Tokyo Garden Teriyaki

Just found out this once beacon of teriyaki hope hope in a sea of mediocrity had closed. Sounds from the most recent reviews that things had nosedived since the naughties when I ate here. Too bad.

Wow simply wow. Here is a place I frequented at one time in my life. Stopped in today for lunch because it was on my way home. Everything but the name has changed, and none of it for the better. Here’s a run down:
Spicy Chicken Teriyaki — Gross tasted like old chicken that just had chili water basted on it in the last minute of grilling. Not sure if the slight tangyness was a vinegar marinade or slightly rotten meat. Either way two bites is all I got out my order.
Salad — A few lonely pieces of lettuce swimming in an ocean of dressing. Oh yeah at least the dressing tasted like I remembered, just wish I had actual salad to go with it, since I am not in the habit of drinking salad dressing straight-​up.
Rice — Edible except it was smothered by unedible chicken.
Gyoza — Palid, not crispy, soaked in oil, with a non-​descript mush on the inside.
Seriously not sure how this place is still in busines. Tragic because back in the day I would have given this a 6 star review.

After waiting about 25 minutes for my food to come out (wtf guys, this isn’t rocket science), I was greeted by some fairly mediocre food. A few chunks of low quality chicken haphazardly strewn across my plate, certainly not worth the wait. Skip this place and head down to University Teriyaki if you want something fast and good!

Do NOT, repeat, NOT order any menu item that contains sashimi.
My sister ordered the Hwe Dub Bap and I ordered the Chirashi. I am usually good about reading Unilocal reviews prior to eating at any restaurant, had I read the previous horrid hwe dub bap review on here I wouldn’t have even come here! Lesson learned.
Sister’s hwe dub bap consisted of a gigantic bowl of white rice with some limp lettuce, tiny, miniscule cubes of tuna sashimi and a lump of seaweed salad. I’m not exaggerating on how small the tuna was.
Mine was even worse… the photo on the menu of the chirashi shows about 5 pieces each of THICK cut sashimi. Tuna, Salmon and another white fish, placed nicely in a bento box, along with rice, salad topped with ikura (salmon roe). I ordered this, and asked for salad instead of rice. I received a large plate with a pile of lettuce, a lump of seaweed salad and about 4 paper-​thin slices of each sashimi (shrimp, tuna, salmon) that lay limply on the side. So thin I could practically see through them. This cost $ 15.99.
When i complained to the cashier that my sashimi looked NOTHING like the picture, he said «that’s because you ordered it with lettuce instead of rice.» :|
that doesn’t even make sense!

Best teriyaki in the U– District. Very affordable prices and generous portions. The cashier/​waitress is very nice and the food is usually brought out very quickly.
One of the best «cheap» eats in the U District.

I’ll be honest – I only go here because it’s 2 blocks away. The spicy chicken teriyaki is perfectly acceptable, but nothing that will blow your mind or anything. But then again, I guess teriyaki isn’t really a type of food that will do that in the first place.
The chicken is tender and well-​flavored, and they give generous portions. The only thing that gets me is their weird salad dressing. Something about it just does not agree with my taste buds – quite watered down and has a hint of odd spice in it? I don’t really get it. If you’re on the Ave and not lazy like me, you may enjoy University Teriyaki more.

This place is always a solid choice for terriyaki in the u-​district. Chicken terriyaki is good and I like their salad dressing more than most places. And if you are not a salad fan, you can ask for double rice instead, and then you get a second large helping of white rice. There is a self-​serve hot tea station, which is pleasant, and a water cooler (note that the button to get the water is way at the top of the cooler… this is a little tricky and it’s entertaining watching other diners try to figure out how to dispense the water). Staff has always been friendly and pleasant. Their noodle dishes have a slightly gummy texture which isn’t entirely pleasant, but I still managed to eat all my yakisoba. The vegetables were fresh, which is very appreciated.
Also, the veggie tempura is perfect… just the right amount of batter. It doesn’t feel too heavy or greasy. Yum!
They’ve remodeled inside, and the décor is very fancy and nicer than many terriyaki places. I don’t really think this matters (as long as the place is clean and food is good, I don’t need fancy decorations and new furniture), but for some people, it’s important.
Used to dine here all the time 10 years ago, when we were students. Just had dinner here last week for the first time in about 3 years. Was happy to find it’s still quite tasty.

I love their chicken katsu. I don’t know what they do to that dipping sauce but it’s like crack. It’s too good and the price is right for a broke ass like me.
They have free hot tea which is always nice.
I tried their bi bim bap which wasn’t too amazing. I don’t think I’ll order it again. ONLY CHICKEN KATSU!!! :D

Great price for how tasty the food is and how big the portion sizes are. Perfect for the cheap student. I went there almost every week as a grad student.
Oh spicy chick how I miss thee. And the udon was nice and sizable, with great flavor.
They don’t skimp on ingredients there. At least they didn’t the least time I was there half a year ago. I don’t live in Seattle but I always try to visit Tokyo Garden when I’m in town.

I used to eat here all the time few years back and i used to love their yakisoba. Now it looks like, the restaurant is under new ownership. The restaurant itself looks really clean and organized under new ownership.
I once again tried their chicken yakisoba and it was really good. All the veggie were fresh and plentiful. And boy talk about their portion! Its huge. One yakisoba is good enough to feed @ least two people. This is really a place to go for all the hungry dawgs on the ave.
When I am in the neighborhood next time, i ll sure see you guys again.

If you go to UW chances are you walk by this place daily. I didn’t know it existed until I went there for dinner tonight. When I go to teriyaki joints, I typically order either chicken teriyaki, or spicy chicken. I made the incorrect assumption that they had a typo on the menu, but ordered the «spicy chicken teriyaki» anyways.
Boy was I wrong! The chicken was sort of a hybrid of teriyaki and spicy chicken. A little too saucy for me, but it still tasted alright so I can’t complain too much. I would just prefer one or the other, not both flavors. However, I was a little let down about how small the portions were.
I suggested to my friend JJ that we go to MY favorite teriyaki place (which is just up the street from our apartments, see my review of Ichiroll Wok & Teriyaki) but he suggested we go to Tokyo Garden. This place isn’t bad, but if you can travel 15 by car to Greenwood, Ichiroll has slightly better tasting spicy chicken (if spicy chicken is what you want) and portions big enough to take home leftovers for a midnight snack or light lunch, for about the same price!
I’ll have to come back here and try their teriyaki sometime. The service was good, and I was pretty torn between choosing 3 or 4 stars.

GET THE TERIYAKI CHICKEN OR BEEF. It’s very filling. Big plates.
PARKING: No. It’s the U-​District, so good luck on the parking. Walk!
AMBIENCE: Asian-​American café.
QUALITY: Yum.

I don’t know when this place opened, but this was the first time I’ve ever seen it, and I have been within walking distance of the Ave for some 8ish years, maybe more. Maybe less. I don’t remember how old I am. Shut up, me.
My friend wanted sushi, and the only place I could think of appears to have closed, so walking down the Ave I spotted this place. Some of the reviews here date back to like 2007. That’s crazy.
When we walked inside, the lady smiled at us and handed us menus and didn’t say anything else, so we sat at the first table we saw in this completely empty restaurant.
Combing the menu I saw all of one vegetarian sushi roll, and it was called «Vegetable Roll» because the Japanese really like to put some creative effort into their names.
After waiting for some 45 minutes (?), my veggie roll arrived. It had vegetables in it. It was also a roll. It also had this white stuff in it. My friend said «is that tofu?» and I said «I don’t know, probably» and then I bit into it and I found it was cream cheese. Someone once told me that cream cheese is in a lot of sushi rolls, but it shouldn’t be, because it’s cream cheese. It wasn’t terrible. Neither is using a portable toilet. I don’t want either in my sushi.
I also served myself tea, since they had a tea dispenser… woo.
This place was kind of nothing. I have a feeling the owners are nice, because they were very smiley, but… I mean… this place just wasn’t anything. It exists. That’s all there is.

I used to go to get their beef teriyaki, it was good. i tried twice after the new owner took over — — won’t go there anymore.
sushi wasn’t fresh, n my beef teriyaki was overcooked.
there are a lot of teriyaki places on the ave.

In the New York Times feature on Seattle and its teriyaki, the Times specifically called out Tokyo Garden for serving momos. Curiosity required me to try an order, so I did. In this case, a momo is a steamed dumpling not unlike other Asian steamed dumplings. The meat momo is full of «meat» (they don’t say, but I think it was pork and/​or lamb), vegetables, and some low-​key spices. Were the momos any good? Sort of: the flavors were on the mild side, but the dish was reasonably satisfying. The sauce served with the dumplings was mostly forgettable.
This is still a teriyaki joint, of course, so the plate of momos also included a cabbage and lettuce salad. As far as teriyaki joint salads go, it was pretty good.
Tokyo Garden doesn’t have any windows in the main restaurant area. The mirrors try to make up for this, but the end result is decidedly cave-​like. That being said, it isn’t as though anyone goes to the Ave looking for ambiance. They deliver exactly as much of it as you’d expect.
Tokyo Garden isn’t really worth a special trip just to get a momo, especially given that there’s a full-​fledged Himalayan restaurant in Ravenna, but it is an interesting diversion for the Ave. You should at least consider giving it a try if you’re walking down the Ave and hunger requires you to stop somewhere.

I know it was you, Tokyo Garden.
You broke my heart.
Your new ownership, revamped interior decorations, reprinted menus, and (when we went) empty soda dispensers all conspired to wreck my cherished memories of my once-​favorite teriyaki place.
The teriyaki chicken plate, while on the same style plate, was served up with a too-​damp lump of rice with a slice of pickled ginger on top that polluted the rice to an unloveable extent. The chicken was a combination of undercooked and overcooked meat, and the cabbage salad was cut into thicker shreds with a sad excuse for a dressing that was nothing like what I remember from six months ago.
Plus, an hour later, it gave me an alarming case of «stomach distress.»
All it all, it was a disappointing experience and now that I know it is no longer the same, I will probably never go back. It’s not the worst teriyaki I’ve ever had, but man! It’s not the best anymore.
Tokyo Garden, I will remember you fondly, but until you hire back your old chef and bring back your old salad dressing, that’s where you will remain: In my memories.

I feel a scathing review coming, so let me say they are probably nice people.
But be warned! The menu might have the same items, but they do NOT taste the same or even comparable. If you want bi bim bap, please walk a couple blocks and pay two bucks more for Korea Tofu House. We paid 7.99 for a fried egg and rice, because that’s all I could eat. There was mostly lettuce and crab with mayonnaise in my bowl. Not good.
The fried rice dishes are OK at best, but much better fare can be found on the same block for the same price. The california rolls were bad, too. Way too much mayonnaise with diced crab, so we ended up taking it out and eating the rice and nori.
I ended up eating the miso soup and tea instead of the bi bim bap. My boyfriend was hungry, so he ate the mayonnaise-​doused rice and chicken fried rice plate. He feels so sick now he can’t get out of bed for dinner.
The worst part is that we loved the old Tokyo Garden. Sad to see it deteriorate, but you’ll have to find a new place, as do we.

I like my ‘yaki grilled and plentiful and I also theorize that the dressing on the side salad is a true indication of the status of the teriyaki establishment who is serving it up. In that case, Tokyo Garden on the Ave. stands out among all of the joints in the city.
The side salad that accompanies the teriyaki at TG is a mix of shaved cabbage and lettuce, and you are now given the choice of two salad dressings; sweet or regular. I have tried to find out what is in each and the best info I could get was pureed onions in the Regular and pureed apples in the Sweet. This aint no bottled Ranch or Sesame Salad Dressing! Portions of meat (pork and chicken combo, yo!) are grilled to order and are almost staggering. A welcome respite for the budget-​conscious student/​dope fiend/​starving rapper, my homie, Nightclubber Lang from the Bi Bim Bop Project, introduced me to this spot and I’ve been asking for chopsticks to this «Garden of Eatin’» ever since.

So I think it’s pretty rare that you come back to a biz after several months, and discover that it’s doubled in size and has made some big-​ish changes…
There is now about double the number of tables, after ordering food you get a number and they bring your food to you (instead of calling it out), they clean up after you (instead of you busing your own tables), and they are now also part mini-​mart. Their shelves are still kind of low, though, so I guess they’re still working on the mini-​mart thing. I like that the new side is much brighter and more open.
Got the Sushi A combo once again. The miso was good and I’m quite sure there was 1 – 2 extra pieces of nigiri (not sure if price went up as well). Sushi was pretty good… I think I can group it in the same category as what I recently had at the Blue C Sushi HH.
Food-​wise I think they’re still a three (and every once in a while a two), but… the staff has always been great, I like the extra seating, and the convenient location (for a UW student like myself) is great.

Yo – this place is gooooooooooooood! Been going to this place since back in the undergrad days during the lunch break and back then it was good food cooked right and BIG portions — a winning combo!
So its been a while since I’ve eaten here but was on the Ave the other day and decided it was a good time to go back. The restaurant itself is still there but they seem to have new owners and have expanded the place a bit. Its now part Mart and part Teriyaki joint — so you can actually pick up some Newport Lights and cheap sunglasses along with your teriyaki. Also, the menu is now on this big ass billboard with picutres and the prices have gone up.
I was hungry so I went with the chicken and beef combo. Dam, it was tasty! The chicken was cooked well and not burnt. The beef was realllllly good… it was thick cut pieces of sirloin and marinated Korean style… really tender. The sauce was good and not overpowering. Decent amount of rice and the salad dressing is a house special mixture. I highly recommend this place — so if you’re ever on the Ave near the U-​district and need some teriyaki that taste good and will get you full, check this place out.