Tsukasaki and Kobayashi “testing” the sake (Image: Ltd Edition Sushi)
Capitol Hill’s Nagle Place is home to one of “America’s best restaurants.” The New York Times has added to the buzz around Ltd Edition Sushi by naming the eight-seat sushi bar to this year’s roster of the 50 best food and drink places in the country, one of only two entries from Washington and the only Seattle venue on the list.
“The chef Keiji Tsukasaki came to the sushi craft somewhat later in life, after more than a decade in the nightlife world, and he presides over the eight-seat counter with an impresario’s charisma,” the New York Times says of the star behind the counter.
Ltd hasn’t been an overnight sensation. CHS reported here in the summer of 2021 as the venture launched across from Cal Anderson Park while the area was still in the grips of the COVID-19 crisis and its impacts on bars and restaurants. Keiji Tsukasaki’s restaurant found itself faced with building early business by selling premium omakase boxes while its plans for the sushi bar waited on standby. Later that year, those plans went fully into motion as Jun Kobayashi, former head sushi chef at Shiro’s, joined the Ltd team as executive chef.
The restaurant has grown into a sensation. A year ago this month, the Seattle Times declared Ltd’s sushi was so good, “it will make you cry.”
(Image: LTD Edition Sushi)
Ltd isn’t the first limited-seating, premium sushi experience to make a buzz recently in an out of the way Capitol Hill space. 2019-born Taneda continues to be sold out with its dinners with chef Hideaki Taneda. The Broadway Alley restaurant has much more space than Ltd — nine seats. Taneda told CHS in 2019 why he loved the old Capitol Hill building. “It’s historic; it’s a hundred years old. I like to feel this kind of American history,” he said.
At Taneda and Ltd, there is also a secret. Both restaurants have tables augmenting their limited counter space. At Ltd, prices run $160 per person to enjoy your omakase meal at the bar, $135 at a table.
The Hill’s omakase and “limited-seating” era almost had another major player. Capitol Hill chef/owner and reality star Shota Nakajima started his ventures in the neighborhood in 2015 with Naka, a kaiseki with fussy multi-course meals. That upscale approach never got the chance to take off as the COVID-19 crisis swept in just as a reboot of the restaurant was launched. Today, Nakajima has turned his attentions to venues with broader appeals in Japanese style karaage chicken joint Taku and Detroit by way of Osaka pizza at Kōbo.
Meanwhile, if you are looking at which up and coming, chef driven Capitol Hill sushi joint in an out of the way Capitol Hill location might be the next to get the star treatment, check out Sakana. CHS reported on the new joint from first-time owner and head chef Paul Kim opening earlier this year at 15th and Madison amid the chaos of the Rapid Ride G bus route construction zone.
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