Chinese / Japanese Cuisine, Seattle

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The "International District" as it is called is the old part of town where Asian immigrants from all over eastern Asia once came to do business, get their family associations settled, look for work, eat, and even arrange marriages.

In recent days, there has been an effort to try to convert the "International District" to more of a tourist area, but there are also many places in this area that still market themselves primarily to the Asian resident.

Ga Ga Loc is one of these holdouts. There isn't much on the walls to attract tourists, and there isn't even that much in the windows that would get a tourist attention. The specials board is written in Chinese, and many of the items are available uncooked to take home for use as part of home cooked meals - part Asian grocery store and part restaurant.

Yet, the outside trade is certainly coming. Among the customers I counted an African taxi driver whose accent I could not place into a particular region of Africa, and a young couple that appeared to be tourists.

There is a fairly wide variety of things on the menu.

However, if you are looking for a dingy half-painted relic of the past, this isn't it: it is fairly sterile and modern in here, and not at all a relic of the past of the district.

Favorite Dish: Shrimp Fried Rice, at $7.50, is less expensive than the seafood fried rice ($8.95), and is a fairly nice pile of food for the price. However, many of the dishes available here are a bit less - in the $7 range.

Village Sushi is a pretty restaurant, in an old house tucked in the University District of Seattle. Offering a selection of Japanese fare, it also serves up a nice slice of atmosphere. You can sit inside at one of about a dozen small intimate tables, or out on the front porch (when the weather's nice, at least). Jazz is playing in the background... how often do you get to eat sushi and listen to old jazz classics??

The menu is simple, but straightforward. A selection of traditional Japanese food, mixed in with a couple new fusion style dishes. On my trip there, I started with the beef negimaki. This was a beautiful dish, thin sliced beef rolled around green onions and lightly pan fried. It was topped with a thick teriyaki sauce and dried cherries. A nice bldn of Japanese and NW styles of cooking, and it was a delight. I also had the spicy tuna roll, which was shaved tuna mixed with chili paste and green onions. Both were delicious. They were accompanied by a side of miso soup, and a nice roasted green tea. A delicious meal.

For a peaceful dinner in the city, head to Village Sushi.

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Perhaps the most wonderful thing about this restaurant is the wonderful view it has of Lake Union. Few places near Lake Union compare with this one. The seating is upstairs along a windowed wall, providing a very impressive view.

But the food is good too!

Check the web site, as sometimes there are coupons there!

Watch the size of the menus on the web site, as they are huge - some 15 megs each.

In theory, the restaurant is rated as "One of America's top 100 Asian restaurants" but I an unwilling to try to compare China Harbor with anywhese else.

Lunch Hours: 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Dinner Hours 4:30PM to 9:30 PM. Open until 10 on Friday and Saturday.

Favorite Dish: I highly recommend the General Tso's Chicken, at $12, and the tea.

First impressions can fool you. This restaurant was stylish and open and airy and busy with lots of customers who looked like they were happy. I am guessing that they were not very familiar with classic sushi or that they considered the food at Umi’s to be something else altogether. It is somewhat more like an Izakaya bar than a sushi bar. People were dressed casually and came in in couples or large groups. They do have a large selection of (cold) sake and only 2 types of hot sake. They appear to favor making very large combination rolls with mayonnaise as one of the primary ingredients and many of them have jalapeno or other peppers that essentially wipe out the taste of the fish. They had several innovative forms of salads, which I liked. I was with a small group so I did not get to taste a large cross section of the menu. I was tremendously disappointed by the omakaze I ordered because all they did was bring out – all at the same time, without any kind of order such as most subtle tasting to richest tasting, and without any customization of the order which is what omakaze is about – a tray of one of each type of the most common nigiri sushi. It was not even fresh! It had been preprepared and was dull (no gloss or moisture on the surface of the fish) and stale tasting. The thing I would recommend most about Umi’s is that you try the food that is not sushi and just think of it as some completely different kind of restaurant, because decent sushi it is not.

Favorite Dish: I had both an octopus carpachio salad and a seaweed salad that were excellent. Both of them were what they were described to be in the menu, without excess spice or mayonnaise or dressing.

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If you have been to Todai Restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii, then you know that Todai is really, really good!

There is an array of sushi. It's an all you can eat Sushi restaurant. If you love Sushi, then this is the place. Bring your appetite as the fee is expensive. You don't like to waste your money!

The restaurant has different kinds of soup like misu soup, sweet and sour soup and the hot and spicy mixed seafood soup.

Besides the all you can eat sushi bar, the restaurant also has a variety of Chinese food to choose from.

Also, when you are celebrating your birthday that day, just show your driver's license or any proof of your birthday, and you will have free food!

After you are done eating, go to their desert bar and you can feast on all their deserts! There is an attendant there whom you can request for a fresh crepes with bananas and/or strawberry fillings on it then top it with powdered sugar and maple syrup. Yum!

Most of the people who come here are Asian Americans but you will also find some Caucasians. The restaurant is really famous for Asians though. Sometimes, you will find them in their ethnic outfits.

The restaurant stop serving lunch at 2:00 pm.

Favorite Dish: I love the tempura shrimps and the spicy seafood soup. Of course, the sushi.

The desert? I love the crepes with banana fillings.

When you are rushing and want good food and sit down fine dining, just go to Mandarin Gate. It is a very nice Chinese Restaurant. The service is really fast and the food is really good.

This restaurant is located about 10 blocks from my work and I never realized how inexpensive this restaurant was.

The tables are all covered in white linen with a glass protecting the linen. There are white China ware and a fine water glass, fork and spoon ready for the guests to be served.

Everyday, the restaurant has a Special Soup, Special Menu for the day and the price is mostly $5.95 only. The soup in a cup is $1.95.

My co-workers come here because we only have an hour of lunch time. Most of the time, we still have 15 minutes to burnt since the service of this restaurant is really fast.

Favorite Dish: I love their asparagus and shrimp, a special of the day on Tuesdays. It is serves in white sauce with small cut size asparagus and deveined shrimps. It is also served with two fried chicken wings on the side.

The egg flour soup is really, really good! For color of the soup, the restaurant put some green peas.

There are many Dim Sum restaurants that are really, really good in Seattle. One is the Kowloon Restaurant which is located at the end of the International District. Now, there is a brand new one which is located in South Seattle.

The restaurant is called Golden Daisy Restaurant. Not sure why most of the Chinese restaurants have names like Golden or Lucky. But, definitely, when you are in South Seattle, try this restaurant.

They have Dim Sum, Barbecued Food to Go and Catering.

The business hours are Monday - Saturday from 9:00 m - 8:00 pm.
Sunday is from 9:30 am to 7:00 pm.

The restaurant is closed on Tuesdays!

Favorite Dish: The restaurants have tons of food to choose from: appetizers, soup, noodle soup, congee, rice, fried rice andchow mein, seafood, beef, chicken, pork, vegetable...They have lunch special, too.

The dim sum includes the ham bao, meat bun steamed bbq bun, rice rolls, shrimp rice roll, bee rice roll, pork rice roll, bbq pork rice roll, mushroom rice roll and onion dried shrimp rice roll. There is also a black bean sauce chicken feet, beef meat ball, shrimp dumpling, steamed shui mai, steamed spareribs, Malaysia cake, Stikcy rice in lotus leaf, deep fried sesame ball and deep fried dumpling! Yum!

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This restaurant is famous for its Dim Sum and it's being flocked by many Seattlelites because of its fine Chinese cuisine. The restaurant is very authentic and there Dim Sum service is very fast! This makes it very easy for travellers who are on the go and local residents who just come in and eat on their lunch hour break.

The restaurant is on the fourth floor of the Pacific Building and has a lot of parking. This is a convenience of customers since Seattle has the worst parking situation in the Nortwest!

I didn't really like to pay for parking or look around for parking when I go to restaurants, so Kowloon Restaurant is the solution! There is no problem in parking.

Favorite Dish: As a family, we order the Dim Sum since it is fast and it is very easy. A server with its pushcart of food will roam around the restaurant and all I had to do is pick what I want to eat!

I love their steamed "bok choy" vegetables and I also love their dumplings.

Your restaurant for lunch, dinner and midnight snacks!

All your home-style dishes!

Lots of family-style dinners tochoose from.

Make reservations to this restaurant if you want.

The business hours are:

Sunday-Thursdays: 11:00 am -2:00 am
Friday-Saturday- 11:00 am - 3:00 am

Favorite Dish: Beef broccolli, egg-drop soup, sweet and sour pork

This is a buffet all you can eat restaurant in Seattle.
Open Hours
Sunday-Thursday - 11:00 am -9:30 pm
Friday, Sat and Holidays - 11:00 am to 10:30 pm

Lunch Buffet - $8.59
Dinner Buffet- $12.99

Carry out Buffet:
Lunch: $4.99
Dinner: $5.99
Seafood Only: $8.99

Favorite Dish: I love Chinese soup -egg drop noodle soup. But this is a buffet restaurant. You can eat whatever you want!