Ginza Japanese Restaurant

I did some searching for Japanese restaurants that weren't sushi or ramen, and Ginza popped up. It's located in Bellevue, WA which was an additional win as we wouldn't have to travel far to partake.

They had a giant menu which was a bit overwhelming. I compensated by ordering way too much food.

One of their specialities was a friggin' pumpkin filled with fried rice. Yes please.

Got some yakitori skewers.

Got some tempura. We really won the game.

Lydia is so thoughtful that she made a basket of snacks for her hospital delivery staff. She is pretty much the best planner on the planet.

Lydia Orders the Bukkake

We've been hitting the Eater list of "The 38 Essential Restaurants in Seattle" hard because we're not sure what our dining situation will be once we are booking tables for three.

I do have a rough idea of what Ernie will look like though.

I was even more excited to eat at Kamonegi than I usually am for a new restaurant. The sign out front proudly proclaims that this is a tempura and soba joint, and soba is an under-appreciated Japanese noodle art form that you don't see much in the US. It's cousin ramen takes all the accolades. Anyway, Eater had this to say about the place:

"Star chef Mutsuko Soma makes soba from scratch at this petite Fremont destination, which was one of Eater’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2018. Soma serves traditional soba shop dishes like seiro soba (cold with dipping sauce) and super-crunchy tempura, but also more creative dishes like noodles topped with tri tips or oreo tempura. Make a full night of it by sampling some sake and snacks at next-door sibling bar Hannyatou."

The first thing you notice when walking in is how small of a space it is. It's very cozy.

Lydia sipped on an ume shiso soda. She's so fancy.

I ordered a tsukemono plate for the table: "housemade Japanese pickles; seasonal vegetables."

Lydia hilariously ordered off of the Bukkake menu.

"Shogatsu bukkake

shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, daikon oroshi, wasabi, fried mochi, tempura flakes"

Apparently it's called bukkake because it is "chilled broth poured over cold soba noodles and topped with various garnishes." Typically in my experience soba comes the way I ordered it, with just a nice pile of noodles with the sauce on the side. I had a fun time explaining to Lydia the other meanings of that word.

I ordered the "Ten zaru: chilled zaru broth, seasonal vegetable tempura, wasabi, scallion." I washed it all down with a carafe of Tozai Snow Maiden junmai nigori sake from Kyoto.

I narrowly avoided ordering the Oreo tempura and opted for the:

"Duck fat mochi cake and pecan ice cream

soft cake with apples, candied walnuts, a scoop of butter pecan ice cream with kokuto."

It was a great meal. You definitely have to book a reservation ahead of time here but I would definitely return.

Sushi Cool Kids

Seattle's Asian food scene is pretty baller so I feel compelled to cross Lake Washington from time to time in order to participate.

Tonight we went to a sort of hip sushi place called Momiji. I think I prefer a more classic approach but the food was good.

The Amazon Spheres headquarters.