Maneki - International District

Maneki is an unpretentious Japanese restaurant in the International District that has been around since practically forever. Surprisingly, I had never been here before, despite my many years growing up in the Seattle area. Maneki is one of those places you come back to again and again because you feel like you are being welcomed into someone’s home and are about to eat authentic, uncomplicated comfort food.

The drawback with being around so long and deservedly earning respect in the community for great food is that Maneki is a much sought after restaurant by locals. Thus, reservations are almost a requirement if you don’t want to wait all night to be seated. Because Tom had been here before, he knew this inside information, and wisely called ahead. However, when we arrived, there was still a back-up in the line, and we ended up having to wait 15-20 minutes. While I was content to be there early, Tom got anxious waiting and watching everyone else eat before us. Thankfully, there was plenty of reading material set to the side by the waiting area to keep the reverse-punctual people occupied.

After being seated, we perused the large and varied menu which ranged from noodle dishes to sashimi. We ordered the salmon namban, takoyaki, vegetable sukiyaki and black cod collar.

The salmon namban was an excellent cold appetizer. The lightly breaded and fried salmon was marinated in an addictive namban vinegar sauce and accompanied by onions, lemon slices, green onions and grated daikon. The sauce had a refreshingly sour and slightly sweet taste that paired very well with the richness of the salmon.

Salmon namban

The takoyaki was just okay. The octopus was fresh and not too tough, but the dough didn’t seem cooked enough and didn’t have a crispy texture. Instead, it was just soggy and gooey. We thought Wann did a better job overall on the takoyaki.

Takoyaki

The vegetable sukiyaki was also just okay; I’ve had a much better version at Izumi in Kirkland. This was one of the rare dishes that Tom (surprisingly) didn’t really touch. All the elements were present – vegetables, clear noodles, mirin/soy sauce, cabbage and tofu – but something was lacking in the flavor department. The important balance between the sweet of the mirin and the saltiness of the soy sauce seemed to be off. In my opinion, even if meat isn’t used, a good sukiyaki will be delicious even with only vegetables. It’s the sauce that matters!

Vegetable sukiyaki

Lastly, the black cod collar miso was served broiled on the bone with a miso sauce. While this dish seems to be very popular, I didn’t like it. The slimy, unctuous texture of the cod didn’t have a very good mouth feel and the sauce didn’t do much for this bland fish. I wouldn’t order this again.

Black cod collar miso

One of the best features of Maneki is the reasonable price for the food – the bill was under $30, including tip. The salmon namban alone was enough to make me want to come back again, even if the other dishes were mediocre. There are plenty of other dishes to explore on the menu, so I’m sure another review will be in order in the near future

Maneki
304 6th Avenue South (between Jackson Street & Jefferson Street)
Seattle, Washington 98104
(206) 622-2631

Gourmet Noodle Bowl - International District

Many times, my go to places for food are not necessarily ones that I find reading food blogs or searching through Yelp, but are suggested to me by word of mouth. A good friend of mine, Quynh, got lost in the ID one day and just randomly stumbled on Gourmet Noodle Bowl. She loved the Taiwanese food there so much that she kept telling me about it and eventually I went there with her. She said to get the braised beef noodle soup and I obliged and tossed aside my aversion for eating meat for one day. Man, was I thankful that she brought me here, because the soup was awesome!

In continuing with the tradition of word of mouth recommendations, I kept telling Tom about Gourmet Noodle Bowl and we met up at the ID to taste the wonders of braised beef noodle soup.

Finding Gourmet Noodle Bowl is a little tricky; it’s in between Lane and Dearborn on 8th. Tom said that a more helpful description would have been to say it’s next door to the Crawfish King, so there you go for a useful landmark, assuming one knows where Crawfish King is.

When we started to order the food, the waitress was very friendly and helpful, suggesting various dishes for us to try along with the soup. Since I had never ordered anything beyond the soup here, I was curious to see how the rest of the food on the menu tasted. We ordered the braised beef noodle soup, some kind of greens (which I unfortunately was not able to recognize and which the waitress only described as similar to bok choy), chicken dumplings and duck.

The braised beef noodle soup was a little difficult to transfer from the one big bowl into our individual smaller bowls and I ended up splashing Tom with soup and speckling his shirt with broth. Eventually, the noodles and broth made it into their respective bowls and I thought the soup was a little lacking in salt and the distinctive savoriness that I had remembered from prior visits, but the house-made noodles were a nice al dente texture. On the other hand, Tom would have preferred the noodles to be cooked more.

Braised beef noodle soup

The greens were pretty forgettable - drenched in oil, soggy and just plain not good. The duck, which apparently is a very popular dish, included the bone and was extremely tough and chewy. I honestly could not figure out how to eat the duck – first I tried biting off a piece, but it was impossible, then I tried using my chopstick and finger to tear off something, then two chopsticks – the darn thing refused to come apart! I had a “Pretty Woman” moment during my failed attempts to pull something off where Julia Roberts was trying to figure out how to eat the escargot and it ended up flying onto another table. Not wanting to experience that movie moment in real life, I gave up and declared the duck inedible.

Greens (right) and duck (left)

When the dumplings arrived, we were instructed to eat them as soon as they were placed on the table. The skin had a nice smooth, soft texture and the filling contained of a wonderful ginger chicken. We both agreed that the chicken dumplings were delicious and worth getting again.

Chicken dumplings

Overall, the dishes are hit and miss at Gourmet Noodle Bowl. We noticed that almost everyone else in the restaurant had ordered the hot pot, so we’ll most likely return sometime to try it out.

Gourmet Noodle Bowl
707 8th Avenue S (between Lane and Dearborn)
Seattle, Washington 98104
(206) 264-8899