Bon Restaurant is a Japanese and Korean fusion place that opened on the second floor of Broadway’s M2M Mart in March 2024.
Bon kicked off this school year with a back-to-school special between Sept. 11 and Sept. 30. A $5.99 dine-in-only deal for veggie sundubu, veggie bibimbap, and jajangmyeon.
I checked out the restaurant on Sept. 11, when the back-to-school deal started.
I ate veggie bibimbap and brought home veggie sundubu in a plastic bag containing kimchi and a round soup container.
The combined meals cost around $14, and both were well-rounded with sides.
The veggie bibimbap came with a side of gochujang, a slightly sweet fermented red chili paste that goes well with the vegetables, eggs and rice in the bibimbap. The eggs and rice in the bibimbap were very filling, and the mushrooms and cucumbers were fresh and delicious. The cup of miso it came with added a savory element, and overall, the meal was both pleasurable and healthy.
The veggie sundubu came with a side of kimchi and a raw egg, unfortunately, I assumed the egg was boiled and attempted to crack it on the table which splattered yolk everywhere. “To have egg on one’s face” is an idiom for being embarrassed, and that describes exactly how I felt after learning that I was supposed to crack it into the stew.
The customer service was lovely as I was offered a cup of water while waiting for my order, and the woman working there was understanding as I cleaned up the unfortunate mess I had made.
Bon Restaurant has a five-star rating in my book, so I wanted to see if other students felt the same.
Marcello and Jib are both students at Seattle Central who went out to eat at this establishment for the first time on Sept. 26.
Marcello said that he and Jib were “tired of shawarma” and the excitement of trying something new drew them to the restaurant. Marcello was looking forward to eating jajangmyeon, a portion of noodles with black bean sauce, because his prior experience with Korean food was, according to him, limited to instant noodles.
They both agreed they enjoyed their food and were planning on returning even after the end of the back-to-school deal.
Hudson, another student attending Central, who shopped at M2M Mart, stated that they had no comment on the restaurant because they were not aware there was a restaurant above them at all.
An employee at Tous Le Jours, a cafe and bakery inside M2M mart, who wished to remain anonymous, had a critique of a similar nature.
They said they were unaware of the restaurant’s back-to-school offer since it was “not advertised to the fullest.” When asked whether they were planning on going to the restaurant, they said, “No. Just have no interest, which might be a marketing thing.”
Chang, the woman who greets the customers and takes their orders, politely declined to comment because of the language barrier between us.
Those last two reflections disappointed me because M2M Mart did make an effort to advertise the restaurant through fliers posted around the market. Yet, the back-to-school deal could have been enjoyed by more students had they known about it.
However, I hope this review still inspires students to check out Bon Restaurant, given its walkable distance from campus, fair prices, and pleasant atmosphere. Nutritious food is something college students lack, which Bon Restaurant in M2M provides in a delicious form.
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