Ginza

It has improved significantly and for the better.
As with many other restaurants in Bellevue it has become much more hip.

Excellent friendly service, tea and water is always filled up for yah. Food is very solid especially their pumpkin fried rice. Prices are definitely downtown Bellevue prices but the food and atmosphere are worth it. For what it’s worth I went on a colder winter night and the upstairs area was a bit drafty and cold for some reason.
My go to dish for Japanese restaurants the black cod kasuzuke was tasty but the portion was quite small. Guess I’ll stick with the sushi and sashimi options next time.

Get the pumpkin fried rice! It’s my favorite dish when I come here. Fried rice baked inside a kabocha squash, with bits of bacon and vegetables~ YUM! Overall this place is a bit overpriced, but I think the quality of the food makes up for it. I love their sushi bentos as well! It’s very filling and reasonably priced.

I’d argue this is my favorite sushi place on the Eastside and probably the best in WA at the price range.
The fish is fresh — you can order their Chirashi for around 20 $ and it has a selection of a bunch of raw fish. All of them are just delicious, without any toppings whatsoever.
Even their desserts (crème brûlée) are great.

I thought I would really like this place because of all the good reviews but I guess I just got the wrong things. I ordered two sushi rolls and they were pretty bland and not special. I got the American Dream and the Tigertail. The American dream was the better of the two because the spicy fish on top was the only flavor the roll had, the inside was just tempura and cucumber. The Tigertail was supposed to have ‘spicy yellowtail’ but there was absolutely no hint of space and the description said miso sauce and I tasted no miso. They were the two driest rolls I’ve had in a long time. The rolls both had one thing in them with cucumber and the rolls fell apart easily and the rice didn’t seem right.
We had the tempura beforehand and that was actually good but they gave us tempura sauce in the a very small saucer that made it very difficult to dip.
My sister had the crunch roll, and she said that was very bland too. She said her tonkatsu was alright.
Maybe we should have gotten one of their more popular dishes like the pumpkin fried rice or volcano roll but we definitely didn’t like what we did get.

Ah, this place is awesome! Came here on a Sunday at 7PM, and put our name down just before a crowd arrived. We arrived in the back, and there wasn’t any one to greet us or anything. Just a server that came back once in awhile to make sure you put your name down. Gets confusing really easily. I think it’ll be easier if you just had a hostess in the front to help seat and take care of tips and wipe down tables and flip tables faster. Anyways, we ended up getting one of the rooms in the back, where there is an automatic 18% gratuity. Kind of stupid, but that room was open the whole time we were waiting… so we could have been seated before waiting 30 minutes… Like I said, a hostess would have seen this and have us seated asap.
So besides the fact that they don’t have a hostess, the food was amazing. We got a huge variety of everything and nothing disappointed. FYI, the pumpkin fried rice is not really PUMPKIN… it’s squash. I’m not entirely sure why they called it that… regardless I was skeptical about eating it because I don’t like pumpkin, but once I realized it was actually a squash, I ate it and it was delicious! Food comes pretty quick once you order.
Highly recommend this place if it’s not busy!

Ginza is GOOD.
I’ve been here for noms with friends, family, and work invites while clients were in town.
Here’s my summary:
I’m an ABC girl. I grew up on the Eastside and I’ve traveled to Asia pretty extensively. Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo both for play and work. I consider myself a foodie but I’m not a food snob (we all know there’s a difference). I’ve never had Japanese BBQ here before but they do have it.
Good — I’m not really a fan of any of their cooked items. But, there is one shining star which is the PUMPKIN FRIED RICE. That sucker comes out in a cute little acorn squash bowl and they even slice up the pimpkin inside to make it easier to mix in. There’s caramelized crispy meat in there as well. If you bring a new friend here, order this. It always gets an «ooo» and «ahhh».
Meh — This place is pretty expensive. Nothing, in my book, can compete with Musashi’s $ 15 chirashi bowl (the rice AND fish are both really good, and you can’t beat that price). After watching an hour of sushi chef videos on YouTube I found myself crawling to Ginza at 9pm for a little sushi fix. I came back home a ½ hour later with two sushi regular orders. Inside were salmon nigiri, hamachi, eel, shrimp, and tuna plus a cucumber roll (meh) and a fish roe roll (yum). The sushi here is good but not life changing.
Tips*** There is a parking lot behind the restaurant so you don’t have to park on Main St. If there aren’t spots left you can talk to the host/​hostess and they’ll give you a temp parking pass to park in a lot behind there’s. Haven’t tried this yet but the waitress told me this info the next time in case I needed it.

My husband and I ended up at Ginza for a date night, as we are always on the hunt for a Japanese restaurant offering izakaya. Wow, we were blown away by the selection of all their Japanese small plates! It was hard to narrow down what to order, and as usual with us, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. We will definitely return with our adventurous kids to try more things on the menu.
As we saw all over the Unilocal reviews/​pictures, we had to order the Pumpkin Fried Rice. It was much pricier than we had anticipated, but we felt like it was the one «must try.» It was absolutely delicious, and I never would have thought pumpkin would complement fried rice so well, but I loved it. We also ordered the geoduck sauteed with mushrooms in butter. This was our first time trying cooked geoduck, and it was chewy like cooked clam. First bite threw me off, but I really enjoyed this dish. We got the fried oysters, because honestly, we just can’t turn down oysters on any menu — they were standard for a Japanese restaurant — nothing great, nothing bad.
As for sushi, we ordered the sushi/​sashimi combo, which came out with a decent sampling. Interestingly enough, it was served with a bowl of rice, I guess to eat with the sashimi? The fish was very fresh, and we enjoyed the sushi/​sashimi. We also ordered the toro and uni, because we love those two. The toro was very good, but the uni, although cold and creamy, had a bit of funk flavor to it, unfortunately.
The meal started with a complimentary cucumber/​baby shrimp appetizer and ended with complimentary fruit with shaved ice. The dining room doesn’t have much character at all. We sat at the sushi bar, so service was pretty good, and our food was served quickly. They also have tatami rooms that I inquired about — they like to have a minimum of five people in them, but really, it comes down to spending $ 200 minimum. But they can fit up to two families in there, and let’s be honest, it’s not hard to reach that minimum in a pricey Japanese restaurant.

Had a chirashi bowl (fresh sashimi on a bed of rice). It was delicious but pricey. Around 23 dollars is a bit high but it is in Bellevue so it may be understandable. Musashi in Factoria or Wallingford are same portion for 16 dollars. Servers we’re polite friendly and quick. The chirashi is not customizable which is disappointing since some people prefer more of certain slices than others.
Overall good flavor and service but too pricey compared to other competition.
Verdict: My mouth is smiling, but my wallet sure isn’t.

Amazing pumpkin fried rice I have ever had! California roll (real crab), Seattle roll, Ginza roll, Deep fried oyster roll, and Gyutan Ishiyaki are delicious!

I went here with my friend and I must say it wasnt the best but I definitely enjoyed the food. My friend and I shared a chicken katsu, pumpkin fried rice, and volcano roll.
I must say I wasnt all that crazy about the volcano roll because the fish on top was what it seemed semi cooked mackerel and the cali roll beneath you know your typical cali roll. Their spicy sauce did kind of save the strange combination a little bit to make it more manageable to eat. Katsu was your typically ordinary katsu. I didn’t find it anything special.
Their pumpkin fried rice however was a CLEAR winner! I loved their fried rice in a whole pumpkin presentation and how we can scrape the pumpkin to enjoy its sweet flavor with the savory fried rice! That dish alone I think made my night (:
Next time I think I will try their nigiri and more raw fish sushi to have a fairer judgment of their sushi. I dont think I had a chance to do that.

Your typical clean and delicious Japanese joint. My friend and I ordered a bunch of random appetizer off their cheap appetizer menu. They were all very small in portions so it makes sense it was cheap.
Of course tried the pumpkin fried rice. It was good and fried perfectly. I’m not a big pumpkin person so I don’t have much to say other than it was a good fried rice.
We also shared the hot stone beef tenderloin. I must say it was DELICIOUS and Tasty. It was cool cooking it on the hot stone! Yummy but very small in portion again.
I also ordered their chirashi bowl. The fish was fresh and I enjoyed it. I also ordered a uni nigiri because I love my uni. It was buttery and tasty!
It’s not the best place to go if you are all about quantity. I however love a good quality meal despite potion size! Service was great and atmosphere friendly. I would go back.

Thankful for my friend who introduced me to this place. Of course we went for the pumpkin fried rice and of course I killed it.
Even if you’re not a fan of pumpkins, I highly encourage you to try some! We also got a couple of their rolls (Unagi, poke) and they were all delicious. If you can, try to come exactly at 5pm (when they open) to avoid the heavy dinner wait. Or, plan ahead of time and make reservations. We saw floods of people coming in for the usual 6/​7pm dinner time and saw that many came in with reservations. People who didn’t have a reservation ended up waiting for a while.
Definitely would drive all the way to Bellevue from shoreline to get their pumpkin fried rice. Should’ve ordered another one to-​go…

I haven’t had great service like this in a long time! It was my first time here and we were taking awhile to choose what we wanted. Multiple waiters came to check in to see if we were ready to order. Our waiter answered all the questions we had and made recommendations. At the end when we asked for our bill, it took a bit longer than usual for him to get it to us, so he gave us complimentary fruits as dessert! And right before we left, he asked if we needed a re-​fill for our water before we left. I left the restaurant very impressed with the service!
The food tasted great as well. One of my favorites was the pumpkin croquette. And my friend loved the sashimi!

I could not have been anymore satisfied with my experience at Ginza! It is located in downtown Bellevue (Old Bellevue). There is a small parking lot in the back with spots designated just for Ginza. All of the spots were full on a Monday evening at 8pm, so I can’t imagine how bad it gets to find a spot on weekends.
There wasn’t a wait for a table, so my boyfriend and I got seated quickly. They asked if we wanted a table or to sit at the bar and we chose a table. We ordered the shoyu ramen which has bbq pork and no bean sprouts, a crunch seattle roll and a california roll. They served us the ramen first, and it was delicious! In the ramen is an egg, fish cakes, and seaweed on top. It took a little long to get the sushi so I wished they served it closer with the ramen (I felt like I devoured the ramen bowl so fast), but it was worth the wait! The rolls are big and they were both really good. The meal was super filling!
The service was five stars alone. We never had to ask for a refill of water, someone was there to refill our water whenever it was looking low. Our waitress was very nice and answered any questions I had about the dishes with a positive attitude.
Can’t wait to go to Ginza again!

The food was okey, but when we juxtapose to the other Japanese restaurant with this restaurant. The food is not as fresh as others, but it’s pricier than others. (I understand it might be the location)
And I found dead bug in my soup, the waitress did not even apologize for it…

I have been to Ginza multiple times since my 4 star rating but this was the most disappointing trip and I have to write about it. DO NOT ORDER THE SASHIMI BOAT APPETIZER. $ 38.95 for the same amount of fish as you would get in the sashimi deluxe entrée. The fish was UNEVENLY sliced and poorly arranged. Whoever was making it tonight did a crappy job. I saw some other photos of the appetizer boats and they definitely looked better. Inconsistent quality.
SUCH CRAPPY SERVICE. We walked into the restaurant, there were about 5 empty tables and the waitress comes over in her heavily accented English to tell me to take the stairs to the other restaurant because the sushi bar here was busy. We were not given a choice. We walked over to the other side, confused and came back to the Ginza side and told her that we did not want to sit over there.
I will never go back again after this experience. Ginza, you just lost a customer!

Super friendly service. My sons and I ate here for lunch and enjoyed everything we ordered! We had a few rolls. All were delicious and fresh!
There are two parts to this restraint a bit confusing!
Great service. Excellent tea.
Parking in the rear.

This is my Bellevue staple for Japanese food.
Usually I come here for To go orders or with pops when he’s in town. Tonight I had dinner here with little bro.
It was t too busy for a Thursday and everyone was really attentive and nice
We ordered
Pumpkin fried rice– so much starch, not enough protein lil bro said. I mentioned the amount of fiber and carotene he’s eating, he said it didn’t help with his gains. Fried rice wasn’t overly salty or greasy. Went well with the pumpkin but the amount of pumpkin to rice ratio was a bit higher. Not sure if I’d want to order this again.
Super dragon roll– was like unagi overflow, I enjoyed it
Kanihama, was the right size and amount of fish really enjoyed it
Uni– yummy and creamy. lil bros first time so he was impressed with the flavor as well
Red trio roll was probably my fav cuz of the crab and lobster in it, really added a tougher texture that I enjoy
Reminded me of how much I loveeee seafood

Ginza is a Japanese restaurant in Bellevue that offers a number of traditional Japanese dishes along with some additional pan Asian influenced cuisine. However, if there is one reason to visit this restaurant, it is to try out their pumpkin fried rice. It is a truly a unique and delicious dish.
My Overall Rating — 3 Stars (Atmosphere, Food, Return)
Atmosphere — There appears to be to separate entrances for Ginza, and the restaurant itself appears to be split into two. One side has table dining in the other side here to have the booths. Some of the booths also have those built-​in grills for those who want to cook Korean style barbecue at the table. However, the restaurant is quite forgettable it seems to be a little older and in need for a makeover. ½ Star.
Service — Unfortunately for us on a visit, the service was pretty slow and not that great. While we were seated right away, the restaurant was hardly packed. Then, in a period of about 20 minutes, the restaurant got full, and our waiter forgot about us. It took almost 35 minutes to place our order. We also requested the «omakase» or chef special. Our server told us that they do it by dollar amount, and at first we chose $ 50, but our server told us that would not be enough and recommended that we do $ 65. We did, but this turned out to be way too much and we discarded about a quarter of what we ordered. No Stars.
Food — I’ll begin with the «omakase» sashimi special. It was excellent, containing fresh slices of assorted sashimi. My favorites were the uni, seared ahi, and tuna belly. The portions were large and generous, and our order was more than enough to share with our group of four. Also, the pumpkin fried rice is as good as advertised. The fried rice comes served in a hollowed out pumpkin. It contains bits of soft pumpkin along with traditional fried rice ingredients. I’ve never had anything like this before it was truly a unique dish and one that I would return to the restaurant to eat again. The pumpkin added a mild flavor and the fried rice was not greasy. 1 ½ Star.
Will I Return? — Yes. Even though the service was off, the sashimi was high quality and the pumpkin fried rice is a very unique dish. There were several other Asian fusion dishes on the menu that I wanted to try; however, we just did not have enough people to help us eat. That is why I will certainly be back. 1 Star.
My Unilocal Rating Scale (Sum of all parts):
1 Star — Atmosphere — Is it a cool dive? Perhaps an upscale place? No matter the type, atmosphere plays a big part and I’ll give a star if I like it or thinks it has great charm.
1 Star — Service — You can have a great meal with bad service. But that’s also what can make a five star joint drop to four. It’s important to the dining experience that service is great and on point.
2 Stars — Food — I’ll award up to two stars for the food, since this is the main reason we dine out. Sometimes the extra star is given for value, but it’s really all about the food.
1 Star — Will I come back? — If I know for a fact I’ll return, I’ll give this a star. A place has to make an impression for me to return.
Each Category can be given up to 1 star except food (2 stars) because I consider all these categories important to the overall dining experience. I will sum them up to provide my final Unilocal score.