‘Top Chef’ alum Shota Nakajima is opening his first teriyaki restaurant outside Seattle
Nakajima is also serving Japanese dishes not normally found at Seattle-area teriyaki restaurants like duck spring rolls, tempura prawns, wings, and fried cauliflower miso hummus, and the restaurant will have a full bar, a cocktail list, and 16 beers on tap.
Banzai Teriyaki is a partnership with Eric Bolstad, a mortgage broker who splits his time between Cle Elum and Bellevue. Bolstad was originally planning on opening the restaurant on his own and tapped Nakajima for consulting help after seeing him beat star chef Bobby Flay on aThough the food at Banzai teriyaki will be more Seattle-Japanese than Kansai, Nakajima says the decor will be “Osaka in your face.”, who designed Taku’s logos, will paint murals on the walls of the dining room.
Banzai Teriyaki will be a departure from the neighborhood teriyaki spots Nakajima grew up with, but he respects the creators of the genre. “One-hundred percent nod to Toshi’s Teriyaki,” Nakajima says. “If I didn’t grow up with his kids, I wouldn’t be as sentimental about teriyaki chicken.”Check your inbox for a welcome email.