Sun Teriyaki — Restaurant in Seattle

Note: 120% vegetarian / vegan unfriendly.

Oh god where should I start? Flies that fly around indoor even when the doors were always shut, the lingering cigarette smell, the overly sweet teriyaki sauce, the gamey beef (despite the heavy sugary teriyaki sauce), the years-old gyoza, the suspicious dark spots on my raw lettuce salad, or the bland steamed tofu plate that cost no more than $2 to make but they charged $17 for (check out the photo!) ?

I've been wanting to check out this place and we finally paid a visit this week. We were the only two people in-shop on a weekday at 6PM, and we soon figured out why. I ordered a teriyaki combo of beef and gyoza, while my partner who's vegetarian got a tofu teriyaki. The owner was considerate enough to clarify with my partner that their default tofu is fried with animal oil. He suggested steamed tofu as a replacement, and my partner happily accepted that. Little did we know, that was a total mistake.

It didn't take long for the food to be served, and I was already sus-ed out by the look of it - dark pile of beef strips next to rice and sad looking lettuce salad, plus four gyozas. The sauce was so heavy that it was impossible to tell what the meat was. Then upon first bite I was completely turned off - the teriyaki sauce was overly sweet even by American standard, and salty too. And despite the heavy dressing, the beef still tasted gamey... The gyozas tasted worse than store-bought ones, not much filling and tasted like they've been frozen forever.

Oh and this wasn't even the worst part yet... when my partner's food was served, it was even sadder - cubes of steamed tofu (the tofu looked like it was taken right out of store containers, just cut into cubes) laying around next to rice and sad looking salad. Check out the photo for how cheap the dish looked. It came with a dark sauce for seasoning yet the owner told us the sauce was in fact not vegetarian. So my partner had to create his own seasoning of soy sauce and sriracha hot sauce to finish his food. And btw, the sriracha bottle looked quite gross... So yea, my partner paid $17+ to eat cubes of flavorless unseasoned steamed tofu with white rice and pieces of raw lettuce - something we've made many times at home with much better seasoning and taste with the cost of $3 max.

This place also has no service. You order at the front, the food gets served, and you need to bus your own table and get your own water. Needless to say, never...

This used to be Yak's Teriyaki, which was a Fremont staple. They have since remodeled under new ownership, and it has made a turn for the worst.

It's used to be a place that you could come get Teriyaki for decent prices, with consistent quality. It was a little old and rundown but it was never an issue. Many Teriyaki places are like that.

But now it is overstaffed, with people that appear to have never been in the service industry for a day in their lives. The ladies at the register always seem to have a deer in headlights look, and have gotten my order wrong 4 times of the 6 times I've come back since the remodel.

My order is always very simple. Spicy Chicken Teriyaki, usually to-go. One time they gave my order to someone else, and they took a bite from it so it had to be redone. Another, they made my order to-go when I specifically answered "for here" and even got a number thing for the table, while my friend's order was made for-here. So that was awkward. The worst one was when they totally forgot my order. 2 or 3 customers that ordered after me got their food before I had to ask for mine again and they did not even apologize.

The quality of the food is no longer consistent, and prices have gone up by a solid 20-30% on some items. There is no place to bus your own plates so now you can frequently come to a place that has dirty plates everywhere because they are having a lunch rush and no one knows where to put their dirty dishes. They don't let you pour your own sauces like they used to, you have to ask for it.

It saddens me that I have to give this place a review like this because it was my favorite go-to when I needed some teriyaki in a pinch. But now I feel like it's a...

Today I was extremely disappointed in what has been a favorite restaurant for sometime. I always order the same thing : spicy chicken teriyaki for delivery by Über. I called Palmi and the man who answered was of no help- I am not sure he understood what the problem with my order was. As usual I ordered (“reorder” on the Über site) the spicy teriyaki chicken with extra sauce, not regular soy sauce but the sauce the chicken is cooked in. And I have always received spicy teriyaki chicken with extra sauce just as ordered. Tonight for the first time the chicken came with no sauce at all on it but 3 cups of a completely different sauce - it tasted closer to sweet-and-sour sauce ,kind of sweet,red and syrupy. The best he could do was say “I’m sorry” but that doesn’t help me at all - I just wasted money for food I didn’t even eat - I do not like whatever this sauce is. In comparing receipts I noticed tonight’s order was slightly less than it usually is which makes me even more convinced he incorrectly filled my order. Erroneously filled orders is one thing and that’s perfectly understandable but the complete lack of help from him to rectify the issue is unacceptable. This experience has me very hesitant to order...