Rondo Japanese Kitchen — Restaurant in Seattle

Greeted by staff at the door, promptly seated and served at 3pm. Less than 10 diners in the restaurant at that time, so service was quick and attentive. Hooks available on walls to hang your coats. Projector showing Totoro but image was misaligned to the left of the "screen" by an inch.

Loaded up the online Happy Hour menu using the restaurant wifi and ordered the TEN-BERO SET $10 and the UNI & IKURA B.B. NOODLE [$17].

Order served quickly, with a slightly longer wait for the appetiser trio (probably from the deep frying).

Food was edible at best for what we ordered, but it definitely has nothing to crave for and won't be coming back for the same we ordered.

UNI & IKURA B.B. NOODLE [$17] The noodles were satisfyingly chewy, but that was the only enjoyable part of the dish. The sauce was uninspiring, feels like something an Asian mum would conveniently mix from whatever condiments were available next to the stove and put together in random proportions. Over the predominantly sweet sauce, ikura looked fresh but was VERY salty. The teaspoon of uni was buried under the shaved cheese but did little in terms of texture or flavour to the dish. Wouldn't recommend even at HH price with the tiny bit of discount.

TEN-BERO SET [$10] Appetisers took about 10 minutes to get served, bu it was a reasonable wait. Random mixed tuna over a piece of maki, something that tastes like heavily breaded spiced chicken bits and tuna/salmon mentaiko on a bite-sized piece of rice and seaweed. Reasonably priced for a set that comes with 2 drinks..... with a huge BUT.

The sake was nothing to shout about, fragrant for the price but not very drinkable. Served chilled as I think it should be, it was sold as a $4 HH sake and tasted like one too. Couldn't finish half of that cup.

The sapporo beer, though, was a confusing drink. I checked twice with two different service crew if the beer was straight from their tap, and they confirmed it was. It tasted like a watered-down, distant knockoff cousin of the Japanese-made and Vietnamese-made Sapporo I've had over the years - and the Vietnamese made sapporos are already a distant unloved copy of the Japanese made ones.

The beer wasn't foamy at all, and even though there were bubbles clearly visible, I would call it relatively flat, especially for a draft beer. It had that fragrant ricey aftertaste like a real sapporo, but much more faint. What was most striking was how bland it tasted and how quickly the taste vanished. I can only describe it as a beer that was left to sit in a pitcher filled with ice and then poured out to serve when ordered after the ice has almost melted. But this clearly wasn't the case because both crew confirmed it was straight from the tap, and I didn't ask to sample a shot straight from the tap, so my only conclusion is that the sapporo from here tasted very different from the Sapporo I've been drinking over the years, whether from draft, canned or bottled. Just like the sake, I tried my best not to waste a drin, but I gave up after half a pint.

Other food and drinks might be better, but these 2 orders were enough for us to not try the rest of the menu. Wouldn't return, and I don't know Seattle enough to know if this is one of the better Japanese choices out here. All I can say is not to order what I did. The only positive aspect of the food was the noodles that had an enjoyable chewy texture. This salvaged the...

Summary: If I could rate this place a 3.5, I would. It's a personal preference because quality and presentation for the food, their strong suits, were 5s. The value for the food was maybe a 2, though. I personally wouldn't go back here, but I could recommend this place (see bottom of review).

Atmosphere: Cozy. There isn't a lot of room to maneuver in, but I didn't think it felt crowded (at 7 PM on Saturday). The atmosphere is pretty casual and as the number of people increase, so does the volume. Probably ideal for a group of friends rather than a date. For some reason, they also had "Shanghai Noon" starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson playing on one of the walls. After it was over, it just started over again. Odd.

Food: I thought the concepts and presentation of the food were really nice. All of the food was picture-worthy and the wait was pretty short for any item. For example, the rainbow uni shooter ($9) was really cute, but the execution was odd. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to mix everything around first, but since the rice sitting at the bottom was somewhat sticky, drinking it all in one go was not possible anyway. The gorgeous bluefin roll ($18) was indeed gorgeous, but unremarkable. The aburi hiramasa battera ($14) was mostly unremarkable (besides presentation), except for the tare sauce at the bottom! It was smokey, which is unique for this kind of sauce (in my experience). I can recommend this dish. The kiwami bento ($42) was definitely not worth it for the price, but might be good for someone who wants to try everything, and doesn't care about carbs or price. That being said, the croquette was interesting, with a filling that was more gravy than potato. The karaage chicken was decent but unremarkable. Half the dish was the mentaiko (+uni and ikura) udon, which was also good, but really was like half the dish, so value really was not good. There was some seasoned fish, pickled vegetables, and a mixed rice and meat/seafood portion as well. All good but unremarkable. Waiters were generous with the water.

Ingredients: really good. A lot of our dishes came with uni, and it was bitter, savory, and overall delicious. They used real crab rather than imitation. The fish was fresh and the sushi rice was properly vinegared. They served quite a lot of salmon roe in these dishes.

Drinks: I recommend the sour toki ($10). Very strongly yuzu, but the bitterness was cut tastefully by the sweetness and acidity of the drink. Very refreshing. The hot house sake was pretty good, too. Very creamy and not overwhelmingly alcoholic despite the heat.

Dessert: the Kyoto sundae ($9) was tasty but unremarkable. It's basically a small japanese parfait. Value wasn't great.

Recommendation: For people who care more about flavor and quality than quantity and price. For people who want to eat Japanese but aren't sure if they want sushi-type or home cooking/family...

Huge Nut Allergy Warning: There are almonds in the chili oil, and peanut oil is used in some of the shoyu ramen dishes. The spiced ground pork in some specials also contains a peanut sauce. There are a surprising number of nuts for a Japanese place, so I advise caution!

Time to Food: 8 minutes (appetizers) to 25 minutes (Ramen, remade once, explained below)

We had a 30 minute wait around 7:30PM for two people. The seating is cozy and snug, but the decor is very attentive, with coat racks even being provided.

Service was extremely considerate. Once I explained that I had a nut allergy, the staff came by and checked on things several times. There was a miss in that they normally top a shoyu ramen with peanut oil, which they had to remake for me. Then they also had to recreate it without the ground pork since that also had nuts. I got a free ice cream as an apology for the wait, which I found very considerate.

For two people, we ordered:

-Mr. Pork Ribs (5/5): Incredibly fall off the bone tender with a very flavorful balsamic puree. Recommend lightly brushing the ribs with the slice of lemon. I even ate the spring mix afterwards and it was great with the pork sauce. It is a little sweet, almost like a honey glaze. -Tonkatsu Curry (?/5): My friend gave this an 8/10, but I could not try it after discovering the chili oil had almonds. -Modified Shiye's Red Shoyu Ramen (4.5/5): I can't judge this fully, as I had to get it modified without the peanut oil and ground pork which also had peanuts. The shoyu broth was a little light and bland with a heavy soy emphasis once I got toward the bottom - I think the peanut oil would add just the right amount of complexity here. The pork and noodles were 5/5 amazing. Pork was very tender, and the noodles had the perfect size, firmness, and chewiness. Maybe some of the best ramen noodles I've had in years. I could see this being a 5/5 with what they are envisioning. -Matcha Ice Cream (5/5): Very reminiscent of Somisomi's soft serve texture. It's very good and easily sharable with 2-3 people. It's vanilla ice cream with a matcha sauce and it's delicious.

Overall, stellar food and great service that were very considerate towards my allergy. I'd warn anyone with a nut allergy to be careful here but you will be in for a great meal when all is...