November 2: Asia Ginger Teriyaki #5

Way, way back on August 10, before we moved into our new building, two busloads of Weyerhaeuser employees went to a Mariners game. Before the game, I and several others walked to our new building, past the front of it, and around the back corner into the alley between our building and Asia Ginger Teriyaki. Behind this teriyaki place, as one would normally expect in an urban environment, were dumpsters, a guy on his smoke break, and -- to the screaming, running, flailing terror of one of my co-workers -- a rat, minding his own business. Poor little guy. Another co-worker filmed him.

Since then, I've thought of this as "the teriyaki place with the rat." Yeah, it didn't sound appealing. Sure, they survived their most recent health department inspection with an "unsatisfactory" rating, but really, there's a lot of other options. That's why I hadn't been here, despite my love for teriyaki chicken, it's proximity to the office, and my knowledge that most alleys of most restaurants probably have even more rats than just this little guy.

Then again, some of the places I've eaten at had even worse scores (shout out to Pho Fuchia!), so when a co-worker who was aware of the rat video suggested we go there for lunch (his third time there!), I threw caution to the wind. Three of us wandered in, ordered chicken variants (regular, spicy, and katsu), and crossed our fingers.

The space is big compared to most of the restaurants I've been to.  There's probably room for 40+ people to squeeze into the seats here. It was also pretty busy; maybe 25 or so of the seats were taken. The staff were quick to take our orders, quick to bring out the food, and quick to clear our dishes.

The spicy chicken teriyaki and the katsu chicken teriyaki were both pretty good, according to my co-workers. I had the regular, and it was also pretty good. Self-serve miso soup started the meal, but I think I dropped a few too many green onion bits into it. The salad was fresh and overflowed the plate. The two scoops of white rice were exactly what they should be -- soft, a little sticky, but not mushy. The chicken was grilled and julienned to the perfect size. Often at teriyaki joints, the chicken isn't cut clear through to the end, so you end up with multiple slices still stuck together at the end, which is a pain with a plastic fork or chopsticks. Here, they were nearly all cut cleanly, and the metal fork provided took care of the one time it wasn't. Chopsticks are available, but displaying my low dexterity would have been too entertaining for my tablemates.

Sauces and spices crowd the ends of each table. Teriyaki sauce, spicy teriyaki sauce, sesame seeds, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper, and some other mystery sauces are available. My biggest complaint, and it's a minor thing, is that the teriyaki sauce was a little watery. That's fine, in that it allows it to permeate the rice, but it puddles on the plate. A little thicker would stick to the chicken a little better.

Overall, it was pretty good. For the price, it was really good. If you accept that much of the bad that I know about this place is probably true for most restaurants, it's even better. I'd go again.

(A third co-worker went shortly after we left and got a take-out order of yakisoba and egg rolls. He also said they were good.)

Asia Ginger Teriyaki #5
209 2nd Avenue S.
Chicken teriyaki, miso soup, Diet Coke, $10.67