Umami Ballard — Restaurant in Seattle

Okay, so the food was overall not great. I used to go to the Everett location when I lived up there and loved it, so this was a bit of a disappointment. I got a poke bowl with salmon, tofu, carrots, crab salad, and cucumbers, and a blueberry mochi donut. Both the salmon and the cucumbers didn't seem fresh at all, the tofu was not seasoned or fried or treated in any way, just cut into cubes and tossed on top, and the crab salad also had no dressing or anything (it usually has some kind of mayo or something). The blueberry mochi donut was considerably better than the rest of the meal, but couldn't do enough to save it. I hate to give such a bad review, but I'm really bummed and just hoping I don't get sick from the little bit of...

It's just incredible how all of the ingredients (both fish and side dishes) tasted and looked NOT fresh. Crab salad tasted like it was rotten. Fish was dry, chewy, smelly, looked much darker than normal, and omg it tasted unsafely bad, like if it had been in the fridge for a while. I've never tried anything worse than this. I spent $30 per poke bowl and I couldn't eat it. The staff was nice about that, though. I showed them that I was about to throw away the full bowl of poke that I couldn't have eaten, and they issued a full refund. I guess the service is nice. Maybe I just got very unlucky, but...

Food: Very tasty soup, seafood was good enough.

Service: Should be a person front of house at all times. There was not and i had to wait for about 10 minutes before one reappeared. Only after i summoned them.

The Atmosphere: From an energetic perspective the place had somewhat of a somber aura. The choice of music really did not help.

Over all pretty good spot to order take out i dont think i will dine in again. The prices are a bit steep too in my opinion but hey it not my business and im not in the restaurant business. All im saying is there shouldnt be an $add-on for having spicy soup...