"Few Seattle restaurants can lay more legitimate claim to the title “institution” than Maneki. It opened in Japantown in 1904 and ushered in a new era of Seattle dining with its 1969 debut of the city’s first proper sushi bar. Though omakase demigod Shiro Kashiba no longer mans the historic counter, having long since moved on to launch his local culinary legacy, Maneki still presents impeccable sushi dinners in its homey Nihonmachi dining room, along with a host of Japanese comfort classics like karaage chicken and a miso-marinated black cod collar that’s spoken of by regulars with something bordering on religious fervor." - Harry Cheadle