Sushi Katsu-ya (Seattle) — Restaurant in Seattle

If you visit Seattle and want to try amazing, fresh, delicious sushi with a great conversation with sushi chefs, you should go to Katsuya, period.

Why? The right amount of rice under a slice of fresh raw seafood, the way it is made/formed as Nigiri, and the way it is delivered to your plate – all these keys of great Sushi are executed in just the authentic Japanese way, which quite impressed my mom, who was grown up, eating fresh fish. I myself, living in the US for 20 years, having tried so many different what they call “Sushi” restaurants, was reminded seriously of the real taste of Sushi.

Well then….did we know anything about Katsuya before picking it for our dinner place? No. We really didn’t know anything about Katsuya. We just picked the restaurant because it was among a couple of Sushi restaurants close to our hotel – and yes, Katsuya got some pretty good google review, better than others. We did not know at that time that we would have the best Sushi.

Upon arriving, we chose to sit at the Sushi counter, and just like we did, I would strongly suggest you should sit at the counter if you really want to taste their best sushi with delightful conversation with their chefs.

Chef Fujiwara is truly a skilled, experienced fun-chatter, who we thought knows the quintessential Sushi-Do – not only how to make Nigiri but also how to make customers truly enjoy tasting, and spending time at the counter. We probably ordered two rounds of most of the items on the Nigiri menu (incl. salmon, tuna, squid, sweet shrimp, Sea bream, Salt water eel, etc.), all of which were so delicious (apologies for repeating “delicious” but they were really, DELICIOUS!) and we just kept ordering!

In addition to Nigiri, we also ordered Nasu no Nibitashi (boiled eggplant), Agedashi Tofu (Fried Tofu), and Shishito (Grilled pepper), which were also well cooked, delivered right off the grill/pan/pot in the kitchen. We enjoyed Agedashi Tofu as crispy outside and melting hot inside, Nibitashi as warm, soft and tasteful, and Shishito as smoky-grilled flavorful. On the first day we got more appetite and ordered a great desert too (we went to Katsuya twice during our 4-night stay in Seattle as we felt we needed to!) *BTW, on the first day, we were served by a Sushi chef from Laos (Apologies we forgot his name!) and he too is an amazing Sushi chef – and you should check his fantastic execution of Nigiri (We loooved his Sea bream Nigiri with Yuzu (Citrus junos).

And of course, we closed our dinner with a hot green tea, “Agari”, as we always do in Japan.

Overall, our experience at Katsuya is worth more than 5 stars – we would love to give like 10 stars if we could! – not only its great food but also skilled chefs, and friendly and attentive servers. I definitely recommend Katsuya - you should enjoy its real Nigiri and its side dishes just like us.

Well, as a side note, we are traveling back to Seattle soon again, and are already looking forward to relishing their truly tasty food. And I hope you...

My colleagues & I went to grab lunch at Katsu-Ya. I went w/ their crispy rice w/ spicy tuna jalapeño, creamy popcorn shrimp tempura, & spider roll.

The crispy rice w/ spicy tuna jalapeño is one of their signature dishes, which looked pretty interesting to try. The rice is seared which is something I've never tried when it comes to sushi. It looked & tasted interesting, but didn't really care for it all that much.

The same thing goes for their creamy popcorn shrimp tempura which is also one of their signature dishes.

After finishing both dishes, I found myself to still be hungry. So I decided to order a spider roll as well. You pretty much know what to expect whenever you get a spider roll at any sushi restaurant. However, their spider roll was also uniquely different. It had a tangy flavor which kinda caught me off guard when I was eating it. My colleague also ordered the spider roll & he agreed it had a unique flavor. Personally it was a bit much so I didn't really enjoy it all that much either.

I hate to leave a review that made it seem like I didn't really enjoy myself due to the restaurant trying to be innovative & have their own unique flavor profile. However, for me it just didn't really resonate all that well. On a positive note, the server who took care of us was very friendly & helpful w/ my...

Major decline in the quality and talent in the kitchen. We were regulars for their Toro Tuesdays and my last visit sitting at the Sushi bar was not okay. Two of the Spanish speaking "Sushi Chefs" a term I use lightly as they are not Sushi chefs, unlike the previous talented chefs who were exceptional. The two seem to think that they are the only two folks who speak Spanish, while I am not fluent I understood enough to know what the conversation was about, it wasn't appropriate to talk about a female client being attractive and your sexual likes if you had the opportunity.

We will never go back ever again. I'm not interested in two Spanish speaking kids making Sushi for me at the same price as a Japanese trained Sushi chef who has over 40yrs experience, or his assistant who had over 20yrs experience then on top of it be insulted by the two idiots who messed my order up twice while I'm 1 ft from them who think it's okay to talk about clients in an inappropriate manner. This is coming from someone who spent 15yrs as a chef, from being a line cook to sous chef and then onto executive chef by 25. I've heard it all in the kitchen but when you have an open kitchen you need to have some common sense, plus have a enough sense to know that next to English that Spanish is the second most spoken language...