Bushi-Tei Bistro

— New name, Mifune Bistro, same excellent ramen and previously reviewed favorites.
[There are actually 2 entrances, the street door is on Webster, the mall entrance is thru the Post Street door and a left turn opposite the the stairway. It faces the Japanese toy store.]
Our tried & trues–
Beef Ramen
Combo Ramen
Kara age
Caterpillar Roll
Beef Steak Dinner
Spicy Ramen
I’m partial to the miso broth.
We invariably order the same items when there’s only the two of us!
Enjoy.

09.30.11
I thought I was losing my mind, or that the restaurant was having an identity crisis.
But no, Mifune took over Bushi-​Tei Bistro.
And their hot and spicy ramen is bomb.

Bushi-​Tei Bistro is by no means a bad place to eat. The ramen is pretty good. Their chashu is particularly tasty and the restaurant itself look pretty nice. The staff was also pretty accommodating for our party.
I had:
–Chashu ramen
–Yakitori
–Garlic toast
In addition we got a bottle of shochu to split. I would say that a summation of my experience at Bushi-​Te Bistro was remarkably average. Not a bad thing though. Average in that everything was fine… just nothing particularly jumped out to put it above par. I would say this is a pretty good place to grab a bite to eat but don’t expect to be blown away.

Screw dieting, I’m STARVING and want a big bowl of butter-​licious, salty-​goodness, carb-​tastic ramen!
The place around the corner had a wait of over an hour and this place had a sandwich board outside adverting their hand made ramen noodles… and NO wait. Chill spacious ambiance also was the exact opposite of the frenetic tight spot around the corner.
I was satisfied with by fatty, salty, carby bowl of noodles. More food than I could handle, while my friend sucked it down so fast I wonder if he chewed at all. It didn’t blow me out of the water quality or taste wise, but it was acceptable. Moreover, it definitely beat an hour long wait!

Not to get this placed confused with bushi-​tei (the actual Japanese-​French fusion restaurant). bushi-​tei bistro is in one of the Japantown malls.
Bf and I always come here for the nabeyaki udon. It is our favorite dish here and we come specifically for it. It is the best nabeyaki udon I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a fair share of udon from different restaurants.

$ 12.20for spider roll isn’t worth it.
Ordered cha shu miso ramen that was two slices more cha shu than lanch comb. They dont worth to order as a meal. But i like their ramen flavor tho.

I came here with a friend for lunch. We separately ordered shoyu ramen and tempura udon and spicy hamachi rolls. The rolls was poorly wrapped and difficult to pick up. The tempura was good. The broth for both the ramen and udon was way too salty! i had Bushi-​Tei a year ago and was pleasantly surprised. For this place, I only gave it a 2 star because the food experience wasn’t up to par.
They have the 25 dollar all you can eat shabu, maybe I will try that next time.

I hate to be the bearer of lukewarm news, but this place is not really that bad. I was definitely pessimistic since some of my favorite Unilocalers really didn’t care for it. That was good enough for me to just stay upstairs at Sapporo-​ya for months and eat my bowl of ever-​fattening butter ramen. But I thew caution to the wind this past Saturday and decided to give it the old sansei try. Here’s the deal. For $ 10.95, you can get a bowl of ramen with pork, shoyu or miso, plus one of their side dishes.
I decided to go for it and added Chirashi as the side dish (see photo). Chirashi is the lazy man’s sushi meaning you get the sushi rice in a bowl with the fish layered on top. No hand rolling, no pretty accessories. Basically bait in a bowl. And I liked it. There was a jumbo prawn, some cuttlefish, a scallop, and a slice of maguro with some black sesame seeds on top. The House Miso Ramen was decent enough in itself. Sparse on the pork and heavy on the miso, it was a little too salty for my taste. The noodles were a tad overcooked, too, as if someone was following the instructions off a Top Ramen package (see photo).
I sat on the restaurant side, which was pretty empty at 11:30 in the morning. Consequently, service wasn’t a problem since the servers were not otherwise engaged. Perhaps my tune would change if I came during the dinner hour. I don’t think I’d wait in line for the food I had, but in a pinch, the combo ramen special was good enough without having serious after-​effects. Would I come back? Well, for lunch, I would, but I’m not really dying to go back for sure.
FOOD — 3 stars… decent enough ramen with a chirashi bowl that was actually pretty good
AMBIANCE — 3.5 stars… it’s fine when it’s empty
SERVICE — 3 stars… they didn’t ignore me
TOTAL — 3 stars… right in the middle for me

We thought that we’d stop into this nice-​looking restaurant for a very late lunch on New Year’s Eve. We were greeted then seated with menus. We ordered the lunch ramen specials with a side of the chirashi zushi and niku don.
Pros:
— Relatively quick food service
— Next to the cute stationery and toy store
— Ramen was decent and nice on a cold day
Cons:
— Our table didn’t have any spices or utensils, nor did the server move the spice rack from a neighboring table onto ours [we saw that another table had spices]
— Even after our food was served, we had no utensils and had to ask for it
— Our server was inattentive and rarely checked in on us — anything that we needed, we had to wave her down, in a restaurant that was not very busy at the time, mind you
— The sushi was NOT fresh — we ate it and spat them back out. We would later find out that said sushi liked to play with our digestive system and were not happy campers.
If we were in a dingier, hole-​in-​the-​wall, low maintenance restaurant, we wouldn’t have demanded so much service, but the nice décor and the prices suggested that their service would be at least relatively decent, but it was horrible. Their sushi too.
Never again!

Wow, who would have thought that everything will be closed on New Year’s Day including most of the restaurants in Japantown! We were so bummed we missed one restaurant by just 5 minutes as they stopped serving lunch at 2pm.
Bushi Tei was open and the menu looked pretty good from the outside so we decided to try this place. The five of us were seated at a large table in the back. The ambiance of the restaurant is pretty neat. It has a fusion type feel to it but the food was very ordinary.
Comments from the peanut gallery:
-«The Nabeyaki was ai’right»
-«I didn’t even finish my ramen soup and that says a lot»
-«The char siu needed a lot of work»
-«The chirashi wasn’t good
As for me, my $ 11 ebi curry dish came with 2 shrimps. For a big ol’ plate of curry and rice, 2 shrimps really isn’t enough to satiate my hunger and I didn’t want to just eat rice and curry. For $ 8 each, we only had 6 pieces of the spicy tuna and spicy scallop roll. Seems like a rip off to me.
I don’t think anyone of us would want to come back to this place again unless it was the only place open and we had to come back.

Came here for a quick bite of ramen. The new «hot & spicy» ramen caught my eye. For $ 8.95, start with shoyu or miso soup base and fill it with a pile of chewy ramen noodles, piled on top with sliced cabbage, sprouts, bamboo shoots, and onions. It comes with 2 thick cuts of chasu pork, but they were a little on the dry side.
The soup did have a spicy kick. Not bad.
Lots of seating, big tables, upscale décor. Sad that it was so empty but mid week dining can be tough. Treat yourself to a bottle of nigori sake from Sho Chikubai for $ 15.

I came here alone for lunch on a Saturday afternoon after leaving another restaurant which was suffering from a failure to wait for their customers within 15 minutes of their sitting down at a table.
I opted for their lunch ramen special since it was spammed on every entrance to the bistro itself. The inside of the bistro is actually kinda dark (even in the afternoon) and if you look up you’ll notice all these pipes going above and around your head; these things didn’t bother me in particular but I guess some people don’t like these sorts of things to be openly revealing in a restaurant.
My order of shouyu ramen + nikudon (basically a small serving of gyudon) arrived within 15 minutes of ordering; I dunno if hunger was serving as my pickle, but the ramen was surprisingly palatable and the nikudon tasted like something I could get at Yoshinoya or Sukiya. The ramen is palatable but it’s nothing special — it’s better than most of the substandard ramen they serve in Japantown but even Narita Airport had better ramen than this place, though I guess Narita gets a slight handicap for actually being in Japan.

Thank you groupon for making this meal affordable for me! I love love love love the food. It’s so simple and so tasty.
Foie gras w. truffle — wowzer… it’s delicious and flavorful butter. I could just smear it on anything
Loco Moco — not any loco moco but with american kobe beef. the boy loved it, what is there not to love: meat, rice and sauce.
Croque Monsieur — hmmmmm crusty, cheesy, meaty! So many flavors just burst all over the place

That… was unfortunate.
Stopped in for the ramen lunch special combo, which in of itself was neither great nor terrible.
Two servers working the lunch shift. One warm and friendly, the other never cracked a smile. Piecemeal delivery of dipping plates, soy sauce, etc etc, each on request.
Basically an innocuous two-​star experience, until a segment of electrical wire (insulation part only, no metal inside) came out of a gyoza. (See photo — rest assured, it’s not that gory.)
Showed it to the server, who said she’d let the chef know. I must’ve sounded too polite, since the gyoza stayed on the tab. Not good.
Recommend sticking to Suzu next door for ramen.

Service is okay, but the food I tried was average at best. Dinner entrée prices are high. I wish it were better since I really like the parent restaurant Bushi Tei. Even the ramen lunch special for $ 10.95 (shoyu or miso, with choice of appetizer) is not a good value. Since you can get more variety and better quality ramen for $ 2 less (lunch & dinner) at Suzu Noodle House next door.
There was nothing remarkable about the ramen, and the chasu meat was a bit dry.
But I was a bit surprised to see the nice hane-​tsuki gyoza (add flour and water mixture to get one crisp thin crust bottom), this place didn’t do that before. If I see more improvements I’ll update my review.
Hours: 11:30am-9pm (Fri-​Sat until 9:30pm)
Doesn’t validate Japantown garage parking.

Tried the ramen here, where only shoyu or miso broths are offered. You can choose several different proteins, seafood, chashu, etc.
I went with miso and seafood. The noodles were a nice firmness, not sure if they’re made in house. The miso broth was cloudy with average taste, not enough depth for me. The seafood included shrimp, fish, and scallop, which were a bit overboiled and chewy.
We also tried the octopus appetizer to start, which were also on the chewy side, but tasty.
Not sure if I’d give it another shot…

Bushi-​Tei Bistro is a new-​ish Japanese restaurant that just opened in Japantown. The dishes are light, fresh, healthy, and tasty. My table ordered the Karaage appetizer (Japanese-​style fried chicken), Sansai Soba, Squid Ink Spaghetti, MenTaiko Oroshii (cold soba served with fish eggs, wasabi, scallions, radish), and Sake Flight #1. It speaks to how good the food is when we left nothing on our plates. As for the sake flight, if you’ve never ordered one before, it’s basically a set of 3 glasses of sake, all different types. The server presents to you the different types and also gives you a small piece of paper with a description of the sakes. Check my photos of this restaurant to see what I’m talking about. Service was good and prices are reasonable. We came on a Saturday night and were seated immediately despite the restaurant being busy.

Despite the reviews raving about the squid ink pasta and crab salad, this restaurant is a decent option to dine at in Japantown when hungry while shopping in the mall. The food is cooked well, but nothing is superb to rave about. The crab salad has a strong Chrysanthemum taste that drowns out the flavor of the papaya and crab. Moreover, there is nothing special about the squid ink pasta except that the seafood and noodles are cooked al dente in a seasoned broth.
Service is fast and friendly. The ambiance and décor is simple, dimly lit, and clean. Parking on the street is tough, but there are nearby garages.

We accidentally came here instead of the Bushi-​Tei on Post. The interior is impressive – sleek designs, chic lamps, private booths. We came in at around 7PM on a Saturday but the place was a TOMB. Once we finished our meal, I understood why.
We ordered the seaweed salad ($ 4), the fettuccine ($ 10.50), the squid ink spaghetti ($ 14.50), and green tea ($ 3).
First of all, their dinner menu is awfully lacking. The lunch menu looked slightly more interesting (they have chirashi!), but both could use more variety. For dinner, there are three salads to choose from, a list of appetizers, three possible pasta entrees, three possible meat entrees (salmon, chicken, and beef), and a couple of different desserts. I understood coming in that this place would be fusion (so no high quality sashimi or sushi)…it’s just that I didn’t realize by ‘Japanese’ they really meant ‘Crapanese.‘
I’ll start with the seaweed salad. It was quite good – crisp, light, and refreshing. Composed of a green salad with thick strips of boiled seaweed (so it’s not the mass of julienned pieces of translucent neon green seaweed one may be used to getting at other places). Worth getting if you come here.
Next up is the squid ink spaghetti. It’s probably the only entrée worth getting here – a smörgsbord of seafood swimming in a delicious sauce with black soba noodles. Well prepared and beautifully presented – perhaps the one thing that prevented me from giving this place only 1 star.
The fettuccine, however, was TERRIBLE. The garnish or whatever they used (which had the texture of cooked cabbage and the color of spinach) was bitter and tasted like it was spoiled. The noodles were hard and not cooked well enough. A couple of hours later, I actually VOMITED because of this dish (what came out was mostly these noodles; I don’t think my stomach was able to digest them because they were uncooked)!
Finally, I don’t care how classy of a restaurant you are – you should not charge for serving tea unless it’s handpicked by Chinese vestals and brewed with ambrosia and the tears of a prince’s newborn. Okay okay – to be honest, I am willing to pay for tea, but not if it’s your run-​of-​the-​mill green tea, which is what BTB serves. Or if I do shell out the money like I did here, I expect service that is above and beyond. Well guess what? The bottom of our teapot had rice bits stuck to it. We didn’t order a rice dish. Gross, right?
In any case, my verdict is that I won’t be coming back. For those who want to come here, it looks like lunchtime is a better deal, and that the appetizers might be the way to go, but I don’t see why people who want to come here if there are much better options nearby.

I was shopping for bonsais around the corner and was happily surprised to see that Bushi-​Tei Bistro was finally open! We’ve been fans of the original restaurant up the street for a few years now.
Japanese and French cuisines are very complimentary since they both focus on refined flavors and presentation. In an area filled with a plethora of noodle, sushi, and bimibap places, it is totally refreshing to have a more casual fusion-​dining venue in Japantown. We were not the only ones thinking this since there were three tables of J-​town matrons, who I remember from my cub scout days, also having lunch there, commenting on what a nice change B.T. Bistro is for the mall!
The food retains the same caliber of excellence as the original restaurant, only with more variety and for less money–
Seaweed Salad– 5 stars. I expected the usual reconstituted green stuff they sell at Nijiya Market’s deli but Noooooo, chigaimasu!!! It was made with three different kinds of FRESH seaweed (I surf every weekend and get enough of the freaking stuff in my face & hair to know the real deal) and mixed with baby lettuce and ginger French vinaigrette. Yum, Yum, Yum!!!
Crab Salad– 5 stars. They serve this up the street and it ROCKS!!! Fresh and REAL crab meat tossed with Japanese chrysanthemum leaves (shungiku). OUTSTANDING!!!
Gravlax and Cucumber– 5 stars. Creamy yet light and delicious!
Organic Vegetable Pureed Soup– 5 stars. The soup that day was also made from chrysanthemum leaves (shungiku) and was BRILLIANT!!!
Fettuccine– 5 stars. I’m a sucker for fresh handmade pasta and this dish reminded me why!!!
Kurobuta Pork Don– 5 stars. Pork over rice and everything’s nice!
The service was a little rocky, because they are still new, but it was nothing to have a piss attack over. We totally look forward to coming back here!!!