MIGAKU — Restaurant in Seattle

We had a disappointing experience.

Service: Gratuity was 20% and automatically included in the bill. We expected a certain standard. There were 2 very young and inexperienced servers, one more than the other. We got the very obviously lesser experienced one as our main server. Both his English and Japanese were poor, and his voice was always muffled so it was difficult to understand what he was saying. He seemed quite stressed and overly focused on regurgitating the memorized info. Items would be served from behind suddenly. He introduced chu-toro nigiri as "akami". But worst of all, while describing each item, the server would point his finger EXTREMELY close to my food (with his long uncut nails almost grazing each item). I did eventually bring this to his attention when he was doing it to my nigiris, but it just goes to show a worrisome lack of proper training (or common sense!). Unforgivable, really, and ruined the entire experience for me.

Food: The quality and taste of the food were mostly on par with the price point. But the order it was served in didn't match the list they have online/placed beside us on the table. The order of items is quite important in kaiseki, so it's odd to us that they disregarded this aspect? Furthermore, what was upsetting to us was that the fried item "age-mono" was not served at all. They gave us no head's up prior. It was written on the menu, and we had been anticipating a "crunch" aspect to our meal (everything had been soft so far). In the moment, they just said that "the last Monday of the month, we do something special and change the ingredient so it's steamed and not fried". Which...what an odd explanation? You can change up the ingredient, sure, but age-mono should still be age-mono. Instead, we got mushi-mono (steamed dish) x 2. The explanation seemed like a blatant lie. We have a theory for this, which I will mention below.

Pacing: The pacing was SO. SLOW. There were extremely long stretches of periods where no food came, all members at our table were done, and we were just sitting awkwardly. It got worse as the meal went on, because there was less to converse about during the empty lulls. The entire affair took 2.5 hours with most of that just us sitting around. The gap between our yaki-mono and "age-mono now turned mushi-mono" was especially long. Because of this, we suspect that perhaps some equipment malfunctioned in the kitchen, hence the sudden change-up. We even heard microwave noises multiple times near the end. Last minute microwaving of items to salvage the mishap perhaps...? If that were the case, they should've just came clean, been honest, and apologized. A restaurant's integrity is critical, especially in times of mishap, for customers to trust coming back to dine again. All the more so if the restaurant is trying to sell itself as a high end kaiseki establishment.

Migaku is new, and maybe what I mentioned above were all just teething problems. The food itself has potential, but an entire change-up of their service team needs to be done. And they need to be more honest in their practice moving forward.

In any case, we will not be...

Wow. It’s rare that I leave a meal feeling as underwhelmed and confused as I did during our night at Migaku. I’m worried that my fellow Seattle residents are 1,000 times more generous or understanding than me, so let me be as direct as I can be. We’ve dined at all of Seattle’s legendary kaiseki restaurants, and this experience was, by far, the worst we’ve ever had.

Why? Let’s start with the service. It was awful. After we cleaned our hands before the first course, the cleansing materials remained in front of us for so long that we wondered if the staff had taken a break. When the materials remained during our first two courses, we were baffled.

Speaking of coursing, have you ever had your kaiseki chef’s counter meal delivered from … behind you? Us neither! But there we were, as our server approached us from the rear with two plates, arms shaking, trying desperately to nudge the plates in between our tight seating without hitting our elbows. “Sorry” and “Excuse Me” were perhaps the most common phrases we heard that night.

Speaking of what we heard…. Wow. The chef was kind, and smiled, and did not speak more than 4 words during the entire 2.5 hours we were there. I’m not exaggerating. As each course was ‘prepared’ and then served, the chef didn’t offer any guidance whatsoever about the course. That was left to our server, as he hovered behind us, delicately holding the plates, making us fearful of moving at all – least we accidentally cause the plates to fall.

Ok fine, let’s say you’re not into having a chef who talks to you, or being served from the counter, rather than behind you. Let’s say all you want is to watch the beautiful preparation of the dishes. Well guess what? You won’t see that here either. The small dark and dreary kitchen behind the counter is well hidden,* and it doesn’t worry about what the presentation looks like. Is that wagyu already cut, and trapped in saran wrap? Yes! Is this so impossibly ridiculous that you think I must be joking? Yes, but sadly, I saw more saran wrap that night than I’ve used at home for the last 6 months. *Ugh, I walked by the secret kitchen on the way into the restaurant, and they made the mistake of not having a covering over the window. It looked like Game of Thrones in there.

The overall ambiance was also unexpected, as listening to pop radio during a meal of this type was oddly relieving, given everything else. And, you haven’t really lived until you’ve heard Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart” as you explore your nigiri. *Yes, that really happened.

As we almost burst into lonely tears, we asked for the check. And again. And again. And again. About 13 minutes later, it appeared, and when it did, we breathed a sigh of relief. But, I was hoping that Ashton Kutcher would appear and tell us that this experience was all just a punking. Alas, that was not the case. We left with a broken heart, as Toni predicted.

And the next day, when we attempted to refill our destroyed expectations, we discovered the aluminum foil wrapped dish....

COME WITH AN EMPTY STOMACH!! Although the price of Migaku is high, the value is worth it. I’ve been to Japan multiple times and the food quality was on par with the omakase I had at a Michelin starred restaurant in Tokyo. The kaiseki appetizer had the perfect blend of in-season vegetables with delicious slices of sashimi, a green pea soup, and a sakura-themed tofu in dashi sauce. Every bite was filled with flavor. The seasonal soup tasted just like a miso soup I’d had in Kyoto and was pleased to learn that the ingredients were also from Kyoto. The nigiri was my personal favorite course, with the standouts being the geoduck, king salmon from New Zealand, and Hokkaido scallops. I cannot overstate how fresh and delicious every bite was. The sushi rice had a hint of freshly grated wasabi and some with a fresh wash of citrus or soy sauce. The grilled course was also a favorite, with the black cod being one of my favorite dishes I’ve ever had, full stop. The mix of stuffed vegetables and the flavor of the black cod was so savory and rich it was the closest I’ve had to a meaty flavor in the 15 years I’ve been a pescatarian. Chef Migaku was so kind and was a delight to talk to. I also appreciated the attentive service and professionalism from our waiter. The ingredient choices were extremely high quality, and if you know anything about the types of fish, wagyu and accompaniments selected, you would know the price of this place matches the dedication to exceptional ingredient sourcing and the expertise of the chef. Me and my partner came for our anniversary dinner, and i can’t wait to find another excuse to return. I will be telling all of my friends who have been underwhelmed with Seattle’s sushi offerings to give Migaku a try. This is the best sushi I’ve had in Seattle in the half decade...