Matsu, from the owners of Momiji and Umi Sake House, is now open
A new sushi restaurant called Matsu is now open in Pioneer Square in the former home of Girin, the high-end Korean steakhouse that closed June 1. The new restaurant comes from the owners of two other popular Japanese restaurants, Umi Sake House and Momiji. Matsu serves dinner and happy hour every day except Sunday, with options ranging from omakase (a chef’s choice meal) to a raw bar to sushi rolls and sashimi. The new restaurant has retained Girin’s popular Korean fried chicken wings on the menu.
Matsu (501 Stadium Place S) serves a wide variety of dishes largely centered around seafood: raw oysters with ponzu, yellowtail sashimi with yuzu ponzu, ahi tuna poke, Cajun tuna tataki, seafood gyoza, Alaskan king crab soup, fried calamari, and a long list of sushi and sashimi options. There’s also an array of rolls, most of which involve seafood but also a few non-fish vegetarian options. Yakisoba and udon noodles round things out.
The drinks menu consists of sake, original cocktails, local and Japanese beer, and wines from France, Italy, and the Northwest. Matsu has largely kept Girin’s outstanding design, with its high ceilings and polished wood, adding a few touches like lanterns and wall panels.
Matsu has big shoes to fill in the space. Girin was a James Beard Award semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category. It was one of the country’s only producers of makgeolli, the cloudy Korean rice beer. Girin long held its own among the area’s best Korean restaurants, noted for its modern twists on classic dishes like the kalguksu with squid ink noodles and japchae with Dungeness crab. The restaurant also made a slew of excellent kimchi iterations.