I only recently learned that teriyaki chicken is a big thing in the Seattle area, and wanted to have some for lunch upon arriving on my visit to my sister's new place in Kirkland. My sister and brother in law are still getting settled in and don't know a lot of local businesses yet, but we decided to try Teriyaki Plus after seeing all the great reviews on Yelp.
In walking in, we saw that they accept digital payments, which I appreciated, because it shows that the business is willing to adopt technology to make things convenient for customers. The interior of the business was clean and had a good amount of seating area for folks wanting to dine in.
We walked in and were very obviously noobs. I immediately started staring at the menu above the counter and trying to figure out what I wanted (we probably should have looked at the menu prior to arriving but my excuse is that I flew in on a 6am flight).
We decided to get a number of different items to share, and I asked if the lunch options are available on Saturdays as well. To my surprise, they were! I asked some more noob-y questions like, is the amount of food different in the lunch combo and how many pieces of gyoza does it come with (the answer is 5 pieces). The guy taking the orders (maybe the owner?) answered my questions without getting annoyed with me, which I appreciated. I found the guy to be perfectly polite and I don't understand the reviewers who point out a "rude Korean male." Like did him being Korean make him more rude? Not sure why that description was relevant.
We decided to order the Spicy Chicken Teriyaki, Pork Teriyaki, and one lunch special with the Garlic Spicy Chicken. We anticipated very large portions but wanted to try a variety of items and expected to have leftovers.
My sister lives pretty close so we got the food to go. We were told it will take 10 minutes but the food came out very fast (maybe closer to 5 mins) and we were on our merry way. The food smelled amazing in the car.
When we arrived at the house, we opened up each container, so we could all try some of each. The immediate difference to the eye was that the lunch combo has two scoops of rice in the small divided sections of the container, meat in the large section, and the gyoza on top, whereas the non lunch options had a foil pouch containing the cucumber salad and one scoop of rice in the small sections but more rice under the big heap of meat.
I tried the gyoza first. It was still crispy and delicious. I had expected the dumplings to be steamed so it was a nice surprise that they were fried and crispy. Then I made a plate with each of the meats, rice, and cucumber.
The spicy chicken teriyaki was my favorite, with the char that I was looking for, tender chicken (I saw someone had inedibly dry chicken--that was not our experience), and a salty sweet sauce that had a nice little kick. The pork teriyaki was also delicious (I am a pork fiend) but I did not notice as much char on the meat and I learned that I prefer the spicy teriyaki over the regular. The garlic spicy chicken gave us a General Tso's chicken vibe because it was breaded, but I think the sauce may have been the same as for the spicy chicken teriyaki. It also had some onions and maybe green bell pepper? Sorry I only took a picture of the spicy chicken teriyaki. I was hungry.
We had lots of leftovers and I reheated some of everything for breakfast today and the meat was still tender after the microwave.
Highly recommend. read more