Wann Japanese Izakaya & Black Bottle - Belltown

After successfully booking it to the International District in time for Tom to acquire his new pride and joy – a Tom Bihn laptop case – we had to figure out where to eat. We opted to head over to Belltown to find somewhere doing happy hour. Umi Sake House had a 25-30 minute wait, so we walked over to Wann, which was strangely almost empty.

Since Tom had been here before, I let him do the ordering: sashimi, takoyaki, corn croquettes, yam frites, a spider roll, potato wedges sprinkled with seaweed and warm sake. He later regretted not ordering some kind of salad because pretty much everything except the sashimi was fried. No matter – all the food was tasty artery-clogging goodness!

The sashimi plate had fresh slices of maguro, salmon and hamachi. I especially liked the buttery soft hamachi. The spider roll was decent – I’d have preferred rice with a slightly warm temperature, rather than cold rice.

Sashimi plate: maguro, salmon and hamachi

The takoyaki arrived with the bonito flakes still writhing on the plate. My only complaint was that the octopus pieces were a little too dense and chewy in texture. Other than that, the takoyakis were great!

Takoyakis

The yam frites were accompanied by a sweet soy-based sauce and the potato wedges had an interesting seaweed coating that I enjoyed. Both arrived at the table hot and crispy. The corn croquettes had an irresistible crunchy exterior and creamy potato and corn interior.

Yam frites

Tom was highly impressed when it came time for the bill to show up; the entire meal cost a little less than $30.

“This is how much food should cost!” He stated emphatically. I had to agree.

Wann did not have any dessert options on the happy hour menu, so we walked over to Black Bottle for the chocolate cake with vanilla gelato. The cake was essentially a chocolate lava cake, drenched in a very sweet caramel sauce, with the gelato nestled inside. It was visually striking in its construction, but we thought the cake was too sweet and the texture seemed almost grainy to me.

My new goal is to find a place that has extraordinary desserts, because, thus far, we’ve been denied the pleasure of enjoying a really good dessert to close our meal. The search continues…

Wann Japanese Izakaya
2020 2nd Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 441-5637

Black Bottle
2600 1st Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 441-1500