Teriyaki Bowl

I know that as a vegetarian, I am lucky to be able to walk into just about any Teriyaki restaurant in Seattle and be able to procure some sort of Tofu dish (not so in much of the USA, as I've recently learned), yet still, most of the time the dish is not exactly Teriyaki. There is plenty of yakisba and various stirfrys, but sometimes I can't help but envy the charred meat and rice dinners of my friends.

This is where Teriyaki Bowl really shines... they do a tofu equivalent of their Teriyaki chicken breast... two generous piles of plump sticky rice adorned in carefully layered out slabs of grilled fresh tofu drizzled in not-too-sweet teriyaki sauce. I have had mixed results in the grilling, sometimes the tofu is just barely golden, other times it has the same sort of intensity of appetizing grill marks that grace it's meat counterpart. Either way, it is always hot and soft and so delightfully not-fried.

A small ice-burg salad accompanies the meal and it is refreshingly dressed in a soy sauce/rice vinegar type dressing (vs. the watered down mayonnaise type).

If you dine in (the restaurant is small and mostly filled with people sitting down waiting for their to-go orders, from my experience), you have the option of shaking some very delicious looking mixed red pepper onto your meal (a jar at every table). I use it every time I'm there, and while it doesn't seem to effect the heat or flavor of anything, it sure looks good on that plate of white rice and tofu.

I really like this place for those unusual but intense times when I'm craving the simple Teriyaki special: rice and "meat" and a little ice burg salad.