Dog Japon

Dog Japon, a food truck located in downtown Seattle, WA, serves up hot dogs with an Asian twist! They can be found in the same spot: at the corner of Pike St. and 2nd Ave. I also found out that you can get these hot dogs in Pike Place Market as well!

Most popular menu items

If you're not too hungry, get this option.
Or you can ask to turn one of the special Dog Japon dogs into a special slider dog!

Interesting....

Some famous faces have stopped here as well!

I had checked online to find Dog Japon opens at 10 a.m., so I drove downtown to check them out. It was about 10:30 or so when I got there, but apparently the cook was running late (he said he'd be open in about 15 minutes). So I killed time walking downtown and came back a bit later (and yes, he was open this time).

I was intrigued by the hot dog sliders and inquired if I could use that to get two of the special hot dogs. The cart operator said yes, so I got two sliders, one Matsuri and one Samurai ($4; extra charge for the special order).

According to the menu, the "Matsuri" normally is a Kielbasa on a healthy-sized hot dog bun, topped with teriyaki glazed onions, Japanese onions, and nori. The "Samurai" comprises of chicken-and-apple-sausage on their large hot dog bun topped with grated radish, wasabi mayo, and Japanese onions.

Matsuri hot dog slider

Samurai hot dog slider

On the Matsuri, I liked the sweet, mellow flavors of the teriyaki and onion. The mayo topping was different from the picture on the menu board, but still worked for me. Unfortunately, I expected a smaller Kielbasa for this slider, and merely received the all-beef dog instead. No question that the experience would have been different had I gotten the regular Matsuri instead.

For the Samurai hot dog, I liked the refreshing bite from the grated radish and what appeared to be teriyaki sauce (or something similar) coating it. Again, I received the all-beef hot dog, so I'm not sure how different it would have been had I gotten the regular Samurai dog.

I thought I could have gotten two smaller specialty dogs this way, and while I got the toppings for each one, the main attraction (the sausage) was left out of the picture. I guess I know better for next time. 6.5/10