Sushi

If a chef feels the need to cook a fish before they serve it to you, you should ask them why they don't get fresher fish. There are few foods that can match fresh, cold, raw, dead fish. Mmmmmm......

If the idea of raw fish scares you, most places will have sushi made with cooked shrimp, smoked salmon, cooked eggs, or vegetarian rolls. Try those first, then move on to the real thing when you're ready.

Ltd Edition Sushi

The best sushi in the Seattle area. Three tables with a total of eight seats, plus a small bar with another eight seats. Omakase only, you pay in advance, and there are only two seatings a night. Reservations open at the start of the each month and fill up almost instantly. The chefs learned under Seattle sushi legend Shiro (see below). It's expensive and worth every penny. This is the place you go when you want to understand what sushi can really be.

Shiro's

The best sushi in the Seattle area that isn't omakase only. Ever see Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Shiro was Jiro's apprentice. Hard to get a table or a seat at the bar. Everything is amazing, but the tamago is the Platonic ideal of tamago; anything else is just a pale shadow in comparison (except for Ltd Edition Sushi's tamago...).

Izumi

The best pure sushi on the east side of the Seattle area. Not the best atmosphere and not the best service (unless you sit at the bar and order from the chef), but relatively low prices and large Godzilla portions. The teriyaki here is really amazing as well. The head chef speaks fluent Hebrew. Seriously.

Nishino

The best atmosphere and service in the Seattle area. They also have a lot of interesting "new" dishes and their pure sushi is very close to as good as Izumi. A bit more expensive though, and hard to get a seat during peak times.

Best Teriyaki & Sushi

This place looks like just a tiny family teriyaki place, that probably just has a couple of mediocre sushi items. It is tiny, but they have a full sushi bar and it is really good (just a step below Izumi). They are in Duvall of all places and have no right to be this good. Their teriyaki is great, too.

Oto Sushi

Very good sushi with lots of variety (tons of rolls, many types of salmon, lots of other dishes). Good combination of traditional sushi and non-traditional. They have a location in downtown Redmond, and are easily the best sushi place in Redmond.

Umi Sake

Good sushi, but amazing and creative rolls. The rolls are huge and they have an amazing selection. Not traditional sushi at all, but a great place anyway. Also open very late (even until 2:00am on some nights).

Ginza

Not quite at the level of Izumi and Nishino, but very good. There are plenty of other sushi places as good as this around the Seattle area, but you'll usually want to go to one of the above if you can.

I Love Sushi

Good quality, multiple locations, plenty of seating. Not the best, but certainly worth going to. A perfect example of a decent mid-range sushi place, of which there are too many to even count in the Seattle area.

Sushi Land, Sushi Zone, etc.

Conveyor belt sushi! Not really great sushi, but not too bad and the conveyor belt can be fun. If you are going to get low-end sushi, it might as well be at a place like this.