I was once told that teriyaki shops are but a front for the items an owner really wants to sell. In the case of Koreans, they want to sell bi bim bap bowls. The Chinese would like you to order some mongolian beef. The Japanese, whatdayaknow, have plenty of sushi ready for their customers' attention.

Take Toshi's Teriyaki in Northgate. The facade is nothing much but inside lies a pleasantly quaint family business with an extremely noticeable bent toward sushi. No problem, I say, but how is the teriyaki? Sadly, the answer is, "terrifically terrible." Maybe sushi is what they want me to order, and maybe their sushi is good, but if that is the case wipe the teriyaki name off the sign and stop stressing me out with lousy food.

For $7 plus tax, the highest price I have ever seen for standard teriyaki, you get the large chicken teriyaki. Want to add a little spice? That will be 30 cents more because the sriracha hot sauce is nowhere to be found except back in the kitchen. An exorbitant price, a slightly confusing menu, and nickle and diming techniques certainly get our goat, but if the teriyaki is out of this world then much can be forgiven. But when that is not the case, as it is with Toshi's, I let the vitriol flow.

My teriyaki arrived in two styrofoam containers: a large one for the chicken and rice, a small one for the salad. It should be noted that styrofoam containers are illegal in Seattle and have been now for six months. Either Toshi's gets very little to-go business and hence has a giant backlog of illegal containers or else they are sunuvagun cheapskates crushing our environment and our pocket books. I suspect the latter.

Anyway, the salad was lame. Pure iceberg lettuce with a thin white vinegar dressing. Boring. The chicken was presented on skewers, a first in our review history, but was almost entirely dark meat. It also had a gamey taste that was bad enough that we ended up throwing out at least half of one of the three skewers. The white rice was fine and a tiny helping of pickled cabbage was a nice treat. Overall, though the portions were lacking and my satisfaction level was decidely unsatisfactory.