Thoughts: ☆☆☆☆
Kisaku: Dinner Menu
In the past, I have always chosen Umi's as my choice for sushi. But Kisaku was the only other sushi restaurant that made it on the Urban Spoon's list (aside from Umi's of course). I've been meaning to find another place to eat sushi that was a little bit closer to home, and Green Lake is not far at all!
At first I was a little skeptical from looking at their website. The place is very clean and spacious, there was a decent-sized crowd when we got there. Very simple, nothing flashy on it. But they held a pretty solid selection in terms of variety of food. We took a seat by the sushi bar and without a second thought I started off with their Fresh Oysters on a half-shell:
It came with four oysters with each half-shell filled with ponzu sauce, a nice and light citrus taste with the oysters. I followed up with a Spider Roll and Spicy Tuna Roll. Although it surprised me when I saw the Spicy Tuna Roll; normally the seaweed is on the inside. One thing I really liked about the rolls was how big they were. The slices were uneven for the pieces but it still tastes great. It was actually nice and spicy, with enough kick to leave me craving for more:
My friend had the Kisaku roll which had scallop, crab, mayo, tobikko, and wrapped in soy paper:
Also his Green Lake roll stayed true to the name, containing salmon, tobikko, asparagus (haven't seen many with this), avocado, and covered with marinated seaweed. The chef who made this one squeezed the roll a bit too hard while making it and malformed the normal round shape you would expect:
Their sashimi selection on the other hand, went above and beyond any other place I've been to in Seattle so far; adding mirugai (geoduck), hirame (flounder), kohada (gizzard shad) just to name a few. I ended up ordering hotategai (scallop) sashimi:
I was excited to get the otoro (very fatty tuna) because most places only carry chutoro (fatty tuna):
In terms of my experience eating here. The lead sushi chef whom we were seated in front of, did a great job in making it feel like everyone here was important. I could see people coming in and sitting at the bar whom seemed to know the chef by name, Ryuichi (ha, even I know his name now!). Ordering was done by directly speaking to him whenever you wanted something. He was nice enough to give more sashimi than how much normally comes in an order without charge as well, he might have overheard me talking about how I've never had otoro before and it was one of the last things for the night.
For what you get the price was right. I did find my hunger completely sated by the end of the day. For sashimi and your usual rolls (with the occasional few house rolls), Kisaku is a great choice. For your happy hour and more exotic rolls, go with Umi's. Both places are great, I would consider them equals in terms of quality.
