(Image: CHS)
Rosu katsu (Image: Kobuta & Ookami)
Recent Capitol Hill food and drink news has featured plenty of new openings but many of the new ventures have involved overhauls and replacements. On 15th Ave E, something truly new has taken place.
Kobuta and Ookami Katsu and Sake House is now open. The restaurant is new in every sense — a first time concept in a brand new restaurant space in a newly constructed mixed-use development.
The new project does, however, come with plenty of Seattle food and drink experience. CHS reported here late last year on city restaurant veteran Sue Phuksopha’s project dedicated to chicken katsu, tonkatsu, cheese katsu, curry katsu and rice burger katsu, and premium sake.
“Katsu is [a] very common meal in Japan,” Phuksopha told CHS. “We would love to create our place to be a casual street dining style and casual hang out spot with Japanese vibes like those restaurants in the small alley in Japan.”
The name Kobuta and Ookami, by the way, translates roughly to piglet and wolf.
With katsu plates priced from $14 to $24 for the pork tenderloin, Kobuta and Ookami opened earlier this month on the street level of the new 38-unit apartment building developed by Barcelo Homes between Board and Vellum’s architecture office to the south and the East John Court building home to Bakery Nouveau and Aria Salon to the north.
(Image: CHS)
The opening has been a long time coming. Phuksopha signed the lease on Kobuta and Ookami’s 15th Ave E space in February 2020 but the restaurant’s planned debut that summer got pushed back by the COVID-19 crisis.
Phuksopha’s menu also includes miso katsu with “Nagoya style sweet miso sauce” accompanying the cutlets. You’ll also find “clay pot” katsu nabe, oroshi katsu, katsu don, and katsu curry. That’s a lot of katsu.
Sakes by the pour or by the bottle, plus draft Sapporo is available to wash it all down.
Meanwhile, Kobuta and Ookami is also open for lunch. Current hours are 11 AM to 3 PM and 5 PM to 9 PM daily, closed Mondays.
As for the distinction of being the first truly new restaurant this year on Capitol Hill, the only other area opening in new construction in 2021 that we’re aware of happened at 22nd and E Madison in the intertidal zone between the Hill and the Central District where Aki Kushiyaki opened in March with set courses and upscale skewered meats.
There was a time on Capitol Hill with weekly openings of new bars and new restaurants in new buildings. Those times, of course, have passed but you can enjoy one of the “old school” benefits of living on the Hill now at Kobuta and Ookami.
Kobuta and Ookami is located at 121 15th Ave E. Learn more at kobutaandookami.com.
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AWESOME! More places like Kobuta and Ookami on 15th is what we need!
Good luck folks!
Mhhh, no takeout?
eh, i can kind of understand this part. katsu is supposed to be crispy which doesn’t translate well to being put in a to-go container and wrapped in a bag for a 10-30+ minute journey. they likely don’t want to deal with customers who can’t grasp the idea that steam will turn something crispy into something soggy.