Bush Garden

I was here several years ago on a college field trip. I loved the place, the ambiance and the food. Everything felt so perfect and right, really cozy after a cold and rainy day. All I had was a rainbow roll with green tea, but I was real satisfied.

I ordered the «Bush Salmon» (Salmon, sauteed in butter, lemon, sake and soy sauce, served with tartar sauce.) and I was disappointed that it was battered and fried (it tasted good, but I hate fried food). I also had several different appetizers, which were not bad but not spectacular either. The deserts were really yummy. I tried a bite of the mochi ice cream and the tempura ice cream, yum! The décor was nice, but you can tell that the building is getting old and worn down. Overall, a decent dining experience.

So glad this restaurant is in business. I didn’t know that they had remodeled and reopened — the atmosphere is much improved and the staff seems happier too.
We go out for sushi often and this is my favorite place for fresh and flavorful.
* Try the baked yellowtail cheek.
* Best spicy tuna and salmon skin rolls around.
* I love their spinach/​shitake mushroom appetizer!
* They serve a ginormous fresh house salad.
* Their green tea is delicious and comes in a big glass container.
* Great place to bring guests — nice private dining rooms.
If you haven’t been to Bush Garden in awhile, you should go!

Stumbled upon this place last night with a couple friends. While Portland has an overabundance of sushi places (well, is there really such a thing as too much sushi? Let’s just say an abundance…), I was surprised and impressed by Bush Garden.
I have to admit I had passed over this place before based on the name (I thought, related to the amusement parks?!). However, last night, craving some sushi and in the area, we stopped in for a few rolls. We sat at the sushi bar where we chatted with the chef who was extremely friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. We each had a different one of his special rolls which were all delicious. Mine had spicy tuna and mango. Needless to say I was a happy camper.
All of the staff was friendly and eager to make sure we were happy and had what we needed. They also had live traditional Japanese music which was awesome.
The only downside is it’s a little pricey. But we all agreed it was worth it (my boyfriend claims that the rolls were larger than usual. I’m not sure…) and will go back.

I must say some of the items on the menu are very original and deserve highest praises and make your taste buds fly high up in the skies — probably past grandeur of one of the finest Japanese restaurants in Oregon. However their restrooms leave a desire for better.
An unfriendly note says you must order for $ 20 per person — with prices they have it would be difficult to order for less anyway. I mean they could have been more selective in the wording they use on the note :)

A little expensive, but very high quality. The sushi rolls looked absolutely amazing, and my pork… thing (can’t remember the name!) was nothing short of phenomenal. For a Tuesday night at 5, it sure was empty. Not a problem for us though!

My wife and I ate here about 8 years ago while on vacation and I have held it in the highest esteem for a states-​side restaurant ever since. Seeing as I am here on a brief business trip, I made it a point to go and partake of the most authentic Japanese cuisine I’ve had on this side of the ocean. See, I lived in Japan for a year. I know what the food tastes like and this is as good as it gets.
I walked in tonight and was greeted by an older Japanese woman, with whom I began to speak Japanese. I’ve still got it! She was a bit surprised at my fluency and lack of accent and I used that a bit to my advantage because what I wanted wasn’t on the dinner menu. She checked with the kitchen and they agreed to make it formed and at a very reasonable price. Any authentic? Look no further, Portland. Great atmosphere, great food.

Loooooooong time ago, I had dinner at Bush Garden and it wasn’t good at all. In fact, it was too expensive for what it was worth.
Fast forward to 2010, I was a little skeptic when my friends suggested happy hour at Bush Garden. Then I read somewhere on the www, they are under new management so I said ok. I’m happy to say the happy hour at Bush Garden is one of the best Japanese happy hour I’ve ever had in Portland.
The happy hour is going on Monday-​Friday until 9 pm at the sushi bar area. You can order small plates for $ 2.50 each. They required a $ 2.50 minimum drink which I think is reasonable. They have pretty good selection of small plates such as California Roll, Gyoza, Fried Chicken, Spring Rolls, Fried Fish Cake skewers, and Potato Croquettes.
I’m a big fan of the fried fish cake skewers, fried chicken, and potato croquettes. I usually order a side of steam rice to company my small plates dinner. The last time I came here with my DL, our total bill for five plates and two drinks were $ 20. It was a good deal for happy hour and we were stuffed.
Overall, I think Bush Garden is a delicious place for happy hour, but I wish they have more non fried options in their happy hour menu. Besides that, Bush Garden is an alright hh option. :).

A friend of mine always hangs out at Bush Garden which started me going. The service is always amazing and the food… well… I used to live in LA and I would hit some pretty killer sushi places. I always have leaned toward trying more traditional stuff. Since living in Portland I have tried several sushi/​Japanese restaurants and have always been met with standard US fair. Bush Garden is by far the most traditional in every way. It is never crowded. The portions are always big and the sake selection is awesome. You must try Bush Garden.

This place was open on Christmas Eve. We were surprised first off that they were open, we heard that they had closed, and secondly is that they were open on Christmas Eve. Some of the interior has changed, we sat on the tatmi mats. That was pretty cool. The food was ono. It was very authentic and the wait staff was very friendly and quick to answer questions and serve. Sure, it wasn’t that crowded, but they were very friendly non the less. I would recommend this place to anyone, but be careful, it could get crowded. You could wait in the lounge, but for Happy Hour, you had to by an alcoholic beverage. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here!!!

The name says it all… I was looking for irony but all I got was fishy. Nice interiors though.

Back in the day, not long after I first moved to pdx, Bush Garden was one of my regular downtown hangouts — always in the lounge though, I’ve never been in the restaurant proper. We knew the bar manager and much of the staff (they’ve since moved on) who took good care of us, they always had great cocktails, beer and wine, pretty good food, and karaōke (which seemed to always be going on) was a ton of fun and very laid back.
I hadn’t been back for ages (I’d heard some iffy things about the new management) but last Friday as we strolled from the Pearl down to the MAX to head across the river, I convinced our party of 6 to pop in for a few drinks and some desperately needed grub.
I was very pleasantly surprised when I learned that we still made happy hour — VERY awesome that it runs way later than many other places (5 – 9:30pm, M-​F). They had a few drink specials — I loved my Gin & Sake cocktail ($ 5).
The real deal though is on the HH apps — at least 15(!) different items for only $ 1(!!) each. We mixed and matched an assortment of different little dishes (Chicken Kara-​age and Yakitori, Cali rolls, Gyoza, Shiumai, edamame, tempura veggies, etc) — each of which was really quite good. Sure, they’re small, but for the price (just $ 1!!!) you can order your fave five and a nice cocktail, and still only be out an Al Hamilton, plus a couple Gee-​Dubs for the tip!
The atmo in the lounge is very relaxed and great for groups. They’ve got a few booths on the main floor, and a lot of cool stone-​surfaced tables with rolling chairs in the raised half of the lounge for larger, more amorphous groups — this is where they USED to have the karaōke set up (which is still there, but doesn’t look like it’s ever used).
The place was largely empty, so our service was quite good. Actually, I’m gonna say our service was super, fantas-​terrific, and worthy of a whole ream of gold stars. Why? Because, as far as customers go, we were probably a complete nightmare.
We were loud. We were obnoxious. We (or at least one of our number) committed perhaps the ultimate party foul. I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice it to say someone had to do some serious clean up after we’d left. It was totally our fault, but no one gave us a hard time and that’s super awesome of them!
We did the best we could to rectify the situation, we were not rude, and we did tip well (paid in cash, left over 100% tip), but it was just one of those nights and I will be forever thankful that the staff at Bush Garden were just totally, super cool.
I’ll definitely be back for the good food, great location (just off the MAX line), and fantastic extended happy hour, and might even give them a shot for dinner. If you were a fan of this place in the good ol’ days, or have never been before, it’s definitely worth a happy hour visit!

While this place has gone down hill a little over the past couple of years, I still really like it. I especially like sitting in the lounge and getting happy hour sushi and a Japanese beer. It is very old school Japanese lounge and restaurant, but I still prefer it to a lot of the newer Japanese places in town. It has a lot of character, which is getting harder and harder to find these days.

This place is ridiculous. We sat in one of those tatami rooms, which I could see being fun, but our waitress was so awkward. They whole experience just felt sort of bizarre. We only ended up here after unsuccessfully trying to get tables at various happy hours downtown. It was actually kind of amusing.
We decided to order up some sushi and it was ridiculously overpriced and just not very good. It’s definitely the most expensive sushi I’ve had in Portland. We ordered 1 or 2 rolls and a beer each and our bill was $ 100, for 4 of us. I will not be going there again.

I would not go here for happy hour and probably not for a real meal either. I thought I would drop in for happy hour, read my book and snack on some cheap appetizers or have some sushi. I ordered edamame and chicken skewers thinking that I’d get a pretty good sized bowl of boiled soy beans and a couple skewers with a few big pieces of chicken. What I got was a small plate of edamame, with no second plate for the shells, and two tiny skewers of chicken pieces that were tiny with gristle and chunks of fat. When I have to pull gristle or fat out of my pie-​hole, I become really sad.
If there were drink specials they weren’t told to me or advertised at my table other than two sake drinks.
I will not go back.

Went there for a big group thing. The big group room is great, with Japanese-​style seating and the hori-​gotatsu where you can put your legs in the hole under the table for comfort. It was spacious and clean.
The price was right – $ 12 per person for a sukiyaki course, which is meat and veggies sauteed in a sauce of sugar/​soy/​water in a hot pot in the middle of the table which you add meat and veggies to yourself. A waiter came over before the food was served and asked about drinks; someone told him we’d order after the food arrived (why??), and we never saw him again… We all left the group room one by one and went to the bar to order drinks. Oh, the house sake was $ 9 for a large! Yipes! And if you wanted a variety of sake from Japan, it was $ 16! Double yipes! Better get liquored up before happy hour ends, boys and girls.
So, just minor stuff so far, but here was the clincher for us: the food was on the bottom end of mediocre. The sukiyaki sauce came out premade, and was incredibly salty, too rich, and poorly flavored; we ordered water, which took forever to get, and watered it down, but it was still not very good. The vegetarian bentos, on the other hand, could have used a splash of soy (and indeed, the fried tofu with sauce could have been redeemed with just that), and also mostly tasted, well, not horrible, but not good. We got full but were not very satisfied.
The tempura was fantastic. By the way, lemon does not go on tempura.
We’re going back for happy hour cos we need some happiness from Bush Gardens. But 2 stars is what our first meal was worth.

Went there again for appetizers and sushi and found that they are serving genmaicha now! It is green tea with roasted brown rice. It was known as «popcorn tea» around my house when I was growing up because it had mini popcorn in it! Wikipedia says that the popcorn happens during the roasting process.
Ate in the dining room so didn’t partake of the happy hour specials… Lounge only. I guess after the smoking ban we can try it out — I don’t like my food with cigarette smoke, thanks.
Rolls were yummy and again and the homemade smoked salmon nigiri continues to be the best I’ve ever had! Love it!
Addition of genmaicha calls for a star raise and the smoked salmon really is as good as it gets! We’ll definitely be back. (^.^)
P. S. Next on my list to try: saketinis! (Made with Forest Grove’s own Momokawa sake!)

Awesome happy hour and specialty drinks.
Everything on the appetizer menu is only $ 1. Unbelievable.
This includes Agedashi tofu, chicken yakitori, calamari, gyoza, Chinese sausage, croquettes, vegetable tempura, and many more items.
If you like pina coladas, order a «Scooby Snacks»!
I highly recommend this place.
+ very cheap with good food
+ over 15 items on their happy hour menu
— they didn’t split our check, but it’s ok

From the outside impression and the location near «The Galleria» I figured there’d be a snowball’s chance in hell that I’d like this place.
But after actually visiting here, it turns out I liked Bush Garden. (ie:) had it handed me a note that said «Do you like me, yes or no?» I would have drawn a bubbly heart around the yes and shyly handed it back.
Happy Hour is killer. (Tuesday — Saturday 5 – 9.30 & Sunday 4 – 9.30) Everything is $ 1.00 with decently priced drinks. Just know that you have to go in the bar for this deal, missing out on the otherwise awesome dining room that’s been previously mentioned. You can get a nice selection of the usual Edamame, Sushi, Yakitori, and Tempura dishes. And I actually had octopus… a first for me, and to my delight found out it’s kind of good!
We showed up around 5.00 on a Wednesday, not busy at all, though kind of slow as the only bartender was also the acting waitress. Not a big deal really, as glasses were kept full and the plates from the kitchen were continuously showing up (there’s a limit to how many items you can order at a time).
Someday I’d like to try dinner here in one of the more traditional dining rooms… hopefully this will happen before it snows.

Lovely restaurant with a traditional feel. The fish is super fresh & tasty. For those of you looking for adventurous & inventive rolls, you wont find too many here, but you will find yummy «staples» & friendly service.