A story in The Stranger, which profiles “Seattle’s toughest restaurant inspector,” reports that Bento Sushi on 15th and 85th was temporarily shut down in March “for improper food storage, plumbing problems, and improperly sanitized prep areas for raw fish.”
The restaurant is back open now. The King County inspector, Bruce McClean, also forced the Azteca restaurant on Market St. earlier this month to throw out a refrigerator full of food because it was running a few degrees too warm.
My Ballard
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Bento Sushi flagged by restaurant inspector
April 30th, 2008 · 14 Comments
Tags: Ballard
14 responses so far ↓
1 trollswagen // Apr 30, 2008 at 11:58 pm
are you kidding me? my family and i love this place. its a really nice family operated business, you can see them prepare the food in front of you. excellent sushi. very authentic. and reasonable prices.
2 Elttaes // May 1, 2008 at 5:12 am
While I havent read the article I for one dont mind a tough food inspector.
3 Suthii // May 1, 2008 at 5:37 am
You can tell its nasty by just looking at the place, who needs to go in.
4 Rudy // May 1, 2008 at 9:02 am
Excellent insight as always Suthii (sigh)
5 Suthii // May 1, 2008 at 3:12 pm
“Excellent insight as always Suthii ”
Well, how do you think they can sell 16 spring rolls for $6 and NOT give you the Sapporo sh*ts?
Seriously, at that price, they were probably made on the bathroom floor by a trained chimp.
6 ann // May 1, 2008 at 4:39 pm
This place is great. I’ve eaten there plenty of times and I’m picky about my sushi. For $7 you can choose 2 simple rolls (8 pcs. each). The miso soup is excellent, and so is their eel. yum yum. Snap judgments based on outside appearances are almost always wrong- whether it’s a restaurant or person.
7 Duncan // May 1, 2008 at 5:17 pm
No, I think our snap judgment of Suthii has been pretty much on the money.
8 Suthii // May 1, 2008 at 8:50 pm
“Snap judgments based on outside appearances are almost always wrong”
Yeah, tell it to the food inspector.
9 ann // May 2, 2008 at 11:36 am
(sigh) You can’t be serious…so small minded I don’t even know where to begin…
But I digress…
From my experiences being inspected, I know that the outcome depends quite a bit on the particular health inspector and his/her mood. A restaurant can loose a high health rating just for not having enough fire retardant. You can find anything wrong if you just look hard enough, and this guy is especially meticulous and known for his “overly aggressive” inspections. With how tough health regulations are these days, I bet Bento Sushi is as clean, if not cleaner, than your own kitchen. I don’t see their closure as a problem.
10 Lisa G // May 2, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I got terribly ill from that sushi roll special at Bento sometime in February, I think it was.
Not a thrilling experience, lemme tell you!
11 Suthii // May 2, 2008 at 12:21 pm
“From my experiences being inspected”
Sounds like fun but I digress…..
Maybe I’m being too judgmental, after all I’ve only traveled to Japan maybe 50 times in 20 years and usually suck down some sushi at Fukuzushi when I’m there. Who am I to judge Seattle’s fine Bento and Teriyaki establishments, usually run by Chinese/Korean/Mexican families serving the finest pre-frozen, pseudo-Japanese slop found north of the ship canal to Seattle’s working class? And failed a health inspection too? Wow!
Golden rules about Asian restaurants in Seattle:
1). If all you see inside are white people from Ballard, move on.
2). If you have friends in town from Tokyo and they look at the place and go ‘wtf is that’? (Kore wa nan des ka?!!) apologize, drive on and take them to Dicks, at least it’s authentic.
12 Duncan // May 2, 2008 at 1:32 pm
You aren’t being too judgmental, but you are being awfully elitist. I can guarantee you Bento isn’t catering to folks who travel to Japan 2-3 times a year. We get it — along with everything else in North Seattle, you don’t like this establishment. So don’t go there. Point made.
13 Suthii // May 2, 2008 at 2:31 pm
“you are being awfully elitist”
I’m not an elitist, I’m a snob.
” along with everything else in North Seattle, you don’t like this establishment”
From what I can see most of this stuff is closing down, so soon, it’ll be a great place to live!
So enjoy Pepto-Bento! The restaurant that keeps on giving.
14 S. C. // Jul 6, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Usually the clean and neat places have the worst food..
Not all restaurants make perfect score on inspections.
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