Kura Sushi

Kura Sushi is the latest trend sweeping the nation – or at least sweeping Seattle/Bellevue, WA. Kura Sushi originated in Japan and has made its way to the United States! It is a conveyor belt sushi restaurant where you can grab something from the rotating belt, or order and have it delivered to your table. All of their plates on the circulating belt are the same price – $2.95 – which makes it fun and easy to try all the dishes they have. You can order dishes that are not offered on the conveyer and these prices may vary, but the price will show on the high-tech screens they have at each table. They’ve got sashimi, nigiri, rolls, crispy rice, hand rolls, gunkan and much more! You can also orde ramen, udon, tempura, and more. So cheap sushi, but how does it taste? Is it worth the long wait times the new Bellevue location is seeing? Well, yes and no! Let me explain. The sushi is good – especially for the experience and price you are paying. The fish was also fresh and they do have some unique menu items I haven’t seen done at other places like – Garlic Ponzu Salmon, Beef Nigiri, Umami Oil Salmon, Crispy Rice to name a few. Did I mention you also get a prize for every 15 plates you eat? You can also earn reward points and coupons each time you visit – so pretty cool set up they’ve got going on. But should you wait in line for 1+ hours? Absolutely not. Sure the sushi is good and it’s fun and a unique experience, but there are soooo many good sushi place in and around Bellevue and Seattle that it is really hard for me to say that you should wait in these ridiculously long lines. Now if you play it smart, then sure waiting 30-45 minutes it is absolutely worth it. We arrived on a Saturday about 20 minutes to open (so around 10:40) and were seated by 11:25… so about a 45 minute wait – honestly not horrible, especially compared to some of the wait times people have reported for this place. Evenings and weekends they have reported 3-4 hours to be seated…now THAT is absurd and is not worth it. The best bet is to either arrive before they open (20-30 minutes ahead of opening) or go during the weekday when it is ~probably~ less crowded – although I cannot confirm this from personal experience. When we went, they were not taking names/numbers – you had to physically wait in line. This was not consistent with what we had heard previously – so I also cannot confirm if this was just an anomaly the weekend we went, or if they were now requiring you to stand in line for first come first serve. We ate 18 plates and spent about $60 – so for sushi, it wasn’t that expensive. If you don’t have to wait in an extremely long line then absolutely go for it and eat your heart out with all the sushi you can eat.

TLDR: good sushi, fun and unique experience, but not worth waiting more than 1 hour.

You can find their menu and locations here to see if there is one near you!