Gyo Gyo En — Restaurant in Seattle

My husband and I are from the UK and visited for our last lunch in Seattle in early June. It was a lovely experience! We had the Wagyu Mazemen and the Wagyu Dan Dan noodles, as well as some tuna and salmon Poke. The noodles were delicious, so comforting and warming, and the poke was very good too, although I prefer mine with a little more onions and dressing ;)

But the best thing about this place is the staff- you guys really are the best. We had a warm welcome, asked a few questions, deliberated for way too long, ordered via QR code, and waited. The young lady returned looking slightly worried, and checked I was ok with the heat level on the dish I'd chosen. She'd remembered that I'd asked about the heat (chilli) levels earlier and was worried I'd ordered something I couldn't eat :) She and one of the chefs would pop out now and then if we looked like we needed help. They seem so conscious of their customers and there were lots of little kindnesses.

They were happy to give us takeout tubs and offered different sizes, and although we'd arrived before their happy hour started, they gave us two pots of (delicious!) miso to take away with us. They didn't have to, and we certainly didn't expect it. I want to say thank you being an unexpected highlight of our trip that we still talk about a month later. We're a couple with an age gap and one of us is BIPOC, so sometimes we get a weird attitude where we're from. Seattle treated us fairly and with kindness, and Gyo Gyo was the best of them all. We'll be back if we're anywhere...

Hidden gem with authentic Japanese food -

We were going to a concert close by, so we decided to check out this place since it has a high rating. To my surprise, the store is quite small and probably only has less than 15 seats. I believe it's mostly for takeout. I enjoyed the decor as it's somewhat nostalgic with all the ancient Japanese poster/decor from the 90s.

We got the gyo gyo en bento for $24 and the Hotate creamy butter corn ramen for $19. Hubby's bento came right away, and it had a ton of rice. There wasn't a lot of curry, but he didn't finish it as he ran out of rice (yup, I was confused). I tried the curry and it was delicious. It wasn't spicy even though they mixed in some spicy sauce.

We waited for a long time for my ramen as there was an issue with the grill, but it was worth the wait as it's super flavorful and they gave me a soft boiled egg on the house. I finished all the soup, which I rarely do. It was one of the best ramen that I've had in the US, beats Kitsuki ramen or Santouka ramen easily too. Though it's more pricey.

We'd definitely come back to try other food if we are in...

Tried the premium bara-chirashi bento, the Japanese fried chicken curry, and the hotate creamy butter corn ramen.

Ramen - was decent, had 3 sizable pieces of scallop. Creamy flavor was good but noodles were a bit thin for my taste. Would have liked more other non-meat toppings. 3/5

Japanese Fried Chicken Curry - the tastiest of the three! Chicken was meaty and the rice and curry combo was satisfying. They could have been much more generous with the portions though, especially the chicken. 4/5

Premium chirashi - tbh, this was the most disappointing. Only half of the fish that they show in the menu photo, and only 3 pieces of uni and half (!!!) a scallop. For the price I would expect to get what’s in the photo at least? The tuna was also dry and low quality. The only good thing in here was the sweet shrimp, which was admittedly very tasty. 1.5/5

Overall, not the best, especially given the prices. Quantities are fairly small (I legit ate all 3 in one sitting alone). Service was very nice.

Unfortunately out of principle, I’ll have to round down of the misleading chirashi...