I don’t know if it is obvious or not, but I REALLY love Japanese food. Although to be fair, their cuisine is pretty infamous (in a good way). There is one Japanese restaurant in the entire Seattle area that me and my family loves. A place where we go so often, the head chef recognizes us.
Sushi Kappo Tamura, or just Tamura because I am too lazy to say all those syllables, is one of the few places in Seattle, that I know of, that serves authentic Japanese food. Located on Eastlake across the University Bridge, Tamura opens weekdays from 5-9:30 for dinner and on weekends, from 11:30-2, they do brunch! Unfortunately to any brunch enthusiasts, the only time I had ever had their brunch once was, like maybe, over a half a decade ago and thus I might not have an accurate statement for it. What I’m here to talk about is the dinner at Tamura.
One thing I should point out for this restaurant is that parking is VERY hard to find when it gets busy. Also, we usually get served by the head chef, Taichi Kitamura, a kind and jovial man who knows how to take care of his customers; however, he was on a day off, as apparently he usually does every Saturday, so the plating and presentation, in my opinion, was left to be desired tonight. But delicious nonetheless. Do keep that in mind.
I went with my brother, because he always wants to come here before he leaves town. If you were to look at the menu, you can see a wide variety of sashimi/nigiri for you to choose from. There is also many hot dishes that ranges from tempura to black cod. But we never order any of those things, because we always come for one thing: their Omakase, which, in Japan, means you leave everything to the chef. It’s worth noting that Tamura offers other option in terms of course meals. There is the two course, the three course, and the five course options as well as the sushi, sashimi, and chef’s Omakase.
So we’re going to talk about the chef’s Omakase. So Tamura’s Omakase comes first with a set of hot dishes, about 4 dishes, and then ends with 7 courses of sushi. At Tamura, they always start their courses with 3 oysters with ponzu sauce and garnished with fish eggs. Since I usually swallow oysters in one gulp, all I can tell you about this is that the sourness of the ponzu sauce can somewhat mask the brininess of the oyster. Another thing they always bring out is there chawanmushi, or steamed egg custard. What’s special about this one is in addition to eggs, they also put black cod, a bit of Hokkaido uni, and king crab in it while garnishing it with a touch of wasabi. Looking at it, it doesn’t look all that impressive; in fact, it looks very watery (chawanmushi is usually stiff on top). Underneath the watery exterior, is a firm, custard interior, with bits of fish in it. Quite honestly, I could do without the cod and the uni, despite being delicious, is feels slightly out of place in an egg dish. The king crab, however, goes perfectly with the eggs.
Since we go to Tamura multiple times, I know for a fact that they change their chef’s Omakase, priced at $130 per person. So any dishes I mention after this point would most likely be completely different from what you will receive if you dine here at a later date. Our next course was a standard sashimi course. Now you may be thinking something along the lines of, “What’s so interesting about a sashimi course?”. Well, here’s the thing, the fish was really fresh. On our plate, we had fresh river sockeye salmon, sweet shrimp, red tuna, amberjack and the fried shrimp head from the sweet shrimp (because that is standard). With all this fish, they serve the sashimi with their very own house fermented miso soy sauce. The sauce itself is not overly salty. In fact, there is actually a hint of sweetness to it.
The next dish is TOTALLY my favorite. The next dish, is black cod. I really LOVE black cod and yes, I am being very sarcastic right now. One thing to know about me is that while I have no problem eating raw fish, there is something about cooked fish that I have problems with. While I can tolerate most fish in that fashion, cod is definitely my least favorite. So, with that in mind, the black that I was served was not that bad actually. It lacked the strong cod taste and smell that I detest and the meat of the fish was firm (not firm enough to my liking, but oh well). I manage to eat about half before my brain told me to stop. So, thumbs up.
Afterwards is the much anticipated sushi course. Now earlier, I had stated that usually I we are taken care of by the head chef, however at the time of our reservation, he was not there so we were taken by one of the other chefs behind the counter. Well it is worth noting that had the head chef been present, we would have been given sushi one at a time, this being a very authentic method of consuming sushi. This time however, we were given it all in two separate plates. Not that I am complaining though. On plate one we were served a halibut with ponzu sauce, salmon, geoduck, albacore belly, and a locally caught smelt. On the second plate, there was a Spanish mackerel, Hokkaido uni (yay), fatty tuna belly (also yay), salmon roe, and anago, which a quick google search yielded that it means that it is a salt water eel. The sushi, while fresh, some of them did feel dry and the rice felt odd. I have the odd feeling that the restaurant becomes a little bit lax when the head chef is not around. But I digress.
For dessert, they usually only have three choices that I know of: a yuzu panna cotta, a house made mochi with red beans; which is my brother’s go-to, and a chestnut creme brulee; which, incidentally, is my go-to. If you like something that is warm, chewy and has a crispy layer while not being to sweet, go for the mochi. If you like a nutty taste with a mixture of butterscotch (because it has that), you might enjoy the creme brulee. For the panna cotta, which we didn’t order, but I’ll post a picture of it anyways, it has a citrus taste, because it has yuzu sauce, couples with a creamy yogurt base.
We come to Tamura a lot, and we hardly ever have a feeling of disappointment. The food there is always delicious and the people working behind the sushi bar is always nice and willing to chat. We come here for a good experience, despite how pricey it is. If you ever come to Seattle and want to have a good time eating the closest thing to authentic Japanese cuisine you can get here in the Pacific Northwest, I will recommend to you Sushi Kappo Tamura. Just be warned, their walls are concrete so cell and data service is terrible here.
Seattle's/Taiwan's food lover 