Imo Asian Bistro

Neighborhood: Downtown
Address: 704 1st Ave. Seattle (map)
Phone: 206-264-9570
Web: N/A
Parking: Street

Overall Rating: 7.0 / 10pts

ATMOSPHERE:
Imo is owned by the same person who runs Wasabi Bistro and Red Fin. Both of those places are more on the upper scale side, but Imo is catered for younger restaurant goers, such as college kids. Imo, in Korean means, “auntie”, and although the place doesn't feel like an aunt's house, it does feel like a good casual place to go for late night snacks and drinks. They also have a giant screen as well as karaoke machine (not a private booth, so everyone in the restaurant can hear you sing). On weekend nights, the place is packed with Korean college kids, and can get quite loud, especially when they start singing.

SUSHI:
Imo has a decent lunch sushi combo for about $10. For dinner, they let you order sushi a la carte single order (as opposed to having to get two pieces per order). The quality is not the greatest, and they don’t serve any special season fish, which means the selection is quite basic (tuna, salmon, squid, egg, etc). Although the single order sushi isn't that expensive, you can probably get the same quality of fish (if not better) from Uwajimaya supermarket.

OTHER DISHES:
Imo may not have the best sushi in downtown, but considering that it’s more of a Korean restaurant, they have excellent Korean tapas dishes for a very reasonable price. The selection is also amazing long. You can get something cheap like kimchee and Korean seaweed or Korean pancake and grilled pork belly.

SERVICE:
On weekend nights, Imo is packed with Korean college students, and the service gets quite slow. The staff tries their best to get your orders, but it always seems like they are under-staffed. On some tables, there is a “service button” (the kind you can find at family restaurants in Japan), which you can push to call the wait staff, but it doesn’t seem to be working on most of the nights (if it worked, it would be brilliant).

Nijo

Neighborhood: Downtown
Address: 83 Spring St. Seattle (map)
Phone: 206-340-8880
Web: www.nijosushi.com
Parking: Street

Overall Rating: 8.0 / 10pts

ATMOSPHERE:
The owner of Nijo is a daughter of Lap My Linh who owns The New Hong Kong restaurant. So she grew up running a restaurant business. Instead of opening a Chinese restaurant like her mother, she decided to open Nijo because she simply loves sushi. The atmosphere feels slightly different than Japanese owned sushi places, but it’s classy and stylish. On some nights, you can even catch a live jazz band playing. Everything about this place is stylish, from the dish and the mood from the lighting. Even the bottle used to pour sake is fancy and comes on a big bowl full of ice (the bad thing is that it takes up quite a bit of room). So, if you are looking into traditional Edo-style sushi place, this may not be it, but it’s a good place to take your date.

SUSHI:
The fish tastes fairly fresh and they have pretty good selection. The staff knew which fish was in season, which is always a plus. There dinner combo is also reasonably priced. The quality may be just slightly below the fine establishments in Belltown, but within the downtown neighborhood, Nijo might have the best fish.

OTHER DISHES:
Since the head chef is not Japanese, a lot of the food here sound Japanese, but tastes slightly different. Some come across well, such as fried sweet potato with wasabi dipping sauce, but others like karaage (fried chicken) tastes slightly different than the traditional one that you can’t help but to wish that it didn’t taste that way.

SERVICE:
The staff is quite knowledgeable about what is on the menu, and they can also recommend which fish is fresh depending on the season. The live music here is not too loud, so you can still enjoy your dinner conversation, which is nice.

Marinepolis Sushi Land [Queen Anne]

Neighborhood: Queen Anne
Address: 803 5th Ave N Seattle (map)
Phone: 206-267-7621
Web: www.sushilandusa.com
Parking: Street

Overall Rating: 3.2 / 10pts

ATMOSPHERE:
If you've ever been to "family restaurants" in Japan, like Denny's, Jonathan or Skylark, you might get the same feeling here at Marinepolis Sushi Land in Queen Anne. From the cheap looking floor and the lighting, to lots and lots of highschool and college kids dining and waiting in line, this place has that "fami-resu" feeling. For those of you who don't know "fami-resu", the atmosphere feels just like McDonalds or Taco Bell. Compared to the other conveyer belt "kaiten-sushi" place like, Blue-C, Sushi Land gets 0 points for atmosphere (unless you are young and like that kind of environment). There is a big conveyer belt in middle of the restaurant, and inside stands several sushi chefs, and the customers sit on outside of the belt. On the belt, several different colors of plates pass by in front of you. Different colors represent different prices. It doesn't matter what time of the day, or weekday you go to, this place is always packed, and you have to sit and wait.

SUSHI:
Their sushi is what it is. Sushi Land is probably one of the cheapest places to eat sushi in entire Seattle. Where else can you get two pieces of uni for just $3? Most of their basic sushi such as salmon, tuna, squid, white fish run for just $1.50 for 2 pieces. If you stick to this basic $1.50 plates (there are $1 plates, too), you can eat 20 pieces of nigiri, and walk out with just a $20 bill. This is where my poor-and-starving college friends go to do get their sushi craving. Although the fish is cut fairly decently, a lot of the sushi I picked out tasted dry. It makes me wonder how long these sushi had been going around and around. If there's something you don't see on the belt, you can always ask one of the chefs to make one for you, which I found out is better because at least it's fresher that way. I picked out an interesting sushi, which had kazunoko inserted in thin slicked saba. That was actually quite tasty and unique, but everything else was not great. Still, I like that they represent themselves as a cheap place, and charge very little, instead of places like Todai that tries to sell "slightly upscale" with crappy food.

OTHER DISHES:
At Sushi Land, you can order non-sushi stuff, like udon for $3, or just pick up some gyoza or edamame or tempura that goes around on the belt. Most of them taste like an instant, microwaveable food, but since they are all less than $3, you really can't complain much.

SERVICE:
Depending on which sushi maker you sit by, you get a different kind of service. Some chefs seem to be faster and more knowledgeable than the other. Since the place is always busy (even right before the closing time), the wait staff is always running around to serve some tea to the sitting customers and to run the credit cards at the cashier. Even if I were in highschool or college, and needed a part time job, I don't know if I will want to work here at Sushi Land since they have to run around constantly.