Maekawa Bar

The interior comes from a Murakami novel. The service is the best. Food is excellent. Sitting at the bar is a fine way to spend an evening.
Oyako Don is so good, sweet and savory, crunchy from the katsu topped with a buttery egg. I enjoy the tofu salad, it’s laden with Bonito and warm just fried tofu.
Fresh tenpura with Sapporo is the greatest combo.

After reading reviews, my girlfriend and I had decided to try this place out. We love all kinds of food especially Japanese food and cuisine. Personally I have been to many izakayas, Japanese restaurants, hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurants, and often conveyor belt sushi establishments. Most of my fondest memories of Japan are of eating such delicious food everywhere I went.
I am a little picky, but even if the food is not great, I just say its «okay» and leave it at that. I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to write a review like this. The reason I am writing a review and only giving one star is because of the food and the misleading reviews on the food. I do want to point out that the service was great. The servers were attentive enough even with the large party that came in after we ordered. I felt like they let us know that we are important as customers still and were professional even after I brought up the issue with one of our dishes and had been professional till we had left. There was nothing wrong with service and I would give it 5 stars for service alone. On to the «Authentic» Japanese/​Izakaya food.
******Long story short, not authentic. It may look like a Japanese restaurant with the types of of food a regular izakaya may have, but this place is far from authentic. The lack of flavor and freshness is alarming. Do not trust these high reviews, I have no idea what they are talking about and highly question their experience with Japanese food overall because the food we got was far from delicious and authentic. As bad of an experience as it was for me, I will give them another try as I know personally that restaurants can have off days even weeks (depending how food was prepped). I will update if I ever stop by again.
I will list the food we ate and the issues I had about it:
Takoyaki — This arrived first and it was a very big disappointment. If you have never tried takoyaki, do not get this dish here at all costs as it is a bad representation of Japan’s delicious takoyaki dish. When it arrived it was hot, but far from fresh. It was almost as if they had made a bunch earlier, microwaved it and topped it off with some toppings. It was really soggy, the octopus didn’t taste fresh at all, did not include all the traditional toppings (missed mayonnaise) of takoyaki sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, nori which is dried japanese seaweed ground up, and bonito flakes. Missing the toppings was fine, but the taste and sogginess of the takoyaki was just terrible. I do make it at home, often eat it from many restaurants, and had a lot of it in Japan so I know that this was not right upon receiving the dish. Again, avoid it.
Genton — This takes 25 minutes to make, I would suggest to save your time, money, and stomach space. Basically it looks and tastes like some cheap cheese and garlic wrapped in ground pork or slices of pork and deep fried. Upon cutting it open right after we received it, the cheese was extremely hot and melty, but within 30 seconds the cheese hardened again before I could taste it. Even after I tasted it, it was bland, no seasoning on the pork which was already dried out from deep frying it. The garlic cheese flavor was non existent as well, but you could see the garlic slices inside.
Hanpen Cheese — This is the dish we sent back. It was quite an interesting dish composed of cheese in between fishcake and fried. When we got the dish we found that the cheese was really gross. It tasted and looked like cheese sprayed out from a can like cheese whiz. Did not remotely look like the cheese in the Genton which they said were the same. Just really gross. The servers were able to remove it from the bill so that was nice and makes up for it a bit.
Special Pork Ramen with a small don on the side — Ramen-​Pork was okay, not dried out, noodles were a good texture and not over or under cooked, broth had no flavor, salt, or depth at all. To be honest this dish probably taste the best out of all the dishes received though. For the small don-​we chose chicken katsu don. Rice had no sauce on it, egg was somewhat okay, the chicken needs some seasoning on it. Quite bland.
Special — grilled scallops — Scallops were on a wooden skewer and grilled then served with a lemon. The scallop was small, quite tough. and a bit flavorless. Way overcooked.
Arabiki (pork) sausage — This sausage was heated and served with ground mustard. It was good, but nothing was changed about the sausage so nothing special.
I also got two Sapporos — Delicious, nice and cold.
Overall I would avoid this place if you are reading the reviews and expect good Japanese food. I may have had a better experience if the reviews weren’t raving on how good and authentic the food was when it really wasn’t. But again service was great, 5 stars for that.

Finally!!! Finally finally FINALLY I have found an authentic Japanese place in ID.
I was skeptical at first — Maekawa Bar is hidden in the second floor of an abandoned-​looking mall. It’s a pretty cramped place, a little old. But as soon as we got a table and I saw that the daily special menus were in Japanese and the people cooking were speaking Japanese — I knew immediately that this was the real deal.
I decided to get the Bento box with all of my favorite things — Saba Miso and Agedashi Dofu. YumYUMYumyumyum. My friend got the Torisenbei, a lightly breaded chicken dish with a tasty mayonnaise-​soy sauce for dipping. Great crunch and flavor.
Just to drive the point home — Maekawa is AUTHENTIC. A little pricier than what I’m used to for food (bento boxes are around $ 12), but worth it, IMO.

I’ve been coming here for about 10 years. I wish I could give it 5 stars. It’s a hole-​in-​the-​wall place with pretty good, authentic Japanese Izakaya and bento box food. They don’t serve sushi.
SERVICE IS GOOD — The waitstaff and cooks are always friendly, kind, and happy to accommodate. They greet you and say goodbye in Japanese every time.
FOOD IS GOOD — For the price, it’s yummy. I prefer the small appetizer size dishes over the bento boxes.
CLEANINESS NEEDS WORK — It’s divey. During our last visit we saw a cockroach walk across the ground. All these years, supporting this business and enjoying it as our go-​to place for Izakaya. Now I’m so sad that they have a cockroach issue. Please take care of the cockroach issue!!! I’ve never gotten sick from the food fortunately.

If you’re looking for a working class Japanese noodle shop with some drinks, that is exactly what Maekawa Bar is. It’s not fancy, and not trying to be. The staff is friendly, and the food tasty.
They have a bunch of Ramen and udon options, and I got some really good deep fried sardines! It’s not a sushi bar though, so be warned.
If you want a sense of what blue collar Japanese workers ear for lunch or after work, check this place out.

I probably would never have stopped here if I wasn’t delirious with hunger. The service was ok. The food wasn’t anything special. There are better places out there.

Once more I am in love with this quiet hole-​in-​the-​wall. Wonderful smells in the air, a bowl of fabulous miso in front of me. I couldn’t hope for anything more… Though there is! The sizzle of food to come cooking away under the watchful eye of the chefs sounds a dinner soon to arrive. My soup gone, edamame consumed I wait. A Benito of pork katsu and chicken karage and a to-​die-​for dish called only ‘Torisenbei’. A buttery, crispy, deep fried chicken delight that is both savory and light. Try it with the sauce it comes with! I dream of this dish and get it every time I am here. The food is all around amazing and it is hard to believe it isn’t packed full of people. A getaway if ever there was one. Be bold! Eat here! Don’t just pass it by. Look up the staircase and turn into the right hand door. You won’t be disappointed.

Came here a few days ago and the food was on point, along with the Asahi draft. Services was also good and friendly.

Roaches!!! I was enjoying the drinks and food at the bar when multiple roaches, of multiple kinds came crawling out all over the bar. And they had the nerve to charge me full price. Never again!

I like Japanese food, and the food is okay. I don’t like the customer service. There are a couple girls work there, but they aren’t nice. We were 4 people, and we tried to order food, but they took long, and didn’t say anything about it.

This is a little hard to find, but worth it for a good Japanese snack (or meal) and a beer (or shochu) at night.
I had the tofu nabe and the beef tongue. Both were delicious, but my tongue was just slightly overcooked. It was still really good.
The waitress brought out my nabe and asked if I knew how to eat it. I really appreciated that because I never tried the dish and wouldn’t have known unless she explained it to me. The waitress was patient and polite while being extremely helpful, even though she was slammed and the only server there.
I had two different kinds of sweet potato shochu and loved it. They were so smooth! I highly recommend just getting them on the rocks!!!
My boyfriend got the bento with fried calamari and tonkatsu. He ate the ENTIRE thing since he loved it so much. Well, it did come with some pickled lotus root and I ate that for him since he doesn’t like lotus root. :)
It was a nice place to meet a small group of friends while having a drink and sharing our plates.

This is a pretty authentic Japanese Izakaya located in the heart of Seattle’s Chinatown/​International District. Very divey. The food is quite a bargain; however, not what I would consider premium, 5-​star dining… nor should it be. I would not expect top notch cookery from an Izakaya. It is what is. The food is typical an afterthought… Maekawa does it better than some joints I’ve been to (even in Japan) so it was all satisfactory… and Maekawa Bar certainly delivers on drinks!
Fast service, super cheap house sake and Japanese draft beers and bottles and a large assortment of food items to compliment the bevs.
The Ramen Bowl had a nice flavor — well-​developed broth. Light Buttered Chicken Breaded Maekawa Style was not overly dry or greasy. Large portion of pork fried well. The «Chicken Wing Gyoza» was just weird! It was basically a wing that had a pocket sliced into in and then was stuffed with gyoza filling (i.e., ground pork, onion, etc.) and then fried. Sounded yummy, but wasn’t a big hit. Steamed Japanese Pork Sausage was a huge plate for a mere 6 bucks — wieners anyone? The Broiled Salted Mackerel went very well with sake. Had a great sear and fish was flaky.
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend any sushi from here. My friend order salmon sashimi, received a large plate of huge pieces, really inexpensive — he seemed to enjoy it and lived — but not to my standards for raw.
Best time to hit up is defienely during theor very long and late happy hours:
Tu-​TH: 5:30pm-11pm
Fr&Sa: 5:30pm-1am
Su: 4pm-9:30pm
Closed Sundays
TIP: Located on the second floor and did not see an elevator — stairs only.
[135 in 2015]

Not a bad restaurant at all. Service was quick and curt, but I don’t mind missing out on the waiter-​customer courtesy small talk. I happened to be third-​wheeling on the night that I came to this restaurant and was therefore painfully aware of the slow passing of time; with that bias noted, I should say that the food took a bit of time to come out. Refills on water and any other beverage were punctual.
I ordered the bento box with the vegetable tempura and fried chicken. It was absolutely delicious. The couple that I went with both ordered their ramen, which, apparently, was extremely salty. I don’t mind salt though, and didn’t get to try it, so I’m definitely going to come back.
Bottom line: third wheeling taints any restaurant experience.

This place is tucked away on the second floor of the complex. Great Japanese atmosphere and the servers were nice.
I had a good time here, but I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the food I got during late night happy hour. We got the okonomiyaki, takoyaki, scallop skewers, and teriyaki chicken. While the okonomiyaki was okay, the takoyaki was soggy and wet and made it a bit hard to eat. The scallop skewers were tiny and did not taste good or like how scallops should taste. The teriyaki chicken was made really well though and is probably the only thing I’d get again from the old list. Point is that the happy hour was lackluster, but this place is probably better serving their normal menu. I’ll definitely be back to try something else.

+.5 for service
For the excitement I was expecting considering the 4-​star rating, I honestly left expecting more from this place.
I visited Maekawa Bar during my Seattle trip, as I wanted to experience izakaya in Seattle. This place came up from a Unilocal search, so I reserved a table in person as I was shopping at the International District. Immediately the waitress commented on how she loved our clothes and outfit (we were wearing cute clothes that day, I admit), and where she can purchase them. Problem: No Uniqlo in Seattle as far as I know.
While we appreciated the positive commentary and lovely service, we came for the food. We ordered the grilled beef tongue with salt, octopus fritters with tonkatsu sauce, baked oysters with special mayo sauce, pan fried squid with soft egg omelet, seared albacore tuna with ponzu sauce, pork cutlet with cheese and garlic, steamed Japanese pork sausage, and breaded fish cake with cheese topping.
Honestly, out of all the dishes we ordered, the only dishes that stood out were the grilled beef tongue, baked oysters, and the pan fried squid. These three dishes tasted delicious, and I would definitely recommend. The pork cutlet with cheese was a bit of a disappointment, as it was simply a giant fried pork ball with very little cheese inside, and the steamed Japanese pork sausage was thin and not juicy (I was expecting the ones similar to Japadog in Vancouver). All the other dishes were average: nothing special, nothing to complain about.
Considering the 4-​star rating and the positive comments I read, I can’t give this place 4 stars. We also didn’t really need to reserve, as it was a Thursday night at 8pm, and the place was only about half full. However the restaurant did fill up as the night continued, and we saw many tables ordering the udon/​ramen variety. So perhaps those were better choices?

Come to this restaurant around 10:15 p.m. multiple times and been told they’re closed even though the entire place was full and there are obviously still serving food. Sometimes they will seat us. I’m just never going back because that kind of inconsistency is just annoying. They’re listed is closing at 11 p.m.

Good Japanese izakaya!
I like your oyster grilled with cream sauce. A cup of gohan should bd larger though;(
But really really authentic Japanese izakaya!!!

I wasn’t very familiar with izakaya, but I am very familiar with tapas. I love this place because it is very welcoming and a fun place to have a drink and grab some japanese bar food. It’s very affordable and delicious, normally you can’t get anything good, fast, AND cheap, but I can say that you can get all 3 at this establishment. The service is excellent!
To be more specific there was waitress that served us our food and we didn’t catch her name, but she has short dyed hair and is on the shorter side, and she was exceptional! She was all smiles, I actually don’t remember the last time I have seen a waitress so happy. She was always in a happy mood, even with the cooks in the back, it actually made my friends day better hahahaha.
I mean my friend ordered the Tempura Udon and he was sooooo hungry, and he was super excited when he got his Udon, and surprisingly it seemed as though she was just as excited for him hahaha. Everybody should have waitress like that at their restaurant. With all that said, I wouldn’t necessarily consider this a dinner spot, but it’s an awesome place to have a beer with good company, and order some small plates.

Woooo! Been here a couple of times and the yummy food hasn’t failed me yet. =]
If you’re feeling hungry and cold from the rainy /​cloudy Seattle weather, I highly suggest grabbing the everything topping ramen. This big bowl of ramen will definitely fill you up. The broth is well seasoned and with all the toppings included (don’t be too surprised with the floating piece of butter on top), this is a recipe for getting some major food coma afterwards.
Another great dish to grab is the light buttered chicken. Oh my goodness, I don’t know what they put in the sauce, but it is so good. The chicken is similar to chicken katsu but it tastes a bit lighter and it isn’t too oily or over fried. The sauce! The sauce was light and buttery with soy sauce and something else.
This place is pretty small and intimate, so if you’re coming in a huge group, I recommend putting in a reservation. Otherwise, it’s a pretty chill spot to hang out with friends at night. Plus, if you grab a seat by the window, it’s fun to do some people watching below since the restaurant is on the second floor of a building.

Came here for a quick, reasonably priced, tasty dinner, and we got just that! This is a cute little izakaya inside of a small shopping center. They have an assortment of Japanese entrees, ramen, soba, fried stuff, other stuff (don’t come looking for sushi here though).
We ordered the fried octopus appetizer and then the ramen combo ($ 11.50 for ramen and a side). The fried octopus was mostly batter, so I would definitely skip it. The ramen was very tasty; the broth was excellent and the noodles had a nice texture. It was a very basic, not specialty ramen though! The meat it came with was kind of tough, and it didn’t come with many extras (just a fish ball thingy; eggs and other stuff are extra). The karaage and torisenbae are really tasty, the fried gyoza are just okay.
I would recommend coming here! Their food is pretty good and it’s a nice atmosphere to just come and chill with friends.

My friend always drags me here on days he craves Japanese food!
Maekawa Bar is a nice decent joint that opens late — I usually get oyakodon, the ramen combination, and tempura udon. The oyakodon is alright — I’m kind of an oyakodon snob because I used to live in Japan and know what good oyakodon tastes like, but it is decent. The ramen combination was filling, but if you are the type that wants high quality ramen, then I would recommend going somewhere else because this place is an izakaya, which is a Japanese-​style bar that serves a little bit of everything. Finally, the tempura udon is one of those comfort foods that is very suitable for winter days. Very standard Japanese dish but I like it because tempura requires work and some effort to make at home. #noonegottimeforthat
The waitress here is nice, and service is prompt. And downstairs is Venus Karaōke if you want to belch out J-​pop afterwards. Yes, this place is very Japanese-​ish, and the ID definitely needs more places like this one!

This cute little place is in the heart of the ID (more/​less) and may be tricky to find; you have to make your way into a mini-​mall like complex with a travel agency, etc in the main lobby. It feels cliché, and out of the movies. you also really feel like you’re no longer in Seattle. But anyways, go up the stairs and you will find this place.
Nice people that work there, it’s a smallish place and it filled up quickly. I went with friends and we only got some Sapporo and small bites and talked there a while. But I would go back if I were in the area and with willing friends.

Customer service: 3 stars
Food: 4 stars
We ordered fried calamari, agedashi tofu, fried oyster, tofu salad, grilled squid, and pork pancake. All of them were pretty delicious but the portion is so-​so. I think it would be better if you drink when you eat cuz it looks like they have a good selection of stuff over there.
There were only 2 women serving the tables in the entire store. Because they were busy, they really didn’t pay much attention when we were ordering. We even made sure we ordered 6 stuff, but she either didn’t hear or didn’t care. Something that wasn’t ordered came and we told them we didn’t order, so they took it back. However, the price didn’t seem right when we got the check. There’s no explanation for the price either. I had to ask her and she actually charged us for the dish that we didn’t order. She deducted it from the bill and that was fine, but she didn’t make sure that it’s off the bill in the first place. If I didn’t catch that, we would have paid like ~10 bucks. It’s okay since they were busy, but I don’t know how many times that happened and how many people paid for dishes that they didn’t order.
Also, the place is busy, so if you don’t drink there you will be thirsty since they don’t refill your water and she rarely walks by your table.
My suggestion is. either order some alcohol there and eat or just bring your own water bottle, so you won’t be thirsty while you enjoying the food =P

This is one of the few Japanese places that are open until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. This place is in International district, so only street parking is available.
The place is hidden on the second floor of what seemed like a mini shopping area. The place isn’t that large, but will fit our group of 5 fine at 11pm. They have a moderate variety of items with pictures on their menu. We ordered the takoyaki, saba miso (grilled mackerel in miso sauce), nabe, grilled squid, and a butterfish we saw on the specials for the day.
Takoyaki was a disappointment, mushy and lopsided. The grilled squid and nabe were decent. Slightly sad that the nabe didn’t have any udon in it. I did like the saba miso, it had a strong flavorful miso sauce which made the fish taste moist and delectable. Careful though, there are bones in the mackerel. The butterfish was fairly muted, just not much flavor at all. Overall not bad, but I don’t think I would particularly be drawn here except on late nights when I have a Japanese food craving.

My boyfriend brought me here right after I landed back in SeaTac because I wanted some hot soup (I flew in from Arizona… I needed something warm for dinner).
We arrived around 10pm on a Tuesday night and it was half packed with all Japanese people. I have a theory: if the customers at a particular ethnic restaurant are OF that nationality, then the place MUST be authentic and good! :)) This isn’t your typical «Japanese» restaurant because it doesn’t serve a lot of sushi. Mainly sashimi, if you want fish, but the menu consisted of traditional hot foods. Takoyaki, ramen, soba, even onigiris! I saw a couple kimchi dishes, which as a Korean, made me curious to see how it is incorporated into Japanese cuisine.
I wanted udon or ramen and luckily they have this awesome ramen + entrée combo for $ 11! You get a large bowl of ramen plus choose one from half a dozen side entrees. I ordered ramen with torisenbei (like chicken katsu) while the bf ordered ramen with karaage. I was expecting the side entrée portions to be small since it came as a combo but NO it was large and almost a full meal in itself! The combo also comes with a big bowl of rice, which I finished maybe ¹⁄₆ of… there is a small slaw-​like salad on the side with a sweet dressing drizzled on top.
The ramen hit the spot!!! The broth was chicken based so it didn’t have that same rich fatty pork flavor of original ton ramen (I had the legit kind when I went to Japan last summer!) but it was still hearty and flavorful. There were thin slices of fish cake and pork which perfectly complemented the ramen. The noodles were cooked just right… none of that overdone, soggy stuff!
We also ordered a small hot sake… I don’t like the taste of sake but something about making it warm just tastes really REALLY good! Warms the body… and the soul (ok I don’t know about that last part: P).
I can wait to go back to the International District so I can stop by again!