Thanks as always to Aunt Cindy for watching our rugrats and giving us an fternoon out ! It’s been awhile – last time we had an outing just us was around review #2761 – another ramen restaurant – in December! Further back we went to Hokkaido Santouka in Bellevue, WA and people there as well as at the mall mentioned this Kizuki place. So this time we thought we’d give it a try.
Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya – Shio Ramen – Bellevue Square – United States
575 Bellevue Way NE Space 252, Bellevue, WA. 98004
Phone: 425-454-0885
Email: bellsquare@kizuki.com
Monday – Saturday : 9:30am – 9:00pm
Sunday : 9:30am – 7:00pm
Thanksgiving: Closed
Christmas Eve: 11am – 6:00pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Menu
We noticed a lot of people outside the place as we walked by to look at some other things at the mall before going to lunch. Well, when we decided to go over there, there were a couple people still waiting inside the doorway that are pictured here – about a half hour later. Our wait time was around 45 minutes. Kind of lame – but then again what do you do. What kind of sucked too was that on the sheet you sign your name on, there’s a box you can check as to whether you want to sit at the bar or iat a table. So they call our name and say that there are two spots at the bar we could sit at – well, my wife checked the box saying we wanted to sit at a table. So we goty to wait a little longer. I mean, I get it – some people might be like ‘screw it we’ll sit at the bar,’ but we wanted a table.
Here’s where the magic happens (click to enlarge).
Here’s another view. The artwork and look of the place was very nice. I will say that I find it kind of funny how every one we’ve been to so far is more like a bar atmosphere – very subdued lighting Eat your soup in the dark, haha! But actually it’s kind of nice.
To start, we tried the agedashi tofu (click to enlarge). I had this at another place a long time ago and I liked it better. However, this was really nice. Tofu with just the lightest crunch to the outside and a nice dashi sauce around it – very tasty.
This caught my eye when I looked at the menu online – prawn cutlet (click to enlarge). Basically these were breaded and fried and had very nice and moist prawn innards with a bit of sauce on the outisde. Definitely worth trying.
Finally, the chashu pork bun (click to enlarge). I was really excited about this however it seemed a bit of a letdown. The thing didn’t stay together very well for one. I felt like it was one of those things just made for Westerners. I mean it was alright but just expected something a little different even though it looks exactly as it did in the menu image. Mayonnaise tonkatsu sauce and hot mustard on there.
Kit got the pork chashu don (click to enlarge). with an egg. She liked it except for the seaweed which I took on for her.
I went for the Shio ramen (click to enlarge). I got an egg and extra fishcake as well. I liked it – the chashu was nice although wish it were just a little thicker. Lot sof vegetable on this one – a lot of cabbage which was kind of a surprise. Menma was good with a nice crunch to it. Noodles wre alright – definitely had better since I started this journey into trying restaurants around here. The broth was quite nice – not overly anything – just right.
Oil dancing at the top.
The egg was very good – as far as being marinated, it could have used a little more time. In conclusion, I was very happy with our experience. The ramen was just right and exactly what I was in the mood for, and the izakaya was for the most part very good. 4.5 out of 5.0 stars.
Time lapse of a Kisuki Ramen being built somewhere.
