Nijo, and Chanterelles

My schedule has been a little crazy since school started that I haven't gone into Seattle for awhile. With the blue sky, I got a little restless, and hopped on the bus for lunch at Nijo Sushi Bar & Grill since I have a groupon.

I arrived just after 1 o'clock, the place still had quite a few tables occupied. I sat at the bar (so I could see what the sushi chefs were doing), and asked for tea and ordered chirashi as soon as the waitress came by. I like to order chirashi when trying out a sushi place since you get to sample a number of fish, check out their rice, AND it's normally a much better deal than ordering nigiri. Unfortunately, THIS chirashi was NOT one of those. For $17, you get only 7 pieces of fish, plus 1 piece of shrimp and 1 piece of tamago (I know it looked like 2 in the picture - it was cut in half). There was no ikura, nor tobiko. They didn't even sprinkle toasted seaweeds. While they were stingy with the fish, they weren't with the rice. So in theory, you can get filled up with this. *sigh* Luckily the fish tasted fresh, but the cut was very uneven, some super thin, and some even torn.

I finished my chirashi in despair, and while I was there, one sushi chef skinned and filleted 3 fish. This is might be an indication of the freshness, however, it's certainly not appetizing to look at. What's even more shocking was when I saw the other sushi chef took out a store bought grilled eel, opened the package, put a small piece in the oven, and served to the customer a few minutes later. I suppose I never paid enough attention before. But when I order unagi, I always assumed that the place made their own eel. If everyone just used store bought ones, then the mark ups on unagi such as unagi don are astronomically outrageous.

Nijo might be a place for drinks, but definitely not a place for authentic Japanese food. The whole time I was there, there was no Japanese people; other than me and a table of older Chinese women, there weren't even any other Asians. I also noticed that even though it was only lunch, most people were drinking. One table had so much to drink, they got quite rowdy.

Unlike most Asian places, my tea wasn't complimentary. I guess after witnessing the kind of profit they make on grilled eel, I wasn't so surprised about the $2 charge for tea. Hey, at least I got a whole carafe. (If you can't tell, I was being sarcastic.) Even with the groupon, it was still overpriced. I would never go back again.

To walk off my disappointment, I went up the back ally into Pike Place Market. I know absolutely nothing about gardening and planting that my herbs are barely alive. So obviously I had no clue about different mushroom seasons. When I saw the normally 20 some dollar a pound Chanterelles selling for $7.50, I thought I hit the jackpot, and had to ask for a bagful.

Later, when I enjoyed the sauteed Chanterelle and fig salad for dinner, the day was all good again.

Nijo Sushi Bar and Grill
83 Spring St, Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 340-8880