9 Carat Kitchen

WTH dudeess. they changed the menu to teriyaki-​type food. 90% are over-​rice dishes, teriyaki style.
the waitress said «we are trying out new menu. we still have the skewers but all the others are gone». i was like… WTH. let’s skip this joint. i seldom left a restaurant but i did in the end without ordering…
call ahead and ask what kind of menu they have. otherwise, be prepared to come to a teriyaki place…

Apparently the original owner is out for vacation or the business is sold to someone else. The food is totally different than what is described by previous reviewers. The menu is no longer what as the picture shown but replaced by a just a few stir fried meat + rice /​noodle combo. The original web site /​menu was down also (under construction.)
I ordered a spicy lamb udon. It came with a «salad» which is just a few pieces of lettuce with some pale gross looking sauces. I tasted the sauce a little bit and quickly push that thing away of my sight /​smell as far as I can. The lamb udon, honestly, it doesn’t taste bad but it has all the pitfalls of a cheap dish: salty, greasy and ugly … The noodles tasted OK but feels soggy and it looks like it was cooked 2 days ago…
Well, I will check back later to see if the «original» menu reappears, otherwise I don’t think i will eat there again unless I am really really really really hungry.

They do the onion pancakes right here! It’s pan fried, not deep fried like some restaurants do. The soy bean milk was not bad… I just wished since they serve chinese donuts that they would have sesame pastries too. Why not serve all the fixings of a chinese breakfast? That’s the kind of restaurant we lack here in Seattle. I would definitely try more on the menu from this restaurant.

This is a nice addition to the Chinese restaurants on the Eastside.
The menu is quite different from any other Chinese restaurants we have over here (North-​West cuisine, with a touch of Japanese), and so is the atmosphere, which is low key and friendly. it is located in the place where a Mexican restaurant used to be (which we never visited).
The Dan Dan Noodles & Hot & Spicy noodles looked like they were handmade, with a rich and spicy soup base. This portion you get is good.
The Odenkun was a nice surprise as well, very tasty.
The presentation is the best we have ever seen in a Chinese restaurant on the Eastside (see the pictures I have posted).
Overall it may be a bit too spicy for people who are not used to spicy food, but that’s not us, so we had no issues with it. 9 Carat people, please keep it like this — don’t Americanize your food :)
Prices are just right for the type of food. The staff is friendly as well.
We’ve been told that they will be adding dimsum to the menu as well soon. We’ll be curious to see how that will work out.
We’ll be back!

I am a bit hesitant to write this review given all of the past, positive reviews. My husband and I came here for lunch. The interior is nothing to write home about, but it was clean.
Starting with the positive, we had dan dan noodles (with pork) and the noodles were delicious. They were chewy and clearly homemade. I ate most of the noodles in my soup. For $ 7.95, you could (almost) share it with 2 people. I also loved the bok choy in the soup.
As to the negative, although the broth was hot in spiciness, I found it thin and watery. I wish the broth had a bit more flavor and depth. It was just a bit lacking for me.
We also had the chicken and squid skewers. The seasoning was flavorful, but skewers themselves were just OK since they were clearly cooked before and simply re-​heated prior to being served. I suspect that if they were «hot off the grill,» they would be delicious.
All in all, not bad, but we will probably not return…

Wow! What a gem 9 Carat Kitchen is! (Sorry, that one was too easy.)
Late night Saturday, sick of fast food, looking for some «real food» and saw this place was open until midnight.
Nice and open, brightly lit interior. Very clean. Not much in the way of decorations but inviting nonetheless.
Our server was amazing! The menu was not like anything I’d seen before and the server was very helpful in explaining the layout and options. He was so cordial and welcoming!
I ordered noodle w/​soy bean paste and beef plus a chicken heart skewer. My boyfriend got the hot & spicy noodle with chicken plus a lamb skewer.
Talk about flavor! My boyfriend was surprised that I didn’t add anything or mix anything as us my usual way. The skewers were perfectly seasoned! The noodles were hand made and very tender.
The hot and spicy noodle were spicier than we’d expected but delicious. On a 1 – 5 the spiciness was about a 4. You can get the heat to order.
When we’d finished our meal we were asked how it was and invited back. Seriously, amazing service!

(Update 7÷29÷12: Restaurant is now closed.)
The term Chinese food is a generalization. Like American cuisine, there are numerous regional cuisines in China. It is not just Sichuanese, Mandarin and Cantonese food. Unfortunately those three seem to be the only ones that you can find in Seattle.
9 Carat Kitchen is a recently opened Chinese eatery in a former Mexican restaurant in Bellevue. Bellevue is quite interesting in that there are several Chinese restaurants that serve a particular niche of the cuisine, rather than being a full scale Chinese establishment. Yang’s with its dumplings, Wonton City with its noodle soups plus congee and several Chinese hot pot spots.
I have been tracking this place a couple weeks and it seems like they changed up their menu a bit already. They initially offered meal entrees with rice, but that appears to have been removed.
The new menu is a bit hard to figure out its direction. It is a bit of a mish mash. They offer a good selection of drinks, but this is not a HK café which was my first thoughts when driving by prior to their opening.
There are familar items like green onion pancakes, fried dumplings and dan dan noodles. Homemade noodles seem to be the core of the menu. They even have bean paste noodles here!
But then there are mysterious items like millet congee, which is interesting. I have never had a congee other than one made with rice and odenkun which seems like it would be hot pot, though I never asked. Rounding out the menu are meat skewers in a section called Xinjiang skewers. Xinjiang is the most northwesterly province in China in which the food is closer to Central Asian cuisine.
I tried the hot & spicy noodle soup with beef ($ 7.95) and a Xinjiang lamb skewer ($ 3.50). Not sure what I was going to get with the soup, but it seems like a spicier version of dan dan noodles with the chili-​oil sauce to boot. The vegetable toppings were a bit different than the usual I have seen elsewhere. The beef is actually ground beef which works well in this dish. But really the noodles is the story here. Really tasty.
One Xinjiang lamb skewer was kind of a small portion and a little pricey (cheaper than getting a skewer at Wild Ginger though), but just right with the noodle soup. Although the chunks were kind of small, they were very flavorable. I was suprised by this. You can really can taste the cumin in it.
Service was okay. I think they initially forgot I was there. I was waiting for a while to order even though the restaurant was not full. If you don’t speak Mandarin, you may have difficulty ordering here depending on the server. Just point to what you want on the menu and you will be alright.
9 Carat Kitchen is a curious place. If you are looking for a less typical Chinese dining experience, try here.

I came back with my partner who ordered String Bean (not spicy) along with the Lamb Ball Soup.
Said the beans were cooked perfectly with a hint of crunch, a way I like them as well.
Her observations about the soup: «double-​plus good!»
I ordered the Green Onion Pancake and the Szechuan Dry Wonton,.
Since the String Beans came with soup, we got a small bowl Hot and Sour Soup.
A small bowl of white rice was added to the entire order.
Must say all of these were super tasty, except for the Pancake which had been prepared earlier had not the tasty crispiness one associates with this.
My partner observed that 9 Carat might be a small restaurant, but the chef is not a small person – he or she has learned to have a deft touch with vegetables, noodles, soup, broths and probably stocks.
Cooking of that sort takes years to lean.
This place seems to have learned it.
I told others about this place; really wish them well.
We will be back.

The Mexican joint was gone in a second and replaced by «Carat Kitchen». Intrigued, I went in and asked for a To-​Go menu. I guess I was confused as to what type of restaurant this was. One evening home alone I was craving spicy Sichuanese cuisine at nearby Spiced, but I decided to give Carat a try.
I called and ordered takeout: Grillled Chicken XinJiang Flavor and the Spicy String Beans. Teriyaki restaurant style, each «Mini Entrée» came with two scoops of Jasmine rice. (I’m not a faithful Jasmine rice cooker/​consumer, but it kinda tasted a day old.) The dark meat chicken was cut teriyaki style, and cooked with broccoli, cabbage and onions. I hate to knock a new restaurant but most of the chicken was stringy or lined with inedible chicken fat. Totally biased, chicken fat makes me gag. But wait! Savior! The string beans entrée was quite delicious (it comes non-​spicy too). Crispy, garlicy, oniony and a teeny bit spicy, def thankful I ordered this dish.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive meal in one, Carat will intrigue you. At $ 7.95 each, it’s enough to fill you up and a change up from the normative Teriyaki lunch. Regardless of the not so yummy chicken, I will be back to try their home-​made noodles!