James A.
Yelp
Locally owned, conveyor belt sushi restaurant, serving up a variety of Japanese inspired dishes including a decent selection of different seafood, including toro.
Located in Bellevue, WA, Sushi Me is a medium size restaurant where the sushi chefs are in the middle of the oval-shaped conveyor belt, constantly making sushi while hungry diners grab what they want as different colored plates rotate around. My daughter and I came for a NYE lunch and the inside was about half full. Comparing it to Kura Sushi, there are similarities and differences:
Similarities:
-- Sushi that goes around a conveyor
-- various different rolls were the majority, most very colorful, and coming in either sets of two to four slices.
-- you can order things not on the conveyor like hand rolls and hot noodle soups. I ordered the hot seafood udon soup ($10), which had plenty of seafood...it was excellent, though small (makes sense considering the price)
-- The total price adds up quick.
Differences:
-- the chefs are at the center and visible here, unlike at Kura where they are in the back.
-- All seating is bar-type. There were no booth type seating, which would have allowed more people to dine concurrently.
- custom sushi with unique names: "Bellevue Roll", "Seahawks Roll", "Seattle Roll".
-- special orders must be placed with the server when they can come around. And it did seem short-staffed, so it was infrequent. At Kura, everything is done through a kiosk at every table, and -- delivered by conveyor belt. All custom was delivered to you directly by the chef or server.
-- unlike Kura where every plate is the same color, here it is different prices: ranging from $3, all the way to $9 per plate, with the vast majority being $5.50.
-- one dish I loved was the deep fried calamari...very reasonable for $5.50, and one option was a dish just of deep fried squid tenacles, which I thought was awesome.
-- the hand rolls were not as good (or as big), here, even for a higher price. I tried the kimchi handroll for $5.50, and it was just sushi rice with sour kimchi wrapped in nori. disappointingly overpriced, and not worth getting again. The salmon handroll had a lot of salmon, but so-so quality.
I thought the sushi tasted better than what I've had at Kura, and the noodle soup was definitely better. But it's also quite a bit more expensive, and while we both filled up, the total was over $80 for the two of us, including tip.