Donburi Station

Way back, a few years  before the pandemic, we had tried out Fremont Bowl in Seattle.  Located in the Fremont (hence the name), this lil' Japanese donburi joint offered up large bowls with lots of toppings at a reasonable price.  Furthermore, those toppings were not only plentiful, they were good quality and delicious.  A recipe for success right?  Well, they've opened 2 more locations under the Donburi Station name.  I've been to the one in Bellevue before, but this time around, I'm going to blog about it.

Before we got to the donburis, I decided to get some greens into my meal (even though it was mostly iceberg lettuce).  This happened to be the Seafood Salad topped with ebi, imitation crab meat and masago.  On the side, there was some ginger vinaigrette.  This was a fairly large portion of salad and in fact, quite a bit of creamy imitation crab.  Hence, this ate rather hearty and there was enough ingredients for the lettuce, tomato and cucumber.

For my son, it was without a doubt he would order the Chirashi Don consisting of tuna tataki, Atlantic salmon, unagi, ebi, akami, negitoro and escolar (in lieu of hamachi this time).  As you can see, this was a hearty portion of fresh fish atop a large bowl of sushi rice.  This is no different than the one we've had at Fremont Bowl.  I've had this recently myself back in January and I can attest that it more than enough food for one person.

For myself, I went for something cooked in the Mixed Katsu Donburi with both chicken katsu and tonkatsu. Now one piece of katsu would've been sufficient, but with 2 of them, I was plenty satisfied.  Of course the chicken was more juicy and tender, but the pork was also decently moist.  On the outside, the panko was fried until golden brown and crunchy.  On side, there was some tangy and sweet tonkatsu sauce.

Viv ended up with the Volcano Donburi sporting spicy salmon, spicy imitation crab salad and masago.  Again, they weren't shy with the ingredients.  Hence each bite of chewy sushi rice was evenly balanced by the texture of salmon and imitation crab.  I wouldn't say this was exactly spicy, but with Japanese food, spicy is an accent flavour that doesn't overwhelm a dish.  That it did here with just a slight bite with the sweetness of the other ingredients.

My daughter ordered the Aburi Sake Don with sea salt and yuzu koshu.  This was lightly-torched hence no charring, but then again, there was no "sauce" to caramelize either.  Beyond the initial firmness of the salmon, the inside was buttery and soft.  The whole thing was rather mild-tasting except for the slight tanginess of the yuzu.  As you can see, Donburi Station serves the same favourites as Fremont Bowl, but with much more available parking.  A good spot for lunch if you are in the area.

The Good:
- Generous amount of toppings
- Tasty
- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:
- Not the biggest place, so might be packed during peak times