Saturday, June 5, 2010

The BEST Sushi I Ever Ate...


...was HERE!

Of course after a long day of sitseeing, the urge to eat great food always bangs on the stomach walls like a criminal in a jail cell.

It's amazing what the shake of an iPhone can do. When hunger strikes in an unfamiliar location, trust your handy UrbanSpoon app.

We read a few of the reviews of other restaurants, but none of them seemed as good as Umi Sake House. After a short walk into the Belltown district of Seattle from our hotel, we were pleased to find HAPPY HOUR!


What better way to start out the evening than with happy hour, sake, and sushi?! And it was incredible! Like I said, it was the BEST sushi I ever ate in my life. The fish was so fresh; the combination of rolls were so unique and flavorful. The colors of everything were so vibrant and you could tell that it was going to be a delicious meal.


The Casanova - snow crab, avocado & pickled eggplant topped with seared spicy snow crab mix, scallops, teriyaki sauce & pico de gallo!

This was probably my favorite of the bunch. The many different flavors all meshed together so well. The whole roll was so delicate that it took real chopstick skills to pick it up without breaking it. Too hard and it would split in half; too soft and you risk dropping it back on your plate.




The Pike Place Roll - salmon skin, cukes & avocado, topped with smoked salmon & teriyaki sauce!

The crunch of the skin and the softness of the smoked salmon provided a great contrast in textures. And the teriyaki sauce was so light that you almost didn't know it was there.







Seattle Crunch - salmon, cream cheese & avocado fried & drizzled with teriyaki sauce & sweet chili aioli!

This is a great play on the Philadelphia roll that I'm accustomed to eating. The cream cheese was so creamy after being fried quickly. And again the contrasting textures of the crunchy outer roll and the creamy cheese. The sweet chili aioli add a great extra kick to the flavor of the salmon.





Seattle Roll - salmon, roe, cream cheese, & avocado!

This is one of their regular rolls, but still worth having. The Seattle Roll comes with 6 pieces.









All their specialty rolls come with 10 pieces! And it's a great deal at $12-18. By comparison, a specialty roll in NYC only comes with 6 pieces for the same price...so Umi Sake House's prices are a steal. I guess it's really true that the closer you are to the freshness, the better the value. And we like value, don't we? Make sure to go during Happy Hour... I guarantee that it's worth it!

I think I'll leave it at that and let the pictures do the rest...


Umi Sake House
2230 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98121
www.umisakehouse.com