Bar Dojo helped build the Edmonds restaurant scene

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 4, 2026

EDMONDS — Bar Dojo celebrated 13 years in business in December, a testament to Shubert Ho, the chef-owner who helped launch the Edmonds dining scene at the end of 2012.

Ho said going to a good restaurant back then often meant driving to Seattle.

“It was very sleepy here,” he said.

Bar Dojo features Asian comfort food fused with Latino flavors, and it is now one of many restaurants in Edmonds. There are more than 30 restaurants in downtown Edmonds alone.

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Ho’s restaurant sits in a small shopping center in the Five Corners section of southeastern Edmonds. He owns three other Edmonds restaurants besides Bar Dojo, all downtown. He opened Salt & Iron, a steakhouse, in 2015. Next was MARKET Edmonds, a seafood eatery, in 2018. It was followed by the Italian restaurant Fire & The Feast, which opened in November 2020 during a challenging time for new restaurants, the COVID-19 pandemic.

If that isn’t enough, Ho opened a Bar Dojo stand at Lumen Field in 2024 and will open another Bar Dojo restaurant at the Seattle Art Museum in the spring.

But Edmonds is his home.

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It all started with a Seattle catering company.

Shubert Ho and his wife, Mira, both California natives, were commuting from Edmonds to their catering company’s temporary offices in a commercial kitchen in Seattle’s Queen Anne section back in 2010.

“It was my wife and I. We were literally just renting by the hour at that time,” he said. “It was $25 an hour. We had to pack everything in, we had to pack everything out. It was grueling.”

Today, Shooby Doo catering — Shubert Ho’s nickname as a child was Shooby — caters 300 to 400 weddings a year.

Ho said the catering business helped finance the launch of Bar Dojo.

As a new resident of Puget Sound, I discovered Bar Dojo four months ago during Seattle Restaurant Week in November. Several Edmonds restaurants participated, including Bar Dojo.

It was mid-week at 8 p.m., but the wait was still 45 minutes to grab one of the 30 seats in the restaurant or at the small bar.

It may be called Bar Dojo, but it is really a restaurant.

Ho explained that, since you can see the back bar from anywhere in the restaurant, he decided to include it in the name. As for Dojo, Ho said he was looking for a unique name for a restaurant.

Ho said dojo means a place to practice martial arts and to experiment. While there are no martial arts going on in the restaurant, Ho said he related to the word experiment because the restaurant often features new dishes.

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When I was finally offered a seat, I was told the small bar was the only option. Being a big guy, I felt hemmed in by patrons on either side of me. But when you’re having a good time with great food, who cares!

I opted for the $65 Restaurant Week three-course meal special. It was one of the best meals I’ve had in Snohomish County.

I started with tuna tartare served with wasabi tobiko and taro chips.

The fresh tuna had a pleasant citrus flavor, complemented by the crunchy chips.

The next dish was pork katsu curry, which features a Snake River pork cutlet, Japanese curry and steamed rice.

It was breaded in panko and fried until golden and crispy. The marbling of the meat created a tender, juicy cut superior to the usual pork dishes I am used to.

The Japanese curry sauce was thick and flavorful, adding another layer of taste to the dish.

For dessert, I ate assorted fruit-flavored mochi with a coconut ice cream filling.

The heavy rice dough, paired with creamy, tropical coconut ice cream, had me thinking of a tropical vacation in the middle of the rainstorm outside.

Actually, Ho said the rain was good for business, since customers take a break from the dreary days and early darkness of Snohomish County and the region and come in for food.

The restaurant’s regular menu features a wide variety of dishes, including roasted beet salad, braised beef noodles and coconut honey walnut prawns.

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Ho was raised in San Jose; his parents were born in Taiwan. He said the origin story of Bar Dojo is his grandmother’s cooking.

“I grew up with my grandmother living in the house, and she cooked for us all day long,” he said. “And the inspiration for this restaurant is her braised beef noodle soup, which is not currently on the menu. It makes appearances here and there.”

Ho no longer serves as chef at Bar Dojo, though he still oversees the restaurant. He has delegated those duties to the Executive Chef, Luis Brambila, who originally hails from Mexico.

Ho said he met his executive chef in 2010 at a Seattle restaurant. Ho said he was the restaurant’s general manager and Brambila was a line cook.

He said the two collaborated to create a menu spanning different continents.

“We’re just a hodgepodge of Asian and Latin flavors that make sense,” he said of the restaurant’s food offerings.

Chef Brambila points to his pride in the restaurant’s Taco Omakase Chef Tasting.

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Like a sushi chef who chooses the fish, one by one, that customers will eat, Brambila said he chooses a selection of tacos for patrons. They are filled with sushi such as tuna and salmon, as well as pork belly, chicken, and shrimp. Then there’s an ice cream-filled taco to finish it off.

The tastings, held on the last Tuesday of the month, usually feature eight to 10 taco creations that Brambila said he rotates each month.

The costs aren’t inexpensive. It’s $150 per person. Brambila said each tasting only seats 12 people, and they always sell out.

Ho said he is open to operating more restaurants, noting he enjoys the creativity of developing new concepts and menus.

“I always have another idea to open a restaurant,” he said, “If the space calls for it, then I’m ready.”

Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.