Japonessa - Seattle, WA

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed by Micah A. of Seattle, WA

Oy. I came here completely intent on hating this place. I was ready for it. I like writing bad reviews. Bad reviews are funny. Bad reviews are interesting. Bad reviews are unique. There are many, many ways to describe an awful place, but there are far fewer ways to describe a good experience. Unfortunately for me it wasn't that bad. Damn.

Named after what I assume to be a slur for a Tokyo princess, my friend and I went to Japonessa because it was the first place we saw that didn't have a pretentious name. Did you know there was a restaurant called "Taste"? That's ridiculous.

We walked in and the pretty Indian hostess asked us if we were going to be less then an hour. If so, she'd seat us in an area that was reserved for the evening. If not, I assumed she'd seat us on the ceiling. Really I'm not sure why that was an issue, considering the entire restaurant appeared pretty empty, but maybe she wanted me to sit close to her so she could check out the Perry the Platypus t-shirt I was rocking.

At this point I was pretty excited about the idea that this place might suck because that was such an unusual question to ask guests that just came in and didn't request seating anywhere. She asked nicely, so I wasn't upset, but unusual experiences almost always mean that a bad experience is coming.

I ordered tofu rolls and veggie rolls. The veggie rolls looked like veggie rolls. The tofu rolls looked nasty, with the tofu barely even a light yellow. Again, I was pretty excited because fried tofu is delicious and wet tofu is not, so I was under the impression that the tofu roll was going to be several different kinds of terrible.

Yeah, well, I bite in and they were excellent. The tofu was crisp and heated - the first time I ever had heated tofu sushi. This really good food totally ruined my day.

 Everything else about this place was really nice. The server was very attentive. Not just for us - she brought out the wrong sushi for the table next to us, and she noticed the error herself, comped it, let them keep the sushi she brought out AND brought out the correct meal, all with a friendly smile. Good on her. The place was also clean and attractive.

The only negative is an ironic negative. The tofu sushi rolls were actually too big. From a cost/meal standpoint this was great, but with sushi, you need to be able to eat most of it in one bite otherwise it falls apart. Each roll was so thick that you could barely get through half in one bite, and then the rest of the sushi would collapse onto the plate. There was a lot of picking up stray pieces. That is possibly the lamest problem I have ever had with a meal, but it was at least a slight negative.

Anyway, everything was great, which is too bad, since bad restaurants are way more fun to write about. I'll have to seek out a bad experience soon. Maybe I'll go to Twilight on Saturday night.

1400 1st Ave
(between Union St & Pike St)
Seattle, WA 98101
Neighborhood: Downtown

(206) 971-7979

www.japonessa.com/