Minamoto Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Bellevue

Stumbled across Minamoto because we weren't able to get a reservation at our normal spots for sushi and I was not disappointed. It was a rather quite Thursday night as we sat at the bar and chatted up with the bartender Theo, super nice guy, we talked about whiskeys, wine and what we liked, while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive. Seeing the party was late - we decided to look at the menu and eat at the bar. First page of the menu showed an omakase 18 course meal for $150/ea but a 3 day advanced reservation was needed. My buddy and I said, "man i'd totally eat that today if i could!" So Theo, graciously asked the chef if they wouldn't mind taking care of us right away and chef said yes!

We were brought over to the table by the manager, Issac and sat at the sushi bar who we were taking care of by Chef Grant. It was quite an incredible meal. I was already taken back when Chef Grant started the meal by grinding fresh wasabi (99% of wasabi consumed is fake). We chit chatted about foods and sakes, we talked about travel and experiences as Chef Grant prepared bite after bite of, without a doubt, the BEST sushi I have ever consumed. I never understood what made sushi so much better than your basic sushi joints - but there is a difference... Chef Grant explained that 90% of the foods served at Minamoto was shipped in from Japan. The freshest of the fresh and the best of the best. The highlights of the meal was the toro (tuna belly), the Hokkiado uni and the hokkiado scallops. The A5 wagyu was spot on and melt in your mouth delicious. One cannot simply explain what makes how sushi can be elevated in such leaps and bounds but this experience and the flavors, the textures, the goodness is 100 times better than what I've consumed at Nijos, Kushi, Umi, Japonessa, I Love Sushi etc... they compete with the likes of Shiro's and any other high end sushi restaurant you can think of. We took part in a few other rolls outside of the omakase and each was made with such precision and presented beautifully. It really made me appreciate sushi on a whole other level - I know after this I won't ever be satisfied with middle of the road sushi ever again.

We had top of the line bottles of sake which were pretty high priced but it was expected dining in Bellevue. Yuki No Bosha limited release was a nice smooth sake with fruity flavors and a sweet finish. The Dassai 39 was more of my favorite taste. Great recommendations by Issac. We finished off the meal with some Hibiki 21 which lead me to solidify... I still don't like whiskey haha.

All in all - great service through and through. Great meal - the greatest sushi meal I've ever had. Great elegant atmosphere and decor. I cannot wait to go back again and...

We tried Minamoto because we wanted some Japanese during our stay in Bellevue. Coming from Vancouver, we're spoiled by great sushi at all different price points.

I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed by what we got. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it certainly didn't meet the quality levels we were expecting at this price point.

Had the following: Chawanmushi: This was actually pretty decent. We ordered the Ikura as an addon but the waiter apparently must have missed this detail, so we had the plain one. Taste was pretty good, and I didn't experience the overpowering truffle flavours that others mentioned.

Uni & Foie Gras Toast: These are pretty tiny servings - definitely bite sized. They're about the size of a dollar coin. Well presented, but fairly lacking in flavour. The uni didn't have the briny taste you expect from uni and foie gras also didn't have the buttery flavour you usually get. I was pretty disappointed in this one.

Beef Sukiyaki: This dish was actually done decently well. It's a decent portion size, and the soup wasn't overpoweringly sweet like you sometimes get. Beef is served rare in the soup, and you can let the soup cook the meat. I'd have this again here if I were to come back.

Uni Toro Handroll: This isn't your typical hand roll. As I mentioned previously, the uni didn't have much taste to it. I have to say the o-toro used here didn't have much taste either. Normally, you'll taste the fatty fish taste - not with this combo. Another disappointing dish.

Last dish was the Crazy Toro Roll: Since I previously mentioned, their o-toro was bland, so this roll was...well bland too. Anytime you need to spice up a roll like this with soy sauce, it's not a good sign.

Service however, was alright. The waiters took a while to come take our order, which is unusual for a place that I'd consider a bit more upscale. It wasn't particularly busy that day so I'm not sure what happened. Also, our food came out VERY quick. Everything I listed above was on our table not even 10 minutes after we ordered it - and almost all at the same time which I found unusual.

I can't say I'd spend that kind of money here (it was just under $200 after tips) - I can certainly get far better quality of sushi back home at this price point. It's definitely a place that might be great to bring your business clients to impress them with an upscale ambiance and expensive sushi, but food quality needs to be bumped up quite a bit to compete with the best of what Seattle has to offer. For what I paid, I'd much rather take a drive across the...

Went on a whim since our card had a promotion on points & recommended this restaurant. However, the experience isn't really worth shelling out the money for - they seem to market themselves as upscale. So I find myself more critical of presentation in these scenarios. Ordered items: Mushroom Udon, Chawanmushi, Vegetable Tempura

The udon had the ingredients chopped not uniformly: some button mushrooms had the stems on - some didn't, the thickness of them weren't uniform either. The green onions on top were sliced & cut in curly strips. I don't really care how they choose to cut their ingredients, but it should be consistent throughout as this could affect cook time and does affect presentation.

The quality of vegetables for the tempura seemed good. Koromo for the vegetables was thinly coated and the veggies were well cooked. This was probably the highlight of my meal.

The menu provides many choices of varying cooking styles (sukiyaki, tempura, sushi/sashimi, grilled fish), which makes me wonder what their specialty/identity is. Is it everything Japanese? Or is it sushi and I happened to not order any...therefore, missing out on their strengths?

I was curious about the maitake truffle donabe. I love donabe rice, and particularly takikomi gohan varieties. I understand that maitake and truffles are both luxury mushrooms in there own right - but wanted to assess their other dishes before decided to shell out money on such a dish. I figured if they can cook their regular dishes well, then I wouldn't be risking anything dropping $ on the donabe dish. I will probably need another visit or two before I decide to try it though.

Tldr; the dishes I had were 7/10, but I'm hoping it's because they spread themselves thin on dishes & haven't identified their specialty yet. Atmosphere during lunch was quiet, dimly lit, moody music speckled with the quiet accompaniment of the...