by, my friends.
They all taste OKAY. like, okay okay. Not really like disgusting or omg i'm never coming here but you know. sushi's okay- tempura's okay..oh, service wasn't good.
One more important thing, don't get UDON. UDON's very tasteless, just DON't! but ramen's pretty good, I must say. Better than Samurai noodle coz I threw up after I ate there something disgusted me in that ramen like there were weird looking vegie in ramen and yeah..just that shape and the color...well i still ate a lot afterward coz i went to cheesecake to get wontons and cake and bikini cocktail but think of it, it all started from that noodle... yuck..
anyway! yup, ramen's better here, I'd say.
The sushi happy hour (1700-1830 M-F) is an excellent deal -- during a random walk through downtown, I found this place, and for $30 ended up stuffed with fish, AND had a tasty Sake-based mojito (using japanese shiro mint leaves). Hot dishes (yakitori) seemed reasonable as well, but the quality of even a mid-tier sushi place like this on the west coast blew me away after east coast places which cost 2x as much and failed to match freshness or preparation.
I was pretty happy with the restaurant itself -- nice view, clean, etc. -- but they were preparing for a 60 person dinner party and were kind of empty when I arrived, so I can't really say what it's like during normal dinner crowds.
I met a friend after work here a couple of Saturdays ago. Thankfully she was patient because I had a hell of a time finding this place!
Surprisingly, or maybe not so, since it was so hard to find, the restaurant was not that busy. The weather was perfect for being outside, yet there were plenty of open tables in their outdoor dining area. The food was pretty good, nice tight rolls, the rice had a nice consistency and the saki was heavenly. Maybe it was the fact that we were able to sit outside and not freeze our butts off or maybe it was the saki, but I left there with a pretty good feeling about this place.
Pretty alright. Plenty of seating for lunch around 1pm and decent service.
There's a couple vegetarian sushi options like a cucumber roll and a 'vegetarian roll' that I didn't try or ask what was in it. There are a couple of tofu noodle dishes which they call 'bean curd' on the menu like the traditional kitsune udon. I have to assume it was a fish based broth though, I didn't ask.
Few times in my life do tears of joy come to my life. This was one of them. My overall experience with the place was really good. I've been looking for a place that serves okonomiyaki the way I remembered it in japan its as close to it that I have gotten in Seattle. Granted not everyone is gonna like okonomiyaki but they made it nice and fresh and there was an explosion of flavor in my mouth. Another dish i really reccomend is the meet wrapped with green onions. The meat was so tender that when i'm in my old age without my teeth it would still melt apart. Overall everythign was really tasty and the service was very friendly. I may have to just abduct the cook and keep him locked in my pantry.
I don't go here for the sushi. Although, the sushi chef is super nice. But my fav is the tori teriyaki! :P So good.... I like the little cut up peices of seaweed on top. My husband raves about the negimaki. He said, "It was the best f**king meat he has ever had."
My sister had originally told me about this place because it was walking distance from work for her. She said she had popped in for lunch before and the food was just so so.
Well, my other sister was up and we were bouncing around downtown. After tons of walking we decided to stop for lunch somewhere. Trying to grab a quick bite before dinner, we landed here.
The first thing that hit us was the smell. Kind of that oily, greasy smell that you get in cheap diners. That should have given us a warning but we proceeded on. I think we had a few pieces of tako, ebi and maguro. Not horrible, but not outstanding either.
But I will admit that after leaving this place, it felt like my skin was coated with grease. I had the overwhelming desire to go home and take a long, hot shower. Their kitchen needs a new ventilation system or something!
Just got back from having lunch and never will they see me again. I am never that desperate.
Let's start with the woman at the hostess/cashier station who greeted us and said it would be a few minutes. There were a few tables but we figured that there was a designated host who had to seat us. No - she had us stand there while she straightened menus and moved things around at the station. THEN she sat us. And we got water. Then we waited ... and waited ... and waited .... and waited. Oh, we did get to watch as two groups who were sat afterwards were approached for their orders as soon as they sat. They didn't even have time to look at the menu. We then listened to the waitstaff drag tables across the floor so that the tables made that sound that makes your skin crawl. We also got to watch every member of the waitstaff walk by us at least 4 times each.
When we finally ordered (we had reached our "give them two more minutes" point) and got our food, the sushi was nothing to get excited about - no actually it was bad - and they got one of our orders wrong. They did fix the wrong order quickly and the soup was hot, but the food was not even in sight of mediocre. To boot, I'm pretty sure the food was laden with MSG, with the nice headache and dry mouth I have going on right now.
They were quick to clean the table (they tried to take a dish that one of us was actually eating out of at the time) and give us our check - they even brought it twice (it appears the staff doesn't know what each other are doing), and even faster to take our payment. Did I mention it was $33 for three of us for lunch?
And I agree with the other reviewers that it stinks of oil (hello, they deep fry their gyoza for goodness sake - ew) and is really dirty.
Don't bother - nothing makes this place worth it.
Sometimes right before lunch I'll start craving sushi or tempura or udon or all of the above and I can't decide which one I really want and I don't feel like walking far, because I'm lazy like that sometimes, so I just head here. I'm always seated right away and provided the huge menu to help me decide what I really want, I normally go for a lunch combo, so I can get a little bit of what ever it is I'm craving. For the price, selection and location to my office it's not bad, would I ever go out of my way to come here, no not really unless I get a wild hair up my ass and want to watch some sumo wrestling on TV than I just might.
I went here last night with my special lady friend and, according to a lot of the other reviews, we must have caught them on a good night. We were both very pleased with the food and the service. We were seated right away and our waiter was great for the entire meal. I ordered the deluxe combo sushi plate. It came with 10 selections from the chef and I thought they were all delicious. The different selections all tasted very fresh. Highlights were the maguro, unagi and the salmon (which I usually don't really like). Most sushi places usually give you the cooked shrimp as one of the selections which always bothers me, but Koji included the raw, sweet shrimp which was definitely my favorite piece. The woman in my life ordered the chicken katsu meal which was also pretty good. The tempura starter was simple and tasty, and the spider roll was just ok.
Fresh fish, good service, decent prices...what am I missing here. I like this place and would definitely go back. Quit being such sushi snobs Seattle.
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: Downtown
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: International District
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: International District
Category: Japanese
Neighborhood: International District
Category: Japanese
Food, coffee and drink near my office in downtown…
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