Maneki

I had to add soy, wasn’t very happy with the flavor. It use to be better flavor. I had to ask for rice and refill for tea and drinks. I won’t be back. I had to try it again since my friends said try it. Tsukushinbo and Fuji have better flavor.

This place is cool! I came here with my family when I visited in Seattle. They have the rooms where you sit on the floor. It’s cool if you haven’t had that before. I got udon and a spider roll. The spider rolls are really big. This place gets crowded, so you need a reservation. The food here is yummy. I would recommend this place to other people.

The older lady serving us was sweet and polite.
We made a late dinner reservation on a Wednesday night. The food was great. The salted mackerel, sassy salmon roll, spicy tuna roll, yaki udon with chicken, black cod, scallops… all were fantastic. Simple and delicious.
The only minor downside… The server forgot a couple of our orders, and the chirashi bowl looked like it came in a standard rice bowl. It was so puny! Good thing we ordered a lot of other items

The sashimi are good, their freshness. Even awesome. Just make reservation and you can have nice Japanese food in the restaurant. And price is reasonable and affordable!

I think I bookmarked this place 2 years ago because it seems to get a lot of honorable mentions on Thrillist and other Tell You What’s Awesome blogs. The fiancé is more of a meatitarian, so I kept putting it off. That and I can’t just make a reservation on Open Table, I actually have to call or text. Finally, some friends moved to town and asked if we wanted to join them there. The stars aligned and we were able to get a reservation the following day in a Tatami Room!
We ordered SO. MUCH. FOOD.
We were a few minutes early so we stopped into Momo before going to Maneki, and she told us to make sure we ordered our sushi first. I probably should have asked why, but I just went with it. We ordered the spider roll — if you like delicious things you absolutely need this, and something that I think was called a Jo Jo Roll — if you like eel, it was delightful! The friends got another roll that was pretty good, I think it was Yellowtail?
The fiancé said «just order whatever you want and make sure I’m full.» He lived to regret that. I ordered beef teriyaki (everyone ate it before I could even try, so it must have been good), which came with tempura veg, rice and miso soup. Then I ordered edamame, black cod collar (way better than I could have imagined, but hard to eat with chopsticks), ankimo (the pâté of the sea!). Then the friends ordered even more. We were so full and happy by the end, we could barely drag ourselves out. And to top it all off, we had such a great time without any alcohol! They do have a full bar, but we were fine with the tea.
The prices seem fair and pretty low considering the outstanding quality of everything we had. I think our experience was so awesome because we had a Tatami room, so you should totally try to snag one on your next visit.

Text number on website to make a reservation, I’ve never had problems with this. I always opt for regular tables. Tatami room is good but hard to eat as youre low and have to bend, so I wouldnt recommend it for people with back pain.
Menu is extensive. Most people go for sushi, but there are a lot of other Japanese dishes that are great and should be tried. Chirashi bowl is delicious, sometimes comes with blue fin tuna which is a great deal!
Non sushi items:
— Seaweed salad is great appetizer
— Agadeshi tofu is always a crowd pleaser
— Onigiri: comfort food, big round ball of rice with filling such as bonito, a bit too much rice for me but still tasty, comes grilled too
— Foil wrapped fish: gives it a great, baked flavor
— Eggplant in miso: a bit salty but delicious nonetheless!
— Soba noodles with dipping sauce: refreshing, comes with tempura which is an amazing deal and can be an entire meal in of itself

I’ve been here twice and I really like them! Probably one of the best Japanese restaurant in Seattle that offers quality food and Japanese-​culture-​like decorations.
On a 1 to 5 scale,
Service: 4
Interior Design: 4
Food: 5
So I have noticed that a lot of the people are complaining about not being served well. If you pay extra attention to those post, then you probably will notice that they did not make reservation prior the visit. And that will sure lead to a big problem because all you have to do is make reservation through text and then they will pretty much respond in a very short time.
I have been there twice now, and upon making reservation, you can also double check with their inventory. For instance, my girl friend and I were craving for uni (sea urchin), and since they were out of uni on our first visit, I specifically request for the availability before making my second visit.
The foods are very well-​served, I would recommend at least one entrée follow up with sushis or nigiris. Remember that Japanese food is about quality and not size/​portion.

When a restaurant is over 100 years old, you’d have high expectations. I was pretty excited for this place given its fame and the fact that its hard to just casually walk in without a reservation.
On an early Saturday evening, I was running errands around the International District and suddenly had a craving for sushi. Maneki wasn’t far away so I decided to give it a shot. I walked in and asked for a table for 2 but the hostess said the next available seating would be 9:30. I was going to leave and eat laotian food instead but the hostess said if I waited a few minutes, there might be a table available due to no shows. Just my luck, 5 minutes later, the hostess said there was a table for me. What was weird though was that the restaurant wasn’t even completely full when I sat down. About 4 — 8 people came in and out during the time I dined there and even when I left there were definitely a good number of empty tables. I’m not sure why the hostess would tell people that the next seating would be at 9:30 when there’s all these open tables… But anywho, on to the food.
We shared the oden dinner set, geoduck batayaki, toro nigiri and ankimo appetizer.
The geoduck batayaki was a bit mediocre. It was lightly buttered and was mostly comprised of mushrooms. After trying this I realized I prefer raw geoduck.
The toro nigiri did not impress. At the first bite it tastes fatty but the next moment it all breaks apart and you realize it was cheap fish.
The ankimo was my least favorite out of all, it tasted a bit briny and foul?
The oden set was a better bang for buck, it comes with 4 pieces of nigiri, 3 cooked courses and miso soup with a bowl of rice.
The cooked dishes were better than their sushi (the nigiri that comes with the oden set was low grade fish).
The miso soup tasted homemade so there’s that.
Overall, I find this place to be a little overhyped. If you do plan to come here, I can only recommend sticking to the cooked dishes. Their sushi is a total miss.

It’s decent but I REALLY don’t get why this place is SO BUSY.
it’s good local sushi. decent rolls. reasonable prices.
It’s average in terms of fish freshness, selection, and chef preparation skills.
it’s good. it’s just unreasonably busy for the quality.

Mankei’s is pretty awesome. First off they have ~6 person sushi bar. However, they do not offer omakase. You’re going to have to order everything off the menu. With that being said, the quality of fish is top notch and the portions are sizable. Two note-​worthy things. First off they have you two full «tongues» of uni in each gunkan sushi. It’s pretty big so you’re going to have to strategize how you’ll eat it. Second, what blew me away most was the spider roll. Maneki’s spider roll is hands down the best spider roll I’ve ever had. The soft-​shell crab is HUGE making the roll HUGE. More importantly, the crab is still crunchy when you bite into it! Highly recommend stopping what you’re doing when it comes out and take a bite before the texture and crunch starts to go bad.
Tip: their daily special selection of fish is posted bulletin-​style on the wall to your right as you walk into main dining area. Also, their nigiri orders is 2 piece per order so come with a friend so you split each order and experience a wide variety

The place is OK. But comparing to its reputation, I have to say that I’m disappointed.
Maneki sure is popular. By 5:30PM its open time, there is already more than 20 people waiting outside the door. It does not guarantee that you can get a table though, even when you arrive early. A family in front of us had to wait for another two hours because they didn’t make reservation.
Fortunately, we had a reservation for us group of six in one of the tatami rooms. With the tatami and the Japanese decoration around the room, the environment is very authentic. The service is pretty good. Our waitress was always smile and attentive.
Of course, what matters the most is the food. I’m sorting the dishes we ordered into three categories: Satisfied, It’s OK and Disappointed.
Satisfied:
Black code collar. It’s one of the signature dish of the restaurant and it sure lived up to its reputation. The fish is fresh and skillfully grilled. It’s tender, smoky and salty but not overpowering the original flavor at all. Very well executed. It’s the must-​have dish if you visit Maneki. A little pricey though, $ 9.5 for three pieces of cod collars.
Salmon combo and chicken teriyaki combo. First of all, the portion is pretty big comparing with other dishes. Big piece of grilled salmon and lots of tender juicy chicken. The flavor is a little plain though.
It’s OK:
Chicken kabab, eggplant and tako-​yaki. The chicken kabab is a little dry, the eggplant appetizer is nothing outstanding, and so is tako-​yaki. A little overpriced as well. But considering they’re hard to find at other Japanese restaurants in Seattle, I’d rating those dishes as it’s OK.
Disappointed:
Monk fish liver appetizer. The flavor is OK but the portion is so small. Half of the plant was filled with pickled cucumber and radish. There are only three thin tiny slices of monk fish liver in the plate. Not worth the money.
Chirashi and Unagi Don. The portion is so small that why the waitress delivers the food, we joked about it being kid’s meal. For a $ 26 chirashi, that is a very small bowl, and again lots of pickled cucumber in the bowl. Same thing for the unagi don. The eel is fresh and nicely grilled, seasoned. But the portion is definitely not matching the price.
In general, we’re kind of disappointed with Maneki. For its reputation, we expected better experience and definitely larger portion.
With Maneki’s reputation, we definitely expected an extraordinary experience from service to food. Unfortunately, we’re not impressed.

My first thoughts on writing my review are what can I say that 852 people before have not already said? And the answer is probably nothing… Haha but I’ll detail my amazing experience anyways, as this place is probably my new favorite sushi place in Seattle. Make sure you get a reservation in advanced (they text so it’s pretty easy to find a time), as we went at 7pm on a Sunday night and they weren’t taking walk-​ins until 9:30pm. Crazy!!!
Dish 1:
ANKIMO. (Monk fish liver) $ 7.75 This is always one of my favorite thing to order at nice sushi places. (While sometimes all you need is a cheap sushi fix, this is not one of those dishes you can get at your run of the mill sushi stop). Buttery, melt is your mouth, fantastic. It’s the pâté of the sea, and anyone who has not had it absolutely must give it a try.
Dish 2:
TAKO YAKI– fried Octopus balls, mostly ordered because my boyfriend likes these. (Also at a place where sushi is not cheap, he has to order something filling!) There are 7 on the plate for $ 4.50 I believe? Don’t regret ordering it, although personally thought they could be a tad crispier.
Dish 3:
MISO COD COLLAR– wow. Definitely their star dish. As countless Unilocalers have said in the past, this is the most worth it dish on the menu. $ 10 for 4 collars. So tasty, not sure there’s much to say. Miso cod is a classic, and for this price it’s usually one small piece that we fight for the last scraps of. This is not the case here.
Dish 4:
CHIRASHI– at $ 26, definitely the priciest of the dishes, but arguably worth it. They menu says 17 pieces of fish, but we were too busy savoring it to count haha). Why so expensive? Probably the amazing quality fish they use– and the fact that they give you 2 pieces of toro, which is like 50% of the cost of the bowl… Worth it in my mind. So fatty, melt in your mouth amazing, then it’s gone :(also, scallops, and overall fresh fish. We were at first taken aback by the size of the bowl (just a regular small rice bowl size) but do not be fooled! It’s actually nice because they stuff a bunch of the fish on top and the ratio of fish to rice is perfect, not like other places where I count the chirashi is a «filler» dish, with mostly white rice topped with some fish.
Overall, at $ 30/​person after tax and tip for a quality Japanese food experience, totally worth it and I will return.

A great Japanese tapas-​ish place with great and fresh fish, solid and rare Japanese cooked dishes, and a nice atmosphere — all of which come together to make a great meal for a Saturday night.
To make sure you get a table, call a few days to a week ahead — every time I’ve been there they’ve been booked solid. You have to leave a voicemail, and someone texts you back shortly to make a reservation.
The food here is spectacular. Unilocalers suggested getting the black cod collar and that was just okay. The whole roasted mackerel was ~fantastic~, as well as the tempura garlic (surprisingly!) Beef sukiyaki is another must get if you’ve never tried it before, and the tekka don is a great shareable tuna dish.
The prices here are impossible to beat — despite being stuffed the check will surprise you how low it is.
A must go in Seattle! It’s right by the streetcar and the light rail so you have no excuse!

Probably one of the best and freshest tasting sushi I’ve had, aside from sugar fish. Calling for reservations is recommended since a majority of the people that comes in already had RSVP’ed, unless you don’t mind eating past 9:30pm for walk ins (depending on how busy they are). Luckily, one of my good friends who lives in Seattle, RSVP a table for us 2 weeks in advance. Make sure you’re on time or else they’ll for sure give your table away. Now onto the food:
You can never go wrong with your order. The black cod miso was delicious. Definitely my number one pick. Their salmon is definitely organically raised. You can tell by the color, it’s red AF!!! At first I thought it was tuna, but it was def salmon. I got a couple of rolls that were equally delicious and picked off of other people’s food. For none sushi lovers, they have chicken teriyaki that was surprisingly BOMB! Like I said, whatever you order, it’ll most likely be good.
If you’re in Seattle, highly recommend checking this place out.

Great Sushi, and awesome service. Didn’t have a reservation, and they were able to slide us into a table. Was much appreciated!

Service is usually really good. Sometimes it’s terrible. Especially when it’s busy.
The sushi is always good. Sometimes takes longer than 30 minutes when it’s busy. I’ve been a few times and have to say the dinner specials are all great.
Restaurant is great overall. Consider going when you know it will be slow.

The service is friendly, the lady at the front awesome. The wait time can be kind of rough but worth the wait. Seating can be dicey since this place is popular but what can you do.
I had the black cod collar and the vegetable tempura. Clean, good food. I wish I had come back here again to be honest but it’ll just have to wait until next time I visit the area. I could probably eat buckets of the black cod collar but I should try more of what they have haha.

be sure to make a reservation! Grandparents love this place and the owners are family friends. Always make sure to stop here when we are in seattle!

It was a first time to visit the Japanese restaurant. I ordered Chicken Sukiyaki&Tempura Combination, Smoked Salmon roll. I visited there at 5:30 that the time is open but there are 3 or 4 parties already waited. If you want to go there, you should reserve at first. You can reserve before 2 weeks before you will visit.

Best sushi I’ve had in Seattle yet. I recommend the amber jack nigiri and the cod collar!
This place is a great find in the ID. FYI when you call no one will answer and you need to leave a message with desired time and party size. They will text you back the time available and to confirm the reservation. It’s confusing but DO leave a message and someone will get back to you. And you NEED to make a reservation. It’s always full.
We had the sea weed salad, the eel roll, smoked salmon row, the cod collar and Amber jack sashimi. The Amber jack was outstanding. It’s like a wild yellow tail. It had some texture to it and was a little sweet. So good! The cod collar was recommended to me and was outstanding it was flavorful, buttery and soft (this is 3 pieces of cooked fish). It melted in your mouth. The smoked salmon was delicious but it is really a smoked, salty roll so you have to be in the mood for that. The eel was great as well. All recommended! Lastly the service was great. It felt like you were eating at a family member’s home — kind, informal, and kinda quirky.

be sure to make a reservation! i came right before it opened without a reservation and waited for about 10 minutes to get seated.
this is such a nice, intimate spot for dinner.
we got the chirashi bowl, eggplant miso dish, and one of the rolls– maybe eel or tuna. the eggplant miso dish was quite salty, i don’t think i’ll repeat that dish again.
the price is really quite good for a place like this, it’s not cheap but it’s definitely not expensive like some japanese restaurants.
i am looking forward to coming back, i wish they were open all day!

Sushi was very fresh and good presentation.
Waiter was not fluent in english, but was still very nice and helpful.
Environment is good and not crowded.
Price is a little on the higher end, but is totally reasonable considering their freshness and authentic style.
Didn’t have Uni on the day of our visit, which we were really exited for, so maybe call and ask if they have it that day is a good idea.

One of my favorite Japanese restaurants in Seattle.
Some of my favorites:
Beef Sukiyaki Combo ($ 13.00)
Ozen ($ 14.75)
Pork Katsu ($ 7.75)
Their sushi is good too.
Pro tip: Always make a reservation. Since they are closed during the day, there’s a «secret» phone number you can send a text to for making a reservation.

I’ve been wanting to eat here since I’ve heard of it! Fairly priced sushi that’s been around for an extremely long time. For a seattle restaurant, that’s impressive.
Every time I try to make a reservation here they don’t have anything available until 9p. So the one night I got a reservation at 8:30p, I had to take it.
I walked in super excited! All I’ve heard about are the black cod collars. So of course that was one of the items I ordered.
Order:
Octopus sunomono
Shiro-​maguro tataki
Black cod collar miso
Ten-​zaru soba noodles
Sassy salmon roll
The octopus sunomono was fine. Nothing special.
The albacore tataki was good.
The black cod collar was as amazing as all the other reviews say it was
The soba noodles I really liked and considering I don’t like cold noodles, I think that’s saying a lot.
The sassy salmon roll was the most disappointing I think. First of all, if it says 5 stars hot, then I of all people should be in tears. I don’t eat very much spicy food and considering I could eat a piece without tearing or breathing heavily, it is not five stars hot. I didn’t eat another piece, but from the taste of the first piece, it wasn’t that great flavor-​wise.
I think everything flavor-​wise was just ok. The fish/​octopus wasn’t anything spectacular. It is definitely not Shiro’s quality. But I shouldn’t be comparing this restaurant to Shiros.
Service was great.
Interior was cute.
Wish I had seen the handwritten specials before I ordered off the menu.

One of my Favorite sushi place in Seattle…
Fresh sushi, great cuts. What more can you ask for.
The place isnt pack or noisy, they really emphasize on keeping a nice ambiance where everyone can enjoy their meals. They even have private rooms for larger parties in the Tatami room. But let’s get down to the food.
One of the must try dis there is the Black Cod, the flavor and juiciness of this dish leaves you craving for more. I also enjoy the Tempura soft shell crab. I also feel that their Nigiri pieces are a little more generous than other places. They do have daily/​weekly specials that they post on the wall, so you will have to look. Cant go wrong with Wild Salmon, uni, any toro, and scallops nigiri.
Dont take my word for it, go and try it yourself.
Also this place is by reservation only, so you will have to call and leave your info. Or if you’re 21+, then you can try a seat at the small bar section.

Great fresh sushi and friendly service. We were told about this place by a local we met at a bar. He raved about this place so we decided to try it. It’s a small little Japanese restaurant in the International District. We didn’t make any reservations and were told they were full. We were about to leave but the hostess said they had a cancellation.
We ordered different sushi, tuna roll, black cod collar, agedashi tofu. The sushi was really fresh and pretty decent sized. We enjoyed all the food.
The hostess was a very sweet lady, she came over to our table and gave us a sample of the lemon shochu shot. She also showed us how to eat the black cod correctly. At the end of dinner she gave us a few recommendations of where to eat around town since we were visiting. We enjoyed our visit and plan on coming back here again!

I stayed at an art studio during my last day in Seattle which was conveniently located right by Maneki. The tenant (who states he was well versed in sushi) told me that this was by far one of the best he has ever had. With that being said, I had to go see if this was true and… it was good but i wouldn’t say the best that i’d had.
The restaurant is open later in the afternoon 530−1030pm I believe but reservations for the business fill up very quickly so call a few hours before they open, leave a message requesting the # of people and time. Apparently this restaurant has been around for about 100 years and is one of the oldest establishments in Seattle. No kidding with the amount of people that were inside. Everyone’s parents, grandparents and great grandparents must have been suggesting this place throughout the years. Bar is opening seating and I got lucky with a single seat in a busy bar area that was slightly behind the sake machine.
Service: Good, the bartender was diligent in walking back and forth from the kitchen to see if the food was ready and with updates on the food periodically. The hostess, an older japanese lady and her colleague, was incredibly hilarious as I spoke to them about the craziness of Las Vegas while coming back from the bathroom
Food: The bento box I got was prepared wonderfully. Chicken was very soft and not overly sauced while contrasted by a light salad with mayo sauce. The cucumber salad was ok and garnished with that really cheap tiny shrimp that I am not fond of. The sushi cuts were great. The hamachi was a deep pink, fresh and the salmon was buttery. The blue fin tuna was slightly on the fishy end but the consistency was good.
Overall: I can’t say this is the best sushi i’ve had but definitely very good

Seattle’s oldest sushi bar, Maneki stole my heart (and stomach) with its quality sushi and deliciously simple menu.
The resto is usually quite full — the two times I’ve come had been on weekends, but we were able to be seated by the bar area. The dining area could potentially make for a nice date night, but the ambiance is very relaxed and homey rather than upscale and fancy — which is reflected in the reasonably priced menu as well.
We had the daily specials the first time we came, I believe it was maguro and toro — both of which were so creamy and melted right in my mouth. The chirashi bowl is also unlike any that I had before. It’s a tiny bowl but packed with the some of the most delicious sashimi and tamago I had in any other Japanese resto. The sushi rice as to die for, even the pickled cabbage (carrot?) was great. Don’t let the small bowl fool you, it looks cute but definitely fills you right up.
We also got the seafood udon a couple times. The noodles are SO amazingly chewy and I could slurp on them all day. My only problem is that I find the tempura in the soup noodle a bit strange. The fried dough becomes all soggy and kind of defeats the purpose of itself, no? But the soup is very flavourful and borderlining salty. if you have a need for strong flavour, this dish would do the trick.
We also got the squid with ginger soy sauce as an app. The sauce was great, but the squid itself was nothing too special. I heard great things about the fried ice cream there, so I’m dying to try that.
All in all, a cute little resto nestled in the corner of the International District and definitely worth a visit (or three)

My relationship with sashimi and sushi goes way back. On special occasions like birthdays, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, Grandma would make tempura, sushi, and the best sashimi. Good sushi and sashimi were always «special occasion» foods to me, so I was stoked to go to Maneki, the grandma of the Japanese food scene in Seattle!
Their chirashi (a variety of sashimi over sushi rice) was decent! The cuts of fish were like little jewels and the rice was perfect! My memory is a little foggy at this point, but I think I paid around $ 20 for the chirashi bowl. The ambience reminded me of an old-​timey Japanese restaurant in Hawaii, a little run-​down, but definitely cozy!
All in all, Maneki is a great place in Seattle to get your sushi and sashimi on. Try it!

I can’t race enough about this place. EVERYONE needs to go. This place is amazing. I wish I could take it back to CA with me. This is officially my favorite Japanese place on the West Coast.
Authentic Japanese cuisine. Great prices AND genuine and attentive service
SUPER FRESH fish — Everything we got here was amazing.
Hamachi Kama ($ 9.50, not on menu) — Perrrrrfectly cooked.
Uni, hamachi, or wild salmon nigiri (~$ 5.50) — everything was so fresh and flavorful. The boyfriend and I were saying «mMMmmmm!!!» So much that I think the table next to us copied some of our dishes.
Cute, cheap, and delicious! Some say you can’t have it all, but this place defies that notion.
Can’t rave about this place enough. Make reservations 2 wks in advance.

so hard to get reservaiton and walk-​in is almost impossible (you will most likely be seated at the bar which has like 8 seats in total)
pretty authentic japanese food (with some fusion dishes of course since it is the USA after all). The price is pretty decent and cost performance is great
Service is pretty bad though unfortunately … since it seems like we, customers, have to beg them to dine there so they don’t really need to care much about the service which is fair

Coming to Maneki is always a special treat. I think I may love and respect this restaurant more than any other in Seattle.
The food is just so excellent in flavor, quality, preparation and appearance. And as far as I can tell, their menu and presentation is authentic and traditional and avoids things that are trendy or flashy. It’s no-​frills yet exquisitely cared-​for at the same time.
The same can be said about the service (always warm and professional, never snobby nor cloying) and the décor (a bit cluttered but in a manner suggesting that you can be comfortable here and enjoy yourself). And there are little waving kitties (Maneki-​neko) everywhere!
I went to Maneki last night with my GF, feeling lucky to have a reservation on a Friday night (saw lots of people turned away because they were booked solid). We shared (1) a salad with tuna, yellowtail, avocado, flying fish roe, greens and a light soy/​citrus dressing; (2) the black cod collars; and (3) a bowl of kinpira. Everything was just perfect. The black cod collars are one of my most favorite dishes in Seattle and I think they’re even better than the sablefish sake kasu at Ray’s (that’s hiiiiigh praise from me). And I can’t recommend the kinpira highly enough. It’s main ingredient is burdock root… I wouldn’t know a burdock root if it knocked on my front door, but goodness is that stuff delicious.
Such a joy. 5 stars all the way. I’ll try to take pics next time but it’s far more fun to eat and savor this food than it is to take pictures of it.

Make a reservation. If you don’t, then prepare to wait. We even got there 20 min before they opened, and still had to wait a while.
Ordered the Sakana Dinner which comes with sunomono (pickled cucumber), rice, miso soup, salt broiled salmon (or mackerel), sashimi, tempura, and a piece of fruit. I was very very pleasantly surprised by the food. The salt broiled salmon was prepared and salted perfectly, with a perfect crisp to the skin (refer to my pic if you want to drool). Additionally, I was blown away by their sashimi. It was so buttery, it was like I put a cube of butter in my mouth and it literally melted. I’ve never had a slice of sashimi like this before.
My friends both ordered the chirashi bowl, which is something Maneki is really known for. Of course, the sashimi was delicious, but the bowl itself was not a very large serving of food. My friend had to order sides of nigiri to fill up after her chirashi bowl. We also ordered agedashi tofu, ankimo, and the spicy cod karaage. Agedashi tofu was pretty standard, nothing memorable. Pass on the spicy cod karaage, it was not spicy, and dry– I think I’d have preferred chicken over cod. The ankimo was pretty good. Nice, rich, creamy flavors of the ankimo paired with the refreshing daikon and a salty/​sweet ponzu sauce.
The sashimi was 5 stars. Everything else was 3 – 4 stars.

Came here with a reservation for 4 + 1 baby. Boy was I glad I made a reservation. Even before they opened at 5:30 pm there was a line outside. They won’t seat you until your entire party is there.
Ordered spicy tuna sushi ($ 5.50): overall pretty good, no complaints. For the price, it was worth it! It’s basically what you’d expect, except the spicy tuna does have a kick to it which was more that I was expecting.
Also got the beef sukiyaki, was craving something soupy and hot since it was a cold day. It comes in a wide cast iron flat skillet. Overall good flavor and texture, it actually is a lot of food (looks can be deceiving!) I barely ended up finishing it!
Service: very attentive but sometimes I felt like the waitress was too overbearing, wasn’t sure if she was just trying to shoo us out to make room for new customers.
Tips: DEFINITELY make reservations or you won’t stand a chance to get a seat. Even people who made reservations for a later time came early to see if they could get seated earlier and they were turned away. Next time, I’ll probably make a reservation for the tatami rooms!