The Gokan by Musashi

This is not a Japanese restaurant. It’s pretty much all Korean people operating it. I am not against it, actually their American Sushi (California Rolls) are very good. But do not get their Chirashi Don. Don in Japanese means the bowl where rice sits into and fish slices layout beautifully on the rice. However what comes out in this restaurant is a plate with thin layer of rice. There is absolutely no understanding of Japanese culture here at all.
Enjoy their delicious American rolls, or forget about here if you want Japanese food.

I am a Nihon ryouri snob and wanted to try a new sushi place. We hadn’t been to The Gokan yet. Great décor and ambiance. The host was friendly, and we were seated right away.
They have a great selection of sake, along with descriptions of the different types of sake for anyone who is a novice.
The Gokan has a great menu, but aside from the sushi/​sashimi/​rolls, I wasn’t overly impressed.
First, let me say that the sashimi was fantastic. Very fresh. Our friends got a couple of specialty rolls and seemed to like them.
However, the breaking on agedashidofu tasted stale, and they use the wrong type of tofu.
The breading on the chicken Kara-​age was too heavy for kara-​age, and the chicken was dry, but was «ok».
The most disappointing was the server. Albeit, young and cute, she was just horrible. We were not ready to order since we were catching up, and she would have stood there all day waiting for us to order; we needed to suggest she come back in a bit. Never did. We had to flag someone down after about 15 – 20 minutes (I may be exaggerating a bit) to ask for our waitress.
We asked for gluten-​free soy sauce, and she totally forgot. Had to find someone else. When we were almost done with our dinner, she brought over the gluten free soy.
When we asked for another round (beer and wine), she forgot. When we asked, she said the bartender was making them now. Uh… making a pour-​some-​beer-​in-​a-​glass?
Net-​net, probably won’t go back. If you want sushi, it’s good enough, but there are better places.

Website and phone # to this place (at least what’s listed on Unilocal) doesn’t seem to be set up yet, so our sushi craving led us to chance finding parking on capital hill on a Friday night to see if they had any openings. Luckily, though the place was busy, there happened to be an open table, so we were able to be seated within a few minutes.
Really enjoyed the vibe of this space. People were friendly and it had a good mix of Japanese and modern décor within it.
Sake was very nice. Really enjoyed the sake bottles that it came in. Looks like the ice container comes in different colors, which gives the presentation a fun twist.
We ordered a few items: scallop tower with monk fish liver, tempura shrimp roll with eel, hamachi with jalapeño, and another hamachi roll with lemon and tempura bits on it. All the fish tasted fresh, rice was seasoned and cooked well, and I felt like the sauces complimented vs drenched the sushi, which was a real nice change from other «fusion» sushi places we’ve visited in the area.
Would definite return and bring more friends next time.
Its also located on a fun corner with soi, slab, general porpoise, and the garage right there too.

Gokan is aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiittttttteeeeeeeeeee. It’s not Musashis. The décor and interior design is very nice (granted it’s fairly new), but I was impressed. I felt the place was a bit overpriced and would only come during happy hour. Their rolls are definitely better than their sashimi if you’re trying to decide between the two. It maybe the better sushi to go to in Capitol Hill, but I’ll have to come back and give it another try.

Occasion: NYE dinner
Entrée of choice: Omakase
With prior experience of dining omakase style at sushi bars, I would say it’s a level 1. I didn’t sit at the sushi bar like I usually do which altered the experience for me. I’m used to omakase being a carefully orchestrated journey but sitting at the booth meant all your fish was served to you at once.
I went with the medium nigiri omakase which came with 9 pieces of fish. I wouldn’t say it’s a true omakase because the server allowed me to choose what I wanted in my meal. Omakase is usually «chef’s choice».
The 9 choices of fish included maguro, hirame, sake, hamachi, kanpachi, uni, ankimo, snow crab and scallop.
The fish was very fresh but cut in rather big pieces, usually each piece would fit in your mouth in one bite but it was more like 2 — 3 bites per piece. My favorites were maguro, sake and scallop. The hirame and kanpachi were a bit too briny for my taste.
Overall I’d say it’s a bang for buck for the quality and amount of fish you get. If you want to be more adventurous and try something new besides the avocado dragon roll, go for the omakase.

I was really excited to try this place since my roommate and I used to go to musashi a lot when we are craving sushi. I like how the owner really stepped up their interior design for this place and there is a good selection of sake and other Japanese alcohol (plum wine is my favorite!)
However, food wise I was not so much a fan. First of all, the website seems to be down so we were unable to check out essential information before visiting the restaurant. We were under the assumption that HH ended at 6:30pm (according to other Unilocal review pictures since we couldn’t access the website), but in fact it ended at 6pm so we just missed it. That wasn’t the main problem for the night as we still went ahead and ordered a couple of rolls and grilled hamachi.
The food took a really long time to arrive and apparently the kitchen got confused on our orders. That’s not really a good sign since the restaurants wasn’t even packed at all. When the food came, I noticed most of the dishes just lacked flavor. The grilled hamachi was under-​seasoned and could definitely use some more salt. The batter for the black ninja roll wasn’t the best so the rolls didn’t really have the crispy exterior we wanted. The gokan dragon roll was not bad but it had slightly too much sauce.
Overall, if I were to come again I’d probably want to stick with the classic nigiri. I did enjoy their plum wine but the food we ordered were kind of a disappointment.

There are so many reasons why The Gokan is my most favorite place when I’m craving for sushi. Great location, amazing food quality, beautiful presentation, outstanding service, and affordable price.
So far, the Gokan no.9 is served in a martini glass, salmon lover, black ninja rolls, sashimi, 10^th Ave rolls are my favorite. The Gokan also has tasty drinks. I really enjoy their Lychee Sake Lemonade.

Took the family here, for the first time, for dinner on Christmas Eve. We are regulars at Musashi’s in Factoria so I was expecting good Japanese food at a fair price. The food wasn’t terrible. But here’s where The Gokan came up severely short:
Batsu #1: Shortly after we were seated the waiter spilled a bottle of something at the table next to ours — it splattered on my pant leg and shoe. Not a word about it from the waiter though.
Batsu #2: Crunchy rice. The menu explains that top of the line Tamanishiki rice is used. However, when I ordered two bowls of rice to go with my two kids’ pork katsu, they must’ve literally had to scrape the bottom of the rice cooker. Most of the rice in each bowl was chip-​your-​teeth-​hard cooked rice that had gotten dried out and was inedible. The only «good» part about the rice was we didn’t get charged for it. But seriously, getting bad rice at a Japanese restaurant is unforgivable!
Batsu #3: When the waiter brought our check I was so fixated about searching a charge for the awful rice that I totally missed seeing a charge for portobello fries. Yes we had ordered them, but no, they never arrived at our table. So we got charged for something we didn’t eat and I didn’t notice it until we got home.
Bottom line, if you want to get drunk and eat Japanese bar food, this place may be for you. But even the deli at the Fred Meyer in Bonney Lake doesn’t serve customers crunchy rice. We won’t be back.

Good gracious this place was delicious! Loved the vibe and the happy hour menu was AWESOME! I’m surprised more people don’t know about this Capitol Hill gem.
Not only was the food good but the portions were great… Especially for sushi. I really enjoyed all the rolls we got.
We also ordered off the regular menu, and the kitchen items were delicious too. I loved the vibe, the service and as I said… The food! Can’t wait to be back!

Friends wanted to go here for the reviews. I personally didn’t read the reviews (4 stars) until after I ate here but the hamachi was fishy, the uni was fishy too (I order uni at every Japanese restaurant I done at), which is normally sweet if it’s fresh and good quality, and look at this GIANT salmon nigiri (photo posted). Yes, that middle section is a thick as it appears in the photo. This took THREE bites to eat. Horrible.
Not sure where the 4 stars came from. Im assuming the «candy» rolls. There’s not a single roll on the speciality list that’s not fried at some capacity and smothered in sauces.
Friendly staff and quick service. But not friendly enough to eat fishy fish.

It was good but a little overpriced. I know it’s supposed to be an upscale Musashi’s but… I’m not sure but I was just expecting much more. I know the rolls looked super fancy and whatnot but everything was just okay-​good. Not spectacular. I ordered a roll and an unagi and uni nigiri. The unagi was a bit chewy. The uni was meh. Not the freshest. I usually judge the quality of the fish freshness by their uni. and it was eh
Their cocktails were delicious.
The interior was beautiful. I can tell they put a lot of throught into the interior design. I went witha huge group fofriendsand they seated us in the rooms where you take of your shoes and sit on those traditional low tables. I enjoyed the room. Service was good. I guess nothing was wrong but I just didn’t have a ‘WOW’ factor for me where I MUST go back. I could do without going back here but nothing was wrong with the place.

I stupidly tried to find a last minute sushi place for 3 people on a Sat night. After having everyone tell us 9:30pm at least we were almost going to give up on the sushi plan. Somehow I luckily found this place on Unilocal and called in and was informed that there would only be 15 min wait. The hostess was super nice and approachable when we walked in. I liked the modern and clean décor of the place. All servers and hosts were actually pretty good looking too :) which is always a plus.
Now on to the food — we initially ordered yakitori, salmon skin hand roll, broadway and white dragon. The salmon skin roll was really well done, it has a little less rice than most rolls for the price of $ 8 but I think the salmon skin was on par and crispy. I was most disappointed with the size discrepency between broadway and white dragon. I understand there’s a $ 4 price difference, but the width of the white dragon was like half the size of the broadway. I don’t think I’ve seen rolls this thin in a long time so I was quite disappointed. The broadway was delicious though and I think the tempura batter was crisp and tasty. Another disappointment was I think the yakitori was too dry, the slightly charred areas were great but overall it felt more work to chew.
Overall I loved the décor and service. I think the food is def good but I’m a little miffed still about having such a small roll due to the $ 4 price difference. If they had a better happy hour times like umi sake house I think I would be more satisifed as well.

Been here a handful of times already and they are always consistent with the service, food, and enjoyment that I didn’t pick a bad place to go. The first time I came here, it was when I was just walking around Capitol Hill and saw the sign ‘by Musashi’ and was sold (and the open windows). The décor and service is impeccable and they are always on point for whenever me and my party needed anything.
Another time that I came here was with a large party, about 10. Was trying to reserve the room but was told it was already booked. I was concerned about the noise level and where we would sit but nope, they made sure to accommodate all of us with such amazing service.

Sushi rolls served in a martini glass? Yessir, sign me up =]
If you haven’t been to Musashi yet or you have been, this place is owned by the same owner. Located in Caphill, this chic and modern place is a pretty nice place to go eat with friends and such. The interior of the place is similar to other popular sushi restaurants like Wasabi Bistro, Umi Sake House, Japonessa with its upscale feel, intimate setting, and dim lighting at night.
Sushi prices are roughly the average (Happy hours below $ 10, regular menu is like around $ 10-​$ 12+) and overall, solid service and food. Came here for a late night dinner with a couple of friends out of town and since they were all dying for some sushi rolls, we decided to check this place out based on Unilocal and pictures. Ordered a few dishes and man… these were all delicious! If you order the musashi rolls, expect to see these come in a martini glass. It’s a cute gimmick and the sushi itself tasted pretty good. Not too heavy on the cream cheese side, the tempura was just perfect for the rolls we ordered. If you’re looking to try something different, I recommend trying the shrimp heads. Sounds oddly weird but crazy tasty. The shrimps tasted crunchy, salty, and sweet at the same time and really, you can eat the whole thing without having to peel off the shell and such. If that dish is too crazy for you, try the fresh shrimp! These are sweet and refreshing to eat, and it’s nice to eat it without the usual fishy like odor.
Overall, I do enjoy at this place. The staff were super friendly, quick and efficient and it’s definitely another sushi place I plan on frequenting when stopping by Caphill.

By far one of the best sushi places is Seattle. The food is absolutely fresh and delicious. The service is 5 star. The location is nicely decorated with large windowed open to the street.
Make sure to check the happy hour menu. It is a nice and fancy version of Musashi in Walungford.
All the staff are very polite and welcoming.

Came in during late night HH and there weren’t too many people and food came out pretty quickly. I ordered the spicy tuna roll and the sashimi plate.
The spicy tuna roll was pretty basic but I honestly wasn’t expecting much out of it. It wasn’t very spicy at all so if you’re not into the heat and like spicy tuna you should get it. The sashimi plate was a little lackluster. Came with 2 pieces of salmon, tuna, hamachi and albacore. The pieces of sashimi were kinda thin which is why I said it was kind of lackluster. The presentation was nice though and the fish tasted pretty fresh.
Gokan isn’t as great as Musashi’s in my opinion. I gave this place 4 stars but in reality its more like 3.5. I think I had high expectations for this place because I liked Musashi’s and thought this place would be an upscale Musashi’s.

I love Musashi in Wallingford so when this opened up, I had to try. They have now been opened for more than a month and man, they are already so popular. Good thing they take reservations so do call ahead.
Everything on the menu looked good. I personally love the hand rolls so was happy to find 7 varieties here. we orders 2 martini glass ‘rolls’ and tropicana roll. All great. For the indecisive there is always omakase and chirashi!
And their wait staff looks like they walked out of a pop j-​drama! All chefs speak to each other in Japanese. Love the ambience.

I didn’t even know this place existed, but I am so glad to come by. Its at the corner of 10^th & Union on the other end of the block from Neumos. Looks nice through the windows, nice entry way, cool design logo, modern Japanese interior inside, very clean, nice furniture, good amount of room and I believe that have a sunken area where you can sit on the floor. Also they have roll up windows to open up when its nice out.
It wasnt busy at all when we came in, sushi bar had plenty of space so we were able to sit in front of the sushi chefs (heavy chairs *grunt*). We were able to catch the last 20 minutes of Happy Hour so we got a few beers and got the Gokan Crunch roll off of the HH menu. Pretty tasty, nice presentation, and the HH menu had a lot of selections to choose from. Complimentary brown rice tea is provided, it tasted ok but sorta smelled like burnt popcorn.
After HH was over, we decided to order off the regular menu and try one of their specialty rolls and got the Happy Tuna roll and the Unagi sashimi. Both were very good, we were fighting over the last few pieces and agreed that we would totally come back to try more of their menu.
Service was great, attentive, super friendly & nice, managers came by to check on us and even helped me clean up my mess when my tobiko balls fell all over the place. Ooops.
Overall, I like this place and plan on coming back!

This place is gorgeous! I absolutely loved the modern décor, but it’s not over the top — which makes it casual enough for lunch with friends and nice enough for a special occasion.
As for the rolls, they were SO delicious! Maybe I was too excited to finally try a new sushi place, but I thought they tasted better than Japonessa/​Um Sake/​Wasabi Bistro (especially Wasabi… the quality seems to have gone down for me, while the prices have gone up?!).
Pro tip: If you’ve been to Mushashi’s before, you should be aware of their amazing spicy mayo. They have it at Gokan too, so ask for it on the side. That stuff is like crack.
–Salmon Lover’s Roll: this is must-​try, the seared salmon was cooked perfectly and balanced well with the cream cheese and lemon zest
–Seattle Sunset: contained a variety of raw fish that I thought tasted very fresh and topped with a variety of sauces
–Spider roll & Unagi roll: can never go wrong with these ‘basic’ ones!
The only downside is the parking… only street parking is available and capital hill can be a pain to find a spot.

Great new sushi spot to go to if you’re tired of Umi Sake, Wasabi Bistro and Japonesa. A bit hard to find it in the dark side of the street, but it’s right next to Moe bar, just further down the street.
I loved the atmosphere, not what I expected. Looks very traditional, especially the group seating area!
The drinks were good, all came in promptly. If you like spicy, try the Wasabi Bloody Mary, it goes well with sushi.
I tried two sushi rolls, which were pretty amazing: B&B and Salmon Lover’s Rolls. Must try!
Robert waited our table and he was very professional, fun and helpful. I know it’s not easy to handle a loud tipsy group, he handled it perfectly!
Thank you Sam for taking care of us as well! I hope this place gets recognized for all the hard work you put in it. We’ll definitely be back very soon!