Kyle W.
Yelp
Drawn by the aesthetic 9 pc nigiri box from many months back, I finally got to try this place because of the appeal of value from Seattle restaurant week special. For $35 during lunch, I got salmon tataki, 9 pc nigiri box (which is almost $35 normally), and caramelized banana for dessert. The salmon tataki starter was fairly good - it was fresh and served along a soy sauce that is fairly tangy. Everything went downhill after.
The 9 pc nigiri box has a combination of fresh and seared nigiri, each of which are fairly large so 9 pcs of nigiri is actually a satisfying meal. This time, they served sea bream, yellowtail, seared escolar, shrimp, tamago, tuna, shrimp, amberjack, and albacore, from left to right top to bottom of the 3x3 box. It is not just plain nigiri - for example, they topped the tuna with rosemary and the yellowtail with jalapeño. My favorite was the seared escolar as it had a nice smoky flavor. The rice was not too cooked so it felt a bit hard and so easy to fall apart.
The dessert was fairly decent. My friend happened to come after so we sat next to each other at the bar and he got a different dessert, the green tea mochi ice cream. The caramelized banana is slightly buttery and not too sweet, and I personally preferred that dessert over the mochi ice cream, as the mochi ice cream is just taken out of the freezer so it wasn't all that special.
What docked another star was how excruciatingly slow service is. I personally do not mind normally as I can just talk to friends, but first, it is lunch, so it is supposed to be quick as the restaurant is not busy at all, and second, they force you to pay 18% gratuity for SRW menu, so they can just get away with poor service yet you cannot really do much else. That is not okay - if you are mandating gratuity, at least show to customers that they deserve it. Our lunch lasted almost 2 hours, but the amount of food served can easily be consumed for a fraction of that time, even if the food must be made to order (which I prefer nonetheless).