Shiku Sushi

Oh my!!! Bruce Lee, Green Sea Monster and the Women’s toilet are delightful! :)
Absolutely loved this place.

Some of the best sushi I’ve ever had — they have a lot of really unique rolls. On top of the plethora of sushi options, their kitchen menu is huge! Tons of appetizers and small plates for good prices. For someone who has a huge appetite and likes variety while eating, it was a perfect combination.
Pretty sure it was the owner behind the bar serving us. Even though it was busy, he was extremely attentive — gave us plenty of recommendations and kept our water glasses nice and full.

I was visiting Seattle for a trip and found this place on Unilocal and I’m so glad I did. It was exactly what I was looking for… a bomb sushi place with fresh fish. I’m from Cali and if I go back to Seattle I’m for sure hitting this place up again. So if your visiting from out of state or looking for a new place… you will be more than happy and satisfied. I ordered the Bruce Lee role and it was
!

After quite a few visits over the past year, I feel confident in saying Shiku Sushi is a bit of a bipolar experience. It’s one of my favorite sushi restaurants in Ballard — frequently my go-​to when I feel like enjoying quality sushi in a comfortable atmosphere.
The menu is on-​point and the chefs obviously take great care in the preperation of your meal, as the food is always amazing. The bar tenders really know their stuff too; the menu provides some great cocktail options but they are totally capable of preparing off menu items with skill and quality.
But here’s where it gets weird: the service (your server) is consistently terrible. I mean bad. You will feel as if you don’t exist while you watch your food and drinks sit, ready to go, for 10+ minutes while the server banters with her friends at the bar. You’ll look around the restaurant, taking note of the fact that three full tables is certainly not enough to make the place anywhere close to busy, before finally making eye contact with the host. At that point, he will do the server’s job for her graciously and with poise, apologizing for a delay that was not his fault. This is the experience you can expect every single time you eat here.
I suppose you can view this as testament to the quality of the food; that I would continue to return here despite the knowledge of what to expect.

Came here on a Saturday night with my friend Amy. Both of us are sushi fans and were excited to try this place! She got there before me and was sat right away. So the place wasn’t overly busy.
We ordered:
— Agedashi tofu
— cheese stix
— seaweed salad
— Bruce Lee roll (has spicy tuna in it)
— Sashimi Roll (cucumber wrap not rice)
— red snapper nigiri
— eel hand roll
— mango cocktail drink
Our check came out to $ 75+, so it wasn’t a cheap meal. But the sushi was good here. I enjoyed the rolls, I liked the agedashi and hand roll. Nothing to complain about. There’s a bit of competition around this area though, so i will have to try the other places and compare them.
Parking can suck cuz this is on the main drag of Ballard where all the bars and restaurants are.

Sushi fix definitely satisfied. I’d recommend this place in a heart beat. I enjoyed the dream roll and the honey roll, both speciality rolls and both delicious. Service was moderate, nothing to rave about but still the food was well worth it!

I’ve tried this place twice now, and twice I’ve been thoroughly underwhelmed by the experience. The service is very sporadic, and the sushi is extremely mediocre. Both times we left overpaying for sushi that left us wanting something way better. The only real saving grace of this place is that they are near Hot Cakes to end on a delicious note.

To have something called «The Homeless Roll» on your menu, is distasteful and out of place.
As is the attitude of the server/​bar back who carelessly retorted: I wouldn’t know, I’m vegan!
Update your menu, retrain your staff on customer service.
And by the way: lots of Ballard folks are Alaskan fishermen. Serving farmed salmon at your sushi place in Ballard is something you might want to consider.

Went to Ballard and randomly found this place. The menu variety was to my liking and the service was good. I really liked the Ninja and Dream Rolls, both were delicious and I will definitely be returning despite living 5 miles away.

On a business trip in Seattle and stopped into local Sushi Bar in Ballard I like close to my hotel. Ordered a sashimi roll to go. Got to my hotel room ready to enjoy a tasty treat and was disappointed to find they did not apply or include the ponzu sauce as described on the menu. The fish was fresh and good but I really missed the sauce. It’s so annoying on to go orders that aren’t exactly as advertised. I’ll go back but probably won’t get orders to go.

Definitely one of the best sushi restaurants that I’ve been to in Seattle. We were here for happy hour (which runs until 6pm). We started off with a glass of Sapporo beer, green tea, the Taokyaki (octopus dumpling) and mini salmon croquettes. Both appetizer dishes had great presentation, and was very flavorful. I ordered the oft reviewed Bruce Lee roll and my partner the 7UP roll. The entrees came in right as we were finishing up the appetizers. Both rolls were fantastic, and we plan to order them again when we come back here. The staff was great, very attentive, and always there when we needed them.
Overall, I give this restaurant 5* for food quality, food presentation, but I have to deduct one star because I felt a bit uncomfortable when I saw that one of the sushi chefs was rolling sushi and putting them on plates with his bare hands (no gloves) — they make the sushi right next to the bar in plain view. I acknowledge it’s a minor point, but with all the news around food borne illnesses transmitted via restaurant employees (Chipotle), it got me a bit uncomfortable.

Haven’t tasted their sushi yet but a place that plays Bowie on the day he died and then the Smiths cannot be bad after all.

I was quite pleased with the variety of sushi rolls available here! I’m not even often a maki fan depending on the type, but these were exceptionally delicious. Our party enjoyed a wide variety of items from the menu. I rather enjoyed the salad and garnishes that came with many of the dishes that we ordered.
The ambiance of this place is great. The servers were patient with us as we awaited the last guest in our party and were patient as we took a while to order and eat which was nice. Rolls occasionally fell apart and it’s sometimes odd to have a toothpick holding some rolls together (though that’s necessary when the roll is essentially good sashimi surrounded by cucumber, so that’s pretty fair). I was pretty happy with the authenticity of the food on the whole. I would definitely return here again.
My biggest critique is that the tea was served with a bag in a cup rather than with a pot at the table as I really could have used much more tea with my meal.

Cool sushi bar with really yummy fish!!!
I ordered the wild salmon sushi and it was tasty. Not soft enough to cut with my chopsticks though.
And we got a couple rolls:
Black tiger — spicy tuna, cucumber, topped w/​eel, avocado & spicy sauce. This one was spicy!
Honey — jumbo shrimp tempura, avocado, chili sauce, cucumber, seared salmon, honey, spicy mayo. This one was yummy!
The rice comes with black sesame seeds on top. Next time I’ll ask them to skip the seeds.
Our waitress was funny.
It’s a great atmosphere and the wait wasn’t too bad for a Friday night.

On the one hand, the sushi here tastes good. It’s also quite filling, as in, two rolls are plenty for two moderately hungry, tapeworm-​less adults.
On the other hand, both of the rolls we ordered should have been called «the Mission: Impossible roll» because the sushi pieces began to self-​destruct 5 seconds after they were picked up, mainly because they were so large and top heavy. It’s a bummer to clumsily eat a pile of ingredients that used to be sushi.
Oddly, the two rolls we ordered (Bruce Lee roll and Dream roll) had very different ingredient lists but tasted more or less the same.
Why on earth is there something on the menu called a «Homeless roll»? There are a lot of homeless people in Ballard, with little hope of eating here any time soon. Weird and frankly kinda mean-​spirited. Minus 1 star for that, and I won’t come back until that is off the menu. Inexcusable.
As for the rest: very nice and quick server, reasonable prices, and peculiar ambiance… it looks and feels more like a Ballard Ave bar than a sushi restaurant, complete with dark wooden booths and «Stairway to Heaven» and «Bad Moon Rising» and other classic rock playing softly in the background.
Shrug.

I really don’t understand all the hype about this spot.
Sure, the location is great, but everything else could use some improvement.
I took my girlfriend here for her birthday and we had a party of six. Our server seemed lazy! He didn’t acknowledge us much other than taking our order, and when we asked to split the checks he said, «well, I already had you four on one check, so that’s how I was going to ring it up…» Ummmm… what? Two of those people were leaving early, so it would make no sense to ring them up on a ticket where two people were going to be ordering more food (and were going to be paying separately anyway).
The sushi tasted good, but it was something you could get in any neighborhood sushi bar. It didn’t stand out as being something I’d travel from Bothell to eat.
I asked if they had hot tea and was told they served green tea and a jasmine green variety. I went with the jasmine variety and was given a small mug of the same brand of tea they have for free at my job. Wasn’t offered any honey for it either. Like really? I just paid $ 2 for something I can have for free every day. It’s not a green tea either. It is a flavored tea called «jasmine blossom.» If you’re going to use cheap tea at a restaurant (an asian restaurant at that) — at least specify the brand on the menu so I’m not pissing away $ 2 for something I can seriously get every day.
Oh, and there’s no air conditioning here, so be prepared to sweat.
I’d come here again if someone else was footing the bill, but it was not at all worth the $ 70 I spent.

Great sushi selection. It was busy and my girlfriend wanted the crispy spicy salmon so we sat at the sushi bar. The staff was attentive and the food delicious.
The added bonus is the bathroom.

Great spot for a casual but intimate date or a small group of friends! Awesome location, attentive service and good sushi! What more can you ask for?
There on a first date and no tables available so we sat at the sushi bar. It was actually better! No table in between, front row seat to the action and food straight from the chef!
Awesome unagi and the Ninja roll was a good choice!
I will be back again! … With or without that date! :-)

Still awesome! Came in here on a weekday, no wait, immediate seating and was able to catch the last 30 minutes of HH. So we got a few things off of the HH menu.
HH Takoyaki: very delicious, crunchy outside, freshly fried, and soft and creamy inside with actual ocotopus chunks.
HH Salt & Pepper Roll: it was ok, forgot what it was but see photo. Probably wouldn’t get it again.
Homeless Roll: FANTASTIC!!!
Black Tiger Roll: FANTASTIC!!!

Located right in the heart of Ballard Ave, this sushi spot offers a few quiet booths towards the back, some tables up front, and ample seating along the sushi bar itself. In addition to watching the chefs work their magic, they also have some TVs hanging over the bar so you can keep tabs on the game while enjoying a few rolls.
They have two menus here — the sushi menu and the izakaya menu which consists of appetizer sized bites to accompany your drinks. Their specialty rolls are pretty interesting and unique, with clever names like the Bruce Lee roll or the 7UP roll (which my dining companion said actually did kind of taste like 7UP — it had a drizzle of lemon, lime, and honey on top). I had the Omelet roll and the Green Sea Monster roll. They were good, though the seaweed salad on the green dragon roll was a little much for me. I liked the spicy kick of the jalapeño with tamago in my omelet roll.
Started with miso soup, which they serve as an ample serving. Also split the «Hawk in the Heavens» sake (just because we liked the name). The little carafe they served it in was kind of cool — it had a little compartment for ice in the middle to keep it chilled.
The highlight of the whole meal for me was the seared scallop appetizer. Each scallop was presented almost like an amuse-​bouche — very lightly seared with a panko crust with a little dollop of wasabi on one, ginger on another, and ume butter on the third, and served individually in spoons. I could seriously have ordered like 4 of these and just made it a meal.
Service was attentive, our water glasses were never less than half filled. While the sushi didn’t strike me as particularly memorable I’d definitely return for those scallops.