Wataru Seattle – Prepare to be Stuffed

Wataru is a sushi omakase restaurant in Seattle. I recently had the pleasure of dining there and the chef served 20 courses! The dining room is fairly traditional Japanese style with a sushi bar where you will sit and watch the lone chef prepare the meal. The night I went, there were about 9 guests including us. The service was well paced and efficient unlike other one-man omakases I have been too where the service is extremely slow.

The meal started with an appetizer. Portions here, including fish and rice for the sushi, are on the larger side so prepared to be stuffed or come starving. Some of the guests declined courses at the end and I am guessing they were too full!

After this, the meal quickly moved on to the main event – sushi! The chef was very passionate about his work. He explained the seasons, and provenance of each piece. For the most part, everything was delicious. My only feedback was that the rice was a bit too clumped and dense (though not mushy). I would of liked to feel each individual grain of rice more.

There was a very good assortment of fish from more well known like tuna to ones that I had never tried before.

While posting this, I realized there are 19 dishes but there was actually 20 because there was an oyster dish I did not take a pic of. At the end of the meal I was beyond full.

Overall, this was a good meal. The chef was friendly and spoke to everyone around the table. He was very passionate about what he was doing. His assistant, was attentive and poured drinks and took drink orders. It was entertaining to watch various preparations of the fish which he did in a very impressive and efficient manner for being solo. The food was excellent with only slight flaw in the rice. I would recommend to someone looking for an omakase experience in Seattle. I probably would not return though because I prefer less food!