There is something to be said for bucking trends and doing something a little different. Sometimes breaking the mold can pay off in spades, shocking the world with ingenuity while creating a new style or trend. Other times, walking the path less traveled can result in total catastrophe. Tony's Teriyaki, a pho / teriyaki shop in Ballard is a teriyaki of a different color. Unfortunately, the italian twist isn't good and when combined with a very lacklustre overall taste experience is enough to place this lousy teriyaki firmly inside the gates of teriyaki Hell.

Where to begin? Let's start at the top and break it down from there...

Tony's chicken is fatty, way overcooked, and has a burned char-grilled taste that almost completely makes us forget that this is chicken we're eating. Not good. The sauce, which is glopped everywhere, is likewise unsavory and features a strange taste that I can't place for the life of me. Whatever spice Tony uses to season his chicken needs to dissapear and pronto because it is unequivocably horrible. Where's the sweet teriyaki everyone knows and loves? The answer: nowhere to be found in this particular teriyaki rendition.

On to the rice...

The accompanying white rice, the highlight of the dish (how sad is that!?) is adequate enough, light, fluffy, and plopped down in two mounds on the styrofoam, just enough of a portion to adequately accompany the chicken. Now I prefer my rice under the chicken rather than in mounds to simplify the rationing process, but at the end of the day so long as there is enough rice for all my chicken I can't really complain.

Last but not least is Tony's side salad. This most curious element of the meal bucks the norm with its italian dressing instead of ranch; fine enough but surely nothing to shake up the teriyaki world. Ironically, rather than tickle my tastebuds or help me see teriyaki accompaniment in a new light, the italian dressing's biggest feat was reminding me exactly why almost every other teriyaki place uses the watery ranch dressing on their salads instead of Italian: it tastes better with teriyaki chicken. Duh! It's cool to mix things up but as the old expression goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and once again Tony drops the ball in a big way.

On the whole, there are indeed fair portions of chicken, rice, sauce, and salad to make a filling meal, but nothing here is over-the-top in bang to buck ratio. And the taste, oh that lousy taste.. The sooner I can forget the better.

If you've ever wondered how a restaurant can screw up perhaps the easiest dish in the world to create than Tony's Teriyaki might just be worth the experience. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs. Quite simply, Tony's teriyaki is bad. Real bad.

Poor, poor Tony. Poor, poor Tony, indeed.