Kiwami Sushi Bar & Sake House

During my recent business trip to the Seattle area, I found myself browsing random places on Door Dash, and one kept catching my eye.  Kiwami Sushi Bar & Sake house, a sushi restaurant, obviously, and one with good ratings.  It wasn't actually the sushi that drew me in however, it was one of their appetizers.  It sounded like a dish from my long ago favorite sushi place in San Francisco (sushi zone), and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

So one night, when I didn't feel like going out, I just got delivery from there.  I only actually ended up ordering one type of nigiri, and otherwise got hot appetizers, as I wasn't really craving sushi itself.  I haven't visited the business myself in person, so I can't comment on that.  They are known for their sake selection, which wasn't available for delivery, so I wasn't able to partake of that either.

In addition to a slew of regular sushi items (rolls, nigiri, sashimi, etc), Kiwami has an extensive cooked food menu, with items like chicken, salmon, or tofu teriyaki, pork or chicken katsu, and ribs for mains.  They also offer udon, poke bowls, yakisoba noodles, and other bowl style dishes.  It was the appetizers though that drew me in, with classics like agadashi tofu, chicken karaage, panko or tempura shrimp, tempura veggies, gyoza, edamame, blistered shisitos,  takoyaki, and more.

I ordered delivery on DoorDash, and had no issues with the delivery.  The food was completely hit or miss however, and I don't think I'd return.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
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• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

Sautéed Mushroom. $15.60.

"Shiitake, enoki, oyster mushroom, asparagus sautéed in butter & shoyu. With green leaf lettuce, arugula, ponzu, wonton chips."

Ok, now this is an odd dish, and an odd order on my part (who orders from a sushi restaurant and gets the veggie side?), but, it was actually really good, and the highlight of my meal.

The mushrooms were very well cooked, and a nice mix of "exotic" mushrooms.  Tender, not mushy, no woodsy stems.  Very well prepared.  Flavorful.  The asparagus was also good, but was a pretty minimal element.  The veggies were all cooked in a shoyu and butter sauce, which definitely infused them with all sorts of extra flavor.  Simply put, I'd be happy with just a side of the sauteed veggies, but this dish had a bit more going on.

It was all served over fresh crisp lettuce, sorta like a salad, although the veggies were lightly warm.  There was a lemon slice to drizzle over and add a hit of acidity, and I guess ponzu in the mix too.  It was enjoyable as a salad, or just as a scoop of warm veggies as a side.  It came with 2 wonton chips that were sadly fairly soggy by the time it reached me, due to being packaged with the rest of the dish, so they basically got steamed.  I love wonton chips, and I think these nice big ones would be great to scoop up the mushroom mix, but, alas, delivery definitely detracted here. I did try to add a note to package them separately, but they didn't accept any custom notes.

Overall still a very tasty dish, unexpected, and I'm glad I randomly tossed on to my order.  I nearly didn't order this because it was fairly pricey at $15.60, but, I'd get it again with no hesitation.  ****.

Baked Mussels. $14.40.

"5-piece mussels topped with mayo, garlic, tobiko. Baked, green onion."

Ok, these baked mussels pretty much broke my heart.  I wanted them to be like the ones from Sushi Zone (in SF) that I adored, and I was so so happy to see baked mussels on the menu that sounded similar, but, alas, these were nothing like them.

To start, the mussels themselves just weren't very good.  One had a substantial amount of grit in it.  Two were very, very chewy.  Several had a pretty pungent taste, which made me wonder how fresh they were.  One had a very chipped shell. So, the base mussels, not very impressive.

The topping also wasn't great.  A little creamy, but not much flavor.  The Sushi Zone ones have spicy mayo, and this was just regular mayo and garlic, which I knew, but even so, the mayo somehow didn't really improve these.

Uh, the shredded cabbage they were on was fine?  I really didn't enjoy these at all, and they were pretty pricey for what seemed like not the freshest mussels.  *.

Unagi. $9.60.

"Freshwater Eel."

I opted for just one kind of nigiri, unagi, because I was sorta craving it, and wanted to have some kind of hedge against the mussels, and some decent protein.  It was reasonable unagi, not particularly good nor bad.  Generous size pieces.  Slathered in a bit too much sweet sauce.  The sushi rice held together fine, wasn't dried out.

It came with ginger and wasabi, and soy sauce packets on the side.

Absolutely fine, but nothing special.  Price was reasonable.  ***.

Spicy Mayo, Sweet Sauce. $0.30 each.

I also added a few sauces to my order, just because I could.  They offered a huge lineup of sauces for a totally reasonable $0.30!

The sweet soy was thick, sweet, and pretty standard for sweet soy sauce.  Not needed for the stuff I ordered, but I drizzled it over a crispy shrimp cake the next day and enjoyed it.  ***.

The spicy mayo wasn't particularly spicy, but was creamy, and nice to have for other leftovers as well.  ***.