Sumi's Kitchen - A Fabulous Japanese Eatery

We took a drive the other day looking around the country. Montana is beautiful and wild and certainly most enjoyable when it is not winter, our home on wheels is not the best living accommodation in the cold and snows of the winter. We stopped in Eureka, Montana for a bit of lunch at Sumi’s Kitchen, you need to eat here when next in Eureka or for that matter just come on up here for lunch, it is a great little place.

On this map, the red marker in the upper center shows the location of Eureka. Spokane, WA is indicated with a yellow circle on the left side while Missoula, MT is shown on the lower right with another yellow mark. This is not Eureka, Washington nor Eureka, California this is Montana and as you can see from the solid line across the top of the map it is close to the border with Canada.

Downtown Eureka consists of this main highway that runs through town. Eureka is a fascinating though not huge town. Before and after we took this picture there were a lot of recreational vehicle traffic both coming from and heading to Canada and other locations in the area. We must have just miss timed the RVs.

We had parked a short distance from the main street in the shade of some large trees, walked up the block and on rounding the corner saw this sign on the door. Since we were looking for a place for lunch we decided to give it a try. Much of the food available for lunch seems to be hamburgers and fries or some such fare so a contrasting Japanese stir fry dish sounded really appealing.

On the wall is this collection of signs. As we will see in the next photo Sumi is more towards the skinny end of the spectrum and not the fat side so should she be trusted?

This is the cook and owner Sumi Sugiyama. There is a series of woks on the stove beside her and that is where she crafts the food. There are no other cook nor sous chefs or prep help, just her. There is a neat lady who is the waitress and general helper but Sumi does all the cooking. There is a sign on the wall that says they only have one cook and your meal will be cooked to order. The little sign does not include this comment but we found out "there is no fast food here just great food".

Deanna ordered hot green tea and they brought this beautiful tea cup with lid. It is a fascinating work of art for a tea cup.

We have a very good friend named Rodger who really likes Tofu so whenever we get the chance we order that dish in his honor. This is Sumi’s wonderful rendition of Tofu and Vegetables. Deanna ordered Chicken Hunan which was spicy with a wonderful flavor. Both dishes were excellent and the pot stickers that we had as an appetizer were better than good. We are certain that all the dishes, regardless of what you ordered, would be fabulous. And yes Rodger the Tofu was great. 

This shows the list of daily specials that is posted on the wall. As you can see it is not an expensive place to eat. Great food and inexpensive prices, one cannot beat this combination almost anywhere we have eaten.

Here on the counter is a Maneki Neko also known as a Lucky Cat or Fortune Cat. It is really not waving good bye rather if the left paw is raised, as in this case, this supposedly attracts customers. If the right paw is raised, that invites good fortune and money. It must work because it certainly attracted us as customers.

Unfortunately Sumi’s does not have any dessert and what is better after a long day of travel and a great meal than dessert. Fortunately in Eureka there is a homemade ice cream store just up the street called G’s. Of course we stopped there and the ice cream was wonderful, rich, creamy, and very flavorful. G’s is a really busy place but a worthwhile stop.

On your next sojourn through Eureka, Montana you must stop at Sumi’s for a bite to eat. They may be closed Saturday and Sunday but open for a great dining experience during the rest of the week. Give them a call to confirm their hours as we have seen different open and closed times Be sure and eat at Sumi’s, great food and neat people.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments.
All the best – George & Deanna