Being from Philly where there are no ramen spots to be had, whenever I’m at a place where they have such a glorious thing, I try to take advantage. So I was back at Katana-Ya. Here’s the veggie ramen with miso broth. Pretty freakin gorgeous, eh?
I also somehow ended up with a veggie ramen. But mine was much more firey. I got the spicy tofu ramen, which had a crapton of kimchi in it, and tofu, and awesomeness. And this bowl was crazy big. It was about the size of my torso. Yeah, that’s right, I ate my torso worth of ramen. And it was wondrous!

My company isn’t located in Seattle proper, sadly, we’re way up north in the burbs. Some of my colleagues wanted to go eat at Bonefish Grill, but I was not interested. I mean really though, there’s nothing wrong with Bonefish Grill, I have eaten there and liked it, but I’m in Seattle. I’m not going to go eat somewhere I can go to at home. So I roamed around a little bit and drove to nearby Mill Creek to N’Joy Sushi & Roll. It’s in one of those newer fancy stripmalls. The place is pretty sizeable and has a big sushi bar in the middle. It’s also a korean-run sushi spot.
I started with a sunomono salad. I don’t know why I love this so much, but I just do. It’s just thinly sliced cucumbers with a little vinegar based marinade along with some imitation crab meat and a shrimp. It’s just one of my favorite things to order. I like vinegary things and this sunomono was particularly good. And I love how sesame seeds add that little bit of nuttiness. Having a good fresh cucumber helps. There’s nothing worse than an old soggy mushy cucumber, or one with a thick waxy peel. This cucumber was just perfect.
Even though it was fairly hot out, I was still wanting some noodles. So I got the nabeyaki udon, which is served in this nabe, or metal cauldron like thing. It had some random seafood and veggies inside. I was so surprised by the excellent broth. The broth is key and sometimes you get really bland broth and sometimes you just get ok broth. This broth was great! It had enough flavor and I could tell it was made from scratch. I actually found some bonito flakes inside the broth so I was happy to know it wasn’t powdered. Overall, the udon was surprisingly good.
This seems like a place where crazy rolls rule the joint. Their menu has an extensive list, complete with pictures, of the many wacky and creative sushi rolls they serve. I wanted to at least try one so I got the mango roll, which was a special of the day. This thing was just way too much. I think it had shrimp tempura and avocado on the inside, and was topped with salmon, mango, mango sauce, tobiko, poppy seeds (!?!?), and a bunch of squirts of random sauces. Whoa. It was actually too sweet and there was just way too much going on. I think if they just left the mango sauce out and just went with the slice mango, it would have been much more tolerable. But all of the stuff slopped on top was just overkill. Sweet, sweet, overkill. Service was good and everyone was friendly. I didn’t have to wait very long for my food at all. The proprietors are quite friendly and it seems like there are lots of regulars here. I think it’s a nice spot in the northern burbs for some affordable japanese fare.

It’s always fun to go to Yakitori Boy because you get to try so much different stuff. Go with new people each time, and it’s like a whole new restaurant. But don’t get me wrong, I usually end up ordering all the same stuff. Like the tatsuta age at the top. This deep fried chicken dish is one of my favorite japanese dishes of all time. H/A introduced me to it awhile back, and since I’ve only had it at Yakitori Boy, it remains my favorite. Whenever it comes out, it’s always super super hot, so you have to be careful not to burn your mouth. But damn, it’s so juicy and delicious. Below that is some kind of yakitori sampler. I don’t think you get to pick, so you just get whatever they bring out. We ended up with some pork belly, shrimp, liver, and balls. It was all good, except for liver. I do not care for liver. I wish it had been gizzards.
We got a bunch of rolls too. The ones at the bottom are some kind of tuna and avocado roll, the rainbow roll, and the green river roll. The massive crazy looking one at the top was a special of the day, and our server was cuckoo crazy over it. He insisted that we try it. It was good, but it was just way too much. It had fish and was deep fried and had crunch on top and was literally served with four different sauces at the same time. It should be called the schizophrenic roll.
The hokkak don. It’s so beautiful! The uni?  Ick. Nobody wanted it.
The pork ramen. Not bad! It’s still the only ramen I’ve had in Philadelphia, so far. And so far, it’s not bad. I’d order it.
My tempura soba. It’s still good! We ended up ordering way too much food and it was a shame that some of it did not end up getting eaten. But H/A did a fairly good job of doing his garbage man duties and eating most of everything. It’s always a fun time here.