Star sushi chef Ryuichi Nakano opened up this Edmonds spot in 2019, and it has quickly gained a loyal following. It’s now offering a wide variety of well-crafted rolls, nigiri, and sashimi for pickup through online preorders, or onsite dining (both indoors and outdoors). Nagano also offers omakase nigiri and sashimi platters.

Lake City’s best kept secret is this casual, family-owned sushi restaurant. Besides its reliable menu of specialty rolls and sashimi, Toyoda also serves an incredibly satisfying plate of seared hamachi tuna that shouldn’t be missed. Unfortunately, it’s only open Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Accepted forms of payment are cash, check, Zelle, and Venmo (no credit cards).

Hidden in Tangletown is one of the best neighborhood restaurants in Seattle. There’s a short list of signature rolls (the Green Lake Roll with salmon, asparagus, and flying fish egg is a highlight), as well as excellent sashimi and nigiri. Kisaku also offers two separate tasting menus which incorporate ingredients from other cuisines, like a raw hamachi dish with oranges and Thai chiles.

The Madison Park location, wood-panel-and-flowers interior, and lofi beats to study and/or relax to soundtrack makes Sushi Suzuki seem like a spa for the Lululemon set. And watching chef Yasutaka Suzuki and his team slice fish and hand-craft each piece of nigiri does have an ASMR quality. Suzuki cultivates a chill, relaxed air, joking with customers around the L-shaped sushi bar and encouraging them to take photos of bizarrely long cornet fish heads and still-alive prawns. But this is no-joking, fly-the-fish-in-from-Japan omakase; Suzuki worked for sushi master Shiro Kashiba at Shiro’s and was a partner at Sushi Kashiba. In 20 or so courses (you’ll lose count) you get an education in how subtle changes in rice temperature impact flavor and the dramatic difference between cuts of tuna. It’s more expensive than a spa day, but you’ll leave feeling refreshed and alive.

This nine-seat sushi counter tucked away inside Capitol Hill’s Broadway Alley has an array of offerings besides seafood for its artful multi-course omakase menu, but master chef Hideaki Taneda’s Edomae-style sushi preparations are the main event. Each seasonal dish is lovingly crafted and presented like mini gifts, a one-of-a-kind experience in a city with plenty of competition. Reservations are normally booked out at least a month in advance; your best shot at snagging a seat is regularly checking the restaurant’s website to get a reservation as soon as new spots open up, or adding yourself to the waitlist and hoping someone cancels.

Sushi by Scratch Restaurants, whose California location received a Michelin star, now has a location in downtown Seattle. The restaurant serves a $165 17-course omakase experience, a price point that’s lower than some other omakase around town. Six of these courses are uniquely Californian takes on nigiri from owner Phillip Frankland Lee, a white chef from Los Angeles, including a hamachi nigiri brushed with sweet corn pudding and topped with sourdough bread crumbs. The other 10 courses are unique to the Seattle location and incorporate local ingredients like geoduck, king salmon, and Dungeness crab.

This 10-seat Capitol Hill sushi counter, which opened during the pandemic, offers an exquisite omakase experience ($120 when seated at a table and $140 at the sushi counter). It also offers a $48 sake pairing. Last year Seattle Times food critic Bethany Jean Clement described Chef Keiji Tsukasaki’s sushi as “incredible,” and said that the otoro made her cry because of how good it is.

This late-night Belltown destination for sushi, sake, and Japanese whisky offers an impressive list of nigiri and sushi rolls — which include traditional Japanese versions as well as creative American-style specialty rolls like the Dragonfly, made with tempura shrimp, yellowtail, grilled shishito peppers, and ghost pepper aioli. Omakase, (starting at $50 per person) is also an option.

Diners have long flocked to the upscale Pike Place restaurant to watch master sushi chef Shiro Kashiba at work. Its meticulous attention to detail remains a big draw, as does chef Kashiba, who is credited for bringing Edomae-style sushi to Seattle and has opened some of the city’s top sushi restaurants. First-timers should choose the omakase option and embrace each seasonal offering, although Kashiba’s popular black cod off the a la carte menu is also stellar.

Few Seattle restaurants can lay more legitimate claim to the title “institution” than Maneki. It opened in Japantown in 1904, and ushered in a new era of Seattle dining with its 1969 debut of the city’s first proper sushi bar. Though omakase demigod Shiro Kashiba no longer mans the historic counter, having long since moved on to launch his own local culinary legacy, Maneki still presents impeccable sushi dinners in its homey Nihonmachi dining room, along with a host of Japanese comfort classics like karaage chicken and a miso-marinated black cod collar that’s spoken of by regulars with something bordering on religious fervor. 

Sustainable sushi is at the core of this West Seattle spot. Although founding chef Hajime Sato stepped away from the restaurant in 2019, he left it in good hands, with a staff that carries on the ethos of carefully sourced fish with an emphasis on traceability and responsible farming practices. The seasonal menu offers a top-notch selection of sushi, sashimi, and nigiri with sometimes unconventional offerings like boar.