Mashiko Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Seattle

I loved this place. Today I was very disappointed. First, they only had valentines menu and did not offer any other omakase. There was no hot soup or hot course in the middle as other omakase would. The course selection felt like they just put together whatever is "easy" for them to make.

1st course - NW sashimi sampler: 2 pieces of each Albacore, Idaho rainbow trout kobujime, and Alaskan salmon-suke to share. Each fish was paired with seasoned seaweed, daikon, and pickled bamboo shoots. The fish were fresh and well seasoned. Did not come with ginger and came with a finger-nail sized Wasabi. I've been to Mashiko several times in the past so I understand they charge for the Wasabi but it was too small amount for 2 people.

2nd course - crab huyayakko tofu: They claim the tofu is house made. It was the worst tofu I've ever tasted. It was soggy and grainy. There was bitter aftertaste. The tofu was topped with Dungeness crab and ikura. I could not taste too much of the crab and ikura because the tofu was so bitter. Ikura was seasoned with soy sauce. A bit salty.

3rd course - 5 pieces nigiri and oshizushi with tsukemono: Overall nigiri had a fishy smell and a bit mussy? Except for the cod since it's been torched. After the nigiri is done, they serve 6 pieces of saba oshizushi with pickled veggies. Saba is fishy in nature so I think they should've seasoned it better. The rice had furikake sprinkled in the middle.

4th course - lingers ankake: The cod was lightly grilled and smothered in oyster sauce (maybe used corn starch to make the sauce thick) there were very little mushroom, maybe 2 pieces? The cod was thick at least.

5th course - chocolate okara donuts with amazake ice cream Warm gooey chocolate donut had okara (soy) bits inside. The ice cream was refreshing. The donut, however.. outside was crunchy and chocolaty which was great! But inside was bland. I think it's because of the okara.

Overall, I would not pay my visit during special occasions at Mashiko. I noticed they changed their menu for other people who came later than us. See my photos. It was hectic, not intimate. The food was bad. Service was somewhat fast but still not what I would expect. Do not come here. I hyped my boyfriend up for this place since I loved Mashiko in the past but today I was...

Edit

IF YOUR ALLERGIC TO MSGs, CONSIDER DINING ELSEWHERE. If you have any other allergies, please talk with them first because they're incredibly accommodating and communicative.

So this is the first time we've been there for at least two years now. We still love it here, and the people who work there are as amazing as ever, but (and it pains me to say this), we won't be able to come back again.

My partner is allergic to msg and one of the people who worked in the kitchen warned us that they use msg in a lot of things. It never gave him issues before so we thought it would be okay.

It seems they changed how they cook though. The food still tasted amazing, especially the sashimi and the Tuna on Snowshoe? I think that's what it's called. But there was also so much msg in the food that couldn't be separated from everything else that my partner got a nasty migraine. And this was with them aware of his allergy and changing what they could.

This really does hurt because this was our place. It was one of our first dates and where I proposed to him. But I just can't put him through the migraines anymore.

Original

As amazing as ever! We had the Sushi-Ya and asked for sake to be paired with each dish. There's the option of more common dishes like tuna and salmon or more exotic dishes, and we chose a mix. They managed to have a great balance, though I don't recommend the exotic options unless you're feeling truly adventurous. Amongst seered cod and King Salmon sashimi, we had shrimp heads that had the exoskeleton removed (incredibly tasty) and Firefly Shrimp sushi (also delicious, pictured below towards the top with the seared cod towards the bottom.).

If you can get Steve as your server, he's a true Sake Sommelier. Absolutely incredible pairings that complimented each dish to the utmost degree. If you're not interested in pairings for each dish, I recommend at least getting his advice on what would be good for the evening. I would blindly trust his taste in all things sake, easily.

Another amazing evening at Mashiko's. I can't...

TL;DR: The food is OK, the chef is narcissistic and will publicly shame you if you have any complaints about his food or don't finish something.

I respect Mashiko's mission of sustainability. Over-consumption of various fish is a massive problem and I commend them for trying to tackle that.

Review:

Now onto the review. My wife and I went to Mashiko for the first time and ordered the Chef Omakase. This is a series of courses decided by the chef. We ordered this so we could have a variety of items to sample what Mashiko has to offer. For the most part they were decent if not particularly amazing. We liked some items, the scallops for instance were some of the best we've had. The problem arose when we got to the Uni (sea urchin).

One of the sea urchin rolls tasted fine, but the other tasted rather rotten. We complained of course (my wife had to spit it out because of the extremely pungent flavor) hoping they might be willing to bring another that (hopefully) wouldn't taste so weird. Instead of that, the chef came out to defend his work.

He went on a rant about how they collect fresh live sea urchin every day. How it is completely fresh and how the flavor can differ from one urchin to another. This response was fine, but he kept going. He said how personally hurt he was by our complaint. He then continued by how hurt he was that we didn't eat a different dish (salmon roe, something we generally don't like and didn't realize was offered in the omakase). He then started complaining that we didn't finish some of the other dishes.

This rant and list of ways we personally hurt his pride went on for around 5-10 minutes. He wasn't quiet either. Nearby tables could definitely hear him and in the meantime we couldn't eat. I tried to defuse by saying things like "I understand now, thank you" but he just kept going.

It should be acceptable to not finish your meal if you don't like it especially if it's your first time at a restaurant. Being berated and shamed by the chef in public is...