The Hunt For A Red Dragon Ends At Izakaya Sushi

The Red Dragon. The 5th Avenue. The Boeing, Lion King & Super Ball.

Are we on Broadway or at a sushi bar? I'm happy to say that we're in Renton, at Izakaya Kaiten Sushi & Yakitori Bar.

First let me say that despite their name, Izakaya no longer offers Yakitori. 

Secondly, there exists different schools of sushi lovers. There are those who take to modern waters where your plate is full of colorful curls of dyed daikon radish, tempura batter, and Picasso-esque sauces that dot and decorate your fish. For others, sushi is about austerity and restraint, cool slices harvested from the ocean, topped with nary a thing. I've been lucky enough to enjoy both, from the classic to the more inventive. Izakaya definitely belongs to the former when it comes to their saucy sushi belt.

Kaiten-zushi indicates that sushi is served to customers via a circuitous belt, where diners choose what looks most appealing to them. You pay for what you pick, and the dishes are color-coded so you know what your tab will be. Pink rimmed plates are $1.50, orange $2.50, blue $3.50, green $4.50.

Izakaya's design might make the place look empty when observing from the sidewalk, but after several visits I can attest to a steady clientele of Asian families and eaters of all ages and ethnicity. Here's a really good reason why: lunch for a sated two came to $28.60 before tip.

We decided to sit at a comfortable booth next to the sushi belt, and began plucking up plates in short order. The first sushi roll we grabbed was the Fifth Avenue ($4.50) with shrimp tempura, cucumber, spicy tuna topped with barbecued eel, striped with Dynamite sauce (Kewpie mayo mixed with Sriracha hot sauce) and a slice of tuna sashimi on the side. Delicious and inventive. The winner for presentation goes to the Red Dragon ($3.50) with spicy tuna, beaded with crimson tobiko, scallions, tuna and eel, plus artistic splashes of Nitsume sauce.

As for a salad option, I grabbed Izakaya's Ika Sansai ($3.50), Ika means squid, and Sansai means Mountain Vegetables. Sliced blanched squid is marinated with slivers of kikurage mushrooms, yamakurage, vinegar, sesame oil, soy, bamboo shoots and bracken fern, served cool. If this sounds scary, it's not. Think of it as a toothy Japanese coleslaw. It's standard for restaurants to buy this ready-made, imported from Japan. 

My husband plucked some browned, crisp around the edges pork and vegetable Gyoza ($2.50) from the belt, along with a Spicy Tuna roll ($2.50) which made for good inexpensive fillers. We could have kept going for more sushi, but Izakaya's Lunch Bentos held allure. Our next round of food we opted for the Chicken Teriyaki Bento ($9.50), which includes steamed rice, two slices of California roll, sunomo salad, tempura vegetables, and miso soup to start (For the same price you can also choose Beef or Salmon Teriyaki as your protein).

Izakaya's bento came with a generous mound of sauced chicken (cubes, not strips), coated with moderately sweet teriyaki sauce. But our favorite part of the bento was the unadvertised tempura. Honestly, once we saw a prepared bento box appear in the kitchen window, we knew what we wanted to order. The lower left hand corner of our Japanese Hollywood Squares was occupied by tempura perfection. One butterflied shrimp, a crisply clad green bean, a battered slice of sweet potato, a branch of broccoli, a moon of winter squash; as crisp as can be outside, and tender within.

If not in the mood for a Teriyaki bento, opt for Kalbi ($11.50) — Korean style barbecued ribs — or assorted sushi and sashimi ($12.50), or perhaps some Gindara ($12.50) — broiled black cod marinated in sake kasu. I'll make special trip to the Landing to go back and try this soon.

Izakaya Sushi

829 N 10th Street 

Suite G, Renton, WA 98055
425-228-2800

Hours:

Mon-Thu 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Fri 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sat 12 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Sun 2 p.m. - 9 p.m.