Mashiko Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar

Quality and taste of sushi just isn’t there… we didn’t eat rest of our rolls and nigiri pieces.
I would only eat the appetizers if anything or maybe hot dishes.
The service was great!

Love this place. Everything fresh and seasonal. We had tons of mushrooms because it is winter. We always get Omakase because we can’t decide. Sit at the bar and learn from Hajime.

We really liked this place. We ordered the omakase and everything that came out was delicious. It was a multiple course meal with hot and cold dishes, and a delicious desert. I really enjoyed the poke and seaweed salad.
The atmosphere was pretty nice too. Our server was fast and attentive, and even though they were mega busy he checked on us regularly and took the time to make sure that each meal was perfect. He explained every dish to us and also told us about the preparation technique they use.
We would definitely want to come back!!!

Excellent!!! We loved the sushi here!!! Blaine and Colleen were so fun, and Blaine made us delish opus sushi! The «snow shoes» bites were just the perfect last bites to a great meal! They also have a fancy toilet seat in the ladies room, and give you Japanese fruit gummies at the finish instead of mints. Very well thought out experience. It is not close to our home, but worth the drive! Oh, and everything is sustainably sourced and the staff is happy to educate!

Simply delicious. Mashiko is the first sustainable sushi restaurant in Seattle and third in the nation. Chef Hajime Sato considers four factors in his definition of sustainability: traceability, fish populations, fishing methods, and farming practices. This means you will be unable to order your unagi roll as unagi is not sustainable.
Everything in this restaurant is delicious. Period. While it is not cheap, it is worth it. Open yourself to experimentation. Try the specials. Tonight I had the Rainbow Trout Sashimi and it was amazing: delicate, sweet, and buttery.
Some of their standard rolls are also amazing. Tonight we had: the spider roll (the least tasty of the four but still delicious), the atomic tuna (amazing and spicy), the dancing queen (refreshing), and the red violin (a revelation with cilantro).
We also had delicious nigiri: TAKO (tender and soft), IKURA (an explosion of flavor), and UNI (soft, scrumptious, and tasting of the sea).
I cannot recommend this place highly enough. It is worth every penny.

I cannot praise Mashiko highly enough. Best food I have ever tasted, anywhere. All-​sustainable seafood. Sushi so far beyond the norm that I can no longer eat at mainstream places. If this is sushi, very little else qualifies. Owner Hajime Sato is personable and funny as well as masterful and passionate about his work. My husband and I ate here weekly, as his extravagant present to me, for an entire year, so I’ve eaten nearly everything on the menu and quite a lot of things that aren’t. For the quality of food (and service) you will get, the value is amazing, too. Some of my favorite things there: anything with saba, smoked oysters with olive oil, the stunningly fragrant jasmine green tea. Once you’ve eaten there enough times, you can qualify for the more elaborate course meals. :)

We ordered the Nami omakase for my husband and I to share. I think this runs about $ 90, shared, which is a great deal!
We started out with a little appetizer, which was a salad of natto and octopus. I was a little nervous about trying the natto, and I didn’t like it very much, but I do like that it was an adventurous first course to serve.
Next, we had a plate of sashimi, and then a plate of nigiri. I really appreciated the variety of the fish in these dishes! Normally, you might get tuna, salmon, yellowtail, snapper, and white tuna, MAYBE some tuna belly if you are lucky. Here, they stay away from the typical fish and let you try something new! The standout for me was the pacific albacore — so creamy and delicious. We were also served saba, hawaiian albacore, uni, sweet shrimp (my fave), scallop, and herring, amongst others.
Our last plate was a dish of cooked salmon, and I am not exaggerating that it may have been one of the best pieces of salmon I have ever had! I don’t know what type of seasoning was one it… but keep doing this! It was great.
I think we ended dinner with a small dessert, but I honestly don’t remember as I was quite full at that time.
I would highly recommend this place if you are looking for a good value, great fish, and something a little different.

This place is a hidden oasis. We arrived on time for our reservation. After waiting for 15 minutes for our table the waiter apologizes profusely and bought us our first round of beers. We were greeted happily at the sushi bar by Hajime Sato himself and offered a great array of sushi delectable and yakitori. We had mushrooms, abolone, oysters, sashimi, octopus, edamame, salmon, trout, albacore and red fin. Sato San even allowed me to practice my Japanese with him and taught me new words. After just coming back from Japan I would say this restaurant brings back nostalgic memories of my trip to Japan. I must say I truly loved this experience. Will definitely be telling more people about it.

I wish that I could rate this establishment based on the quality of food. However, I was not allowed to eat here.
I arrived at 6:40. There were 3 seats available at the sushi bar. They wouldn’t let me sit at the sushi bar because they had a reservation for 3 at 7:15. I was told that that they were saving the seats for them. I’ve always been in and out of sushi bars in 20 – 25 minutes. Several tables were also available but they weren’t offered.
I won’t be returning to this place regardless of the 4 star rating.

First and foremost — get a reservation. Your chances of being able to walk-​in and get a table, even on a random Tuesday night, are about as good as the Cubs winning the world series (too soon?)
With that said, let’s focus on the restaurant itself. My wife and I have been here numerous times and I can say without a doubt this is our favorite sushi joint this side of Japan. Bar none.
The chefs and servers are all very friendly and knowledgeable. When we walked in our first time I noticed their sake program. I didn’t like sake before I walked in. Blaine, sushi chef extraordinaire, took me under his wing and showed me what I was missing. I’ve yet to have a bad sake in all of our trips here. Just have whatever Blaine tells you to have and you’ll be just fine.
As for the food, it’s second to none. They do sustainable fish, which does mean you won’t be able to find favorites like unagi. Trust me, you won’t miss it. They have a full menu if you feel like ordering that way. Or at least I’ve been told they have a full menu. I’ve yet to get past the first page where they list their different omakase dishes. If you’re not familiar withy omakase, the concept is simple: the chefs will make you what they want to make you. Trust the chefs here, they absolutely know what they’re doing. Have a quick chat with the chef, and (s)he will point you at the right one. Again, in all of our trips here, we’ve yet to leave disappointed or hungry. I’d also mention, for the price, it’s not too shabby at all. $ 80 (or so) for a two person 5(ish) course sushi tasting? That’s a steal!
Hopefully this review has satisfied your need to visit Mashiko. I don’t want more people going there because I want to be able to get in there without having to worry about getting reservations. :-)

While staying with a friend in West Seattle, she said that this was the sushi place that everyone raved about. And yes – it is really good. Casual but nice. Yummmm.

Server was very nice, pleasant and answered all my questions on our meal. For two, we got the nami omakase for $ 80 and also tried their poached oysters $ 9. The poached oyster was different than how I normally have oysters which is raw or fried. I thought it was good, it’s like poached to the point it is just cooked, but not too well done. It came with three pieces and between two people, that was about how much I’d want, too much oyster no good. The Omakase was more than enough for me already. Struggling to finish at the end. There was a shrimp/​cucumber starter, a plate of sashimi (pretty hefty quantity wise already), 10 pieces ngiri (black cod was my fave), miso king salmon from the kitchen, and coconut ice cream with peach compote (delicious combo). The food was good, though kisaku for sushi is still my favorite. Prices here are pretty reasonable though. Next time I come, would do sushi bar and order my own or get sushi omakase only. On a weeknight, with no reservation, there wasn’t an opening at the sushi bar.

Amazing yet again.
Just went for my birthday with some friends and did the Omakase for the 4^th time here — it gets better each time!
16 course this last time, finished with a green tea crème brûlée.
1 shiso beer, 3 sakes.
3.5 hours of pure joy.
DON’T DO THIS IF YOU DISLIKE ANY TEXTURES OR TASTES.
Obviously this is purely a pescatarian meal, and no mayo or creamy sauces are used here.
Some stand-​outs:
1. Soy and mirin (only guesses) marinated sea snail.
2. Scallop and baby kiwi ceviche
3. Miso sesame squid with spinach
4. Rainbow trout sashimi with shiso oil
5. Hawaiian amebi with fried shrimp head.
6. Coho salmon collar.
Whew, I could keep going, but you need to just go check it out.
I have no complaints, the service was great, the staff was super friendly and accommodating, but recognize that there is a modern flare to the traditional sushi restaurant here, and he’s being innovate with his use of sustainable seafood options.

We love Mashikos!
The service is always great and the food is delicious. We also really like their commitment to sustainable seafood. The restaurant is clean and the bathrooms are spotless.
The poke of the day was super flavorful and the Namagi was fabulous.
The Southern roll was our favorite. We wished we had gotten two! My husband loved the Ronin, but it was a little to spicy for me.
And of course, the dessert was a decadent end to a delightful mean.
Make sure to get reservations, they often have a several hour wait for walk in.

Mashiko, reservations are definitely recommended. Being relatively new to town and single, it means I’ll more than on one occasion eat alone and would think I would have zero problems getting a table anywhere. And well, this was the first time I was told flat out that even the bar was fully booked for the night… ON SUNDAY.
Fortunately, living two blocks away, I ordered it to go and bellied up to the bar across the street while I waited 45 minutes for my order to be made. Since I’m a huge fan of bento boxes, I went with the Mashiko bento box (of course) and what a heck of a deal. Good sushi is never cheap and I was thoroughly impressed by everything that came with the bento box. The bento box contained an appetizer of fried fish, a roll, two small fillets of pan fried fish, tempura veggies, and everything was delicious. The fish was seasoned well, cooked perfectly, and the portion size was just right.

Holy crap that was some amazing sushi with a good sustainability ethic.
We had a 5:00 reservation for dinner here and there was a bit of a wait, so we didn’t even get in until about 5:15. I thought this was a bit weird as they were very emphatic about the time sensitivity of the reservation (i.e. basically we’d get out after an hour and a half), but once we were seated, we were down to business.
We ordered the omakase and everything that came out was delicious. It was a multiple course meal with hot and cold dishes, and dessert to boot. Normally when I get sushi I eat enough to feel satisfied, but when I was done with this I was actually pretty full! I particularly liked the poke and seaweed salad; I like both of those things separately and together they were still really good.
I’m not sure how I feel about the menu though. The «arbitrary rules» page was kind of funny, but one page was all in Japanese and I’m guessing you’re just supposed to point at something and hope that what you ordered was something you’d actually eat. Maybe I’m just not that much of a risk-​taker.
Our server was lovely and attentive, and even though they were mega busy he checked on us regularly and took the time to make sure that each meal was perfect. He explained every dish to us and also told us about how the fish was farmed and prepared.
I’d definitely want to come back, probably with friends to they can share the experience. And then we’d go to Bakery Nouveau down the street for some amazing dessert.
The toilet is also pretty amazing.

This place ranks second fav sushi after Miyabi for me. It’s got the same cute comfortable cozy vibe with amazing sushi. The only reason I say second is because it’s a little further away from me. I can’t wait to go here again!

Had an omakase dinner here for my birthday and walked out extremely satisfied. My wife and I opted for the «Nami» dinner which is geared more towards sushi/​sashimi fans. Everything served was delicious and fresh. A couple of stand-​outs were the tako, white king salmon, iwashi, and uni. Each piece was excellently prepared and brought awesome flavors that you look for with sashimi. Our server was very informative with everything that was served and prompt with his service. Mashiko’s is a sustainable sushi bar which is also a plus.
I have some pictures and a little more in-​depth review at my blog:

Picked this place to celebrate an event and I’m so glad that we came here! I decided to splurge a little bit and went with the Honkaku omakase meal. There was so much food, I lost count of how many dishes we had but for the most part everything was outstanding!
— King mackerel batera was very good, love smell of grilled fish
— Marinated coho ikura and tofu was light and ikura tasted very fresh
— King salmon with asparagus was another light dish, the asparagus was a great contrast with the salmon
— Sauteed geoduck was flavorful, I could eat alot of this!
— Poached Abalone — has a nice sauce
— Tuna tartar with poached egg, amazing one of the best I’ve had
— All the nigiri that we had was very fresh, ika was one of the best I’ve ever had
Service was very good considering they were very busy. Would love to come back here again, although it’s a bit out of the way.

The best deal for omakase I’ve had in Seattle. And best for exotic sashimi — have you ever had rainbow trout or abalone sashimi!!!
A small cozy restaurant with rather tightly packed tables and very attentive chefs and servers. Even though you might only be able to sit 20 people comfortably in the restaurant, the cute Japanese curtains between side by side tables gives you much more privacy than the space would have otherwise allowed. I’m very impressed by the attentiveness of the chef, she always makes sure you have food on your table and wait time is really short. I’ve heard her multiple times during dinner asking the servers how fast the tables were going through the food and adjusting what dishes to prepare next.
I loved the food and sake selection. I also love that they are very aware of sustainability of their ingredients. Very impressive variety. My only complaint was that all of the 15 – 16 dishes we had were all paired with some kind of sauce. I wished I had some plain old sashimi, just very basic. I do agree that most of the time the sauce enhances the dish’s flavor, but I just couldn’t do it all the time.
Favorite dishes:
Rainbow trout. Pickled cucumber. Daikon. Ponzu. Shiso infused oil
Certified drinking water. Organic feed. Wild fish need to be frozen. Not for sashimi. — so gooooooood. the trout was heavenly.
Oregon bay shrimp. Miso. Kaiwari. Tofu Fried shallots — sweet sweet shrimp
Pickled okra. Octopus. — the octopus was so chewy and flavorful
Closed system abalone from big island, Hawaii. Originally from Hokkaido. Poached. — abalone!!!
King salmon tartare. With capers. Quail egg. — salmon is so fresh!
Albacore tuna belly. Tempura wasabi leave. With garlic on top — love the softness of tuna and crispiness of the leave.
Fried mountain potatoes skin with Ikura and radish. — So good! very nice flavor
Bakery nouveau brownie. Dipped in coconut batter and fried. Green tea ice cream. Wine soaked rainier cherries. — the fried brownie is so so so delicious. and green tea ice cream was so flavorful!
Best part, it’s all you can eat omakase. My boyfriend and I both paid $ 70 although he had 3 more dishes, and the chef still offered him more if he was up for it. Come hungry, and be ready!