Random Restaurants of Bellevue: Orexi and Sushi Yama

Seattlest rarely ventures into Bellevue because really, who needs it? But the last two nights found us cruising Bellevue Way, looking for dinner while the fiancée’s car got its crevices inspected.

On Wednesday night we chose a place called Orexi because a) we had an Entertainment Book coupon and b) we hadn’t eaten Greek in probably over a year. (This Seattlest is no foodie.)

First red flag: The place was deserted. The waitress/hostess lady had spotted us through the window and already had water and menus on a table. The gesture, though uber-attentive, was a little off-putting.

The hospitality, it turned out, was dandy. And the food great. Some kind of flaming cheese appetizer ("Opa!"), tender lamb-on-a-stick, a rich rectangle of baked phyllo and veggies. We left satisfied.

Thursday night we met a friend in B-town for sushi—anywhere. We came upon Sushi Yama, and despite our concerns about its blah strip-mall appearance, pulled the trigger.

Again, we were the only diners in the restaurant. Again, the waitress/hostess lady had spotted us through the window and already had water and menus on a table. The two Hispanic "sushi chefs" beyond the conveyor belt (go kaiten!) smiled broadly and attempted modest Japanese bows.

Being the courteous folks we are, we returned the smiles and sat beside the driest, crappiest, crispiest sushi we’ve ever seen. Every other plate that passed was some form of California roll topped with something listless, panko-d and sauced. The integrated "crab" couldn’t have looked more suspect; the laminated one-sheet menu confirmed it: "crab salad." No joke.

We spent all of 15 minutes carefully eyeing plates, picking only the most sushi-resembling rolls and nigiri off the belt, and gingerly chewing smelly, tasteless … stuff. Risking it all, we ordered tuna and salmon sashimi from the amiable "Carlos"; it was surprisingly passable.

Getting out of Sushi Yama was its own adventure, but more perplexing than problems with basic addition and a push-button cash register is how eight or ten other diners came in and appeared to relish their meals while ours, off the same belt, was so obviously sub-par.

Most mysterious though are the Yelp ratings for Orexi and Sushi Yama. The former scores just two-and-a-half stars, while the graciously awful sushi joint gets four out of five. Are (the majority of) these reviewers idiots or just ignorant? Maybe you foodies can help explain the discrepancy.

Meanwhile, we'll try to be more discriminating diners.

Christopher J's California roll with pepsi $3.99 plucked from our Flickr pool.