takumi-ko japanese cuisine — Restaurant in Washougal

I recently had bariatric surgery, so my diet now consists of a lot of lean protein and in not so great portions. I was on an errand in town and was looking for something that would meet my dietary needs and came across this place on Google search.

When I walked in I could tell that this was a somewhat newer establishment, as it was very clean and also not incredibly busy. Just before the noon lunch rush. Later I noticed the banner outside saying they had just had their grand opening 3 weeks earlier.

Having previously browsed the menu before arriving, I ordered the sashimi regular, six different types of fish. I did not expect when it arrived for it to be food, blog, quality presentation. Everything was super fresh, tender, masterfully prepared. The artistry in which the food was brought out blew my mind and accented every bit of enjoyment of the meal itself.

I think of all the different fish that was included, the three. Best were the salmon, yellow, fin tuna, and surprisingly surf clam. Everything was great though, and I sampled each piece in different ways: plain, dipped in soy sauce, plain with wasabi, wasabi dipped in soy sauce. They were all enjoyable every way, but some were better in a particular way.

If I had only one complaint, the included miso soup that came along with my meal was mediocre, I've had miso's in the past that were more savory and salty. A splash of soy sauce made it much more palatable. But that's a very minor, minor nitpicky preference, and does not in any way take away from my overall experience here.

I highly recommend Takumi-ko, and I'm willing to make the 40 mile round trip to come here for meals with friends...

Good time, sub-par sushi, excellent service.

Our server was the highlight of our visit - very personable. Dishes were served much quicker compared to most sushi places I have been to, huge plus. Ratio between fish and rice was perfect. Temperature at which Tuna, Salmon, and Yellowtail, was served was good - not cold and at room temperature.

Shrimp Tempura batter was extremely thick. Chicken Karaage lacked any crispiness. Unagi nigiri was served cold!! Unagi should be served warm and ideally should melt in your mouth. When served cold, Unagi becomes rubbery. I would not consider this to be my nitpicking, if I had to nitpick, it would be the menu being riddled with typos (e.g. spicy as "spciy" and salmon toro as "salmon taro") and that my Tuna nigiri was torn at one end.

I understand that this review is being made within the opening week, however, having been to the opening of the other restaurant in Washougal, Asaka, the quality is lacking and I can only hope that this improves as time goes by. With that being said, the quality at this time is less than that of conveyor belt sushi places that are half the price. In addition, the price is slightly less than that of Asaka.

In conclusion, I do hope that they take this as constructive criticism and do well in the future. I do look forward to coming back and seeing how things change...

I am always trying out new sushi places locally hoping to find good sushi. My visit to Takumi-Ko started off quite good: My first test is always the simplest: the miso soup. Very good, but could use a bit more dashi to balance it out. Next we ordered the Chicken Karaage: the portion was plentiful and it was tasty and juicy - excellent. But then came the disappointments: The Katsudon turned out be nothing like you would get anywhere in Japan, it was simply a piece of tonkatsu on rice with some pickles. It was completely missing the curdled eggs, onions and mirin/soy broth that make a traditional Katsudon. Other than the rice being a bit on the dry side, it actually tasted pretty good though. My big disappointment was the sushi combo. While the toppings were reasonably fresh and presented nicely, the rice was really dry, tasteless and borderline undercooked. In fact, all I could taste was the hard chewy rice dominating each mouthful. They really need to up their game with the quality of the rice; it should complement the toppings, not dominate it! At $32 for 6 pieces of Nigiri plus 2 types of rolls, it should have been an excellent course, but it fell flat. Only because of the great tasting Karaage, I am generously giving them a 4 for the food. Don't let a staple like rice bring your potential down. You...