Seito Sushi Japanese Restaurant

Reviews 3

KE

Kelcie Burgin

We used to love Seito Sushi, going mostly on special occasions. We went on Fri of Valentines Day Weekend. Prior to arriving, we called to see what time was best. The woman who answered the phone advised us that its the busiest between 6 and 8:30. We arrived at 8:30, expecting to possibly have a drink at the bar. This was the case and the bar service was exceptional. They were friendly and quick to get us our drinks. When our table was ready, we asked for our tab to be transferred to the table. Once at our table, we waited between 15 and 25 mins to have a server greet us. By the time he finally came, we decided on our entire meal. I ordered the ginger salad to start with and my fiance ordered the miso soup. We also decided that wed start with 3 rolls and keep a menu in case we were still hungry. My best guess would be that the miso soup is not made to order, but judging by how long it took, you would think that was the case. Since we already had our drinks from the bar, the server didnt need to get us one at the moment. My salad came out in about 15 min, while my fiances soup took another 10 min to get to the table. I requested an extra side of dressing upon receiving my salad. I never received that dressing. My fiances glass was bone dry, while mine was almost finished. The server asked him if he wanted another drink and he agreed. We explained that my fiance got the beer special at the bar, which was $3, and figured hed get it right because the tab was transferred. After waiting about 15 more min for his drink, we finally received his beer. It wasnt until then that the server asked if I wanted another drink. We were about 1/4 of the way through our rolls when the server warned us that "last call for food" was about to happen in the kitchen and the he urged us to get our order into the kitchen before it closed. We ordered the sizzling beef entree (not as good as I recall from the first time we were at Seito). The server brought us another soup, as if we wanted another one. He stated it came with the meal. I suggested he just take the one we ordered first off of the check, since the soup we just received came with the meal. We were finished with our rolls and just received our dinner portion by the time I received my glass of wine. The menu has downsized tremendously since we were last at Seito. The portions of the meals also downsized. The service has DEFINITELY downgraded. By the time we were finished with our dinner, we were so disappointed. We got the bill for over $100. I didnt think twice about just handing my card to the server and getting out of there. As he was running the bill, I looked over my charges and realized the server gave us the $7 beer special instead of the $3 beer special. The bartender from earlier that night made the corrections and we were on our way. Rushed and disappointed. We will not be back.

GA

Gary Henderson

I used to LOVE Seito. Great sushi, nigiri. sashimi, and wonderful bento boxes at lunch. And as an added benefit, the food was authentic AND reasonably priced, which is an anomaly for Baldwin Park. Well, Seito has a new Executive Chef, and all that has changed. Lunch offerings are sparse, and bento boxes are gone. Prices are no longer in the range of "Reasonable." Everything at lunch is now a la carte. While there are a few decent items on the lunch menu (T.N.T. Crunch roll at $14, and Triple Tail at $8), much of the menu is neither authentic nor reasonably priced. A B.L.T. roll? This is pure Baldwin Park:"Wild boar bacon, heirloom tomatoes, local greens, citrus togarashi mayo, quinoa salad. Can we say, "Pretentious?" Eight sushi rolls are featured at lunch, and I just named three of them. Average price: $11. Add the salad that used to be in the bento box for an additional $5 (or get a beet salad for $10), miso soup for $3, and you still have less food (and selection) than the bento box they USED to offer, and you have spent $19 minimum. While we were there for lunch yesterday, we saw two parties come in, look at the menu, and leave. One group commented on the way out, "We changed our mind. We liked the bento boxes on the old menu." The dinner menu is more extensive, and even more Feliniesque: how about an appetizer? $18 for a half dozen oysters with fennel migonette and cocktail sauce (French New Orleans fusion?), and then dinner of "Wagyu Ribeye: Miso roasted marble potatoes, pickled savoy cabbage, malbec pho jus, for just $32? On the bright side, if you like to drink (hopefully on an expense account or someone elses dime), there is no shortage of beer, wine, and yuppie cocktails on the reverse side of the menu. The alcohol selections outnumber those of the food (much higher profit in alcohol, and no fancy prep necessary). On the lunch menu, there are 21 food items, and 40 alcoholic beverages. On the dinner menu, I counted 87 alcohol offerings, compared to 64 food items. Drink away your sorrow at the passing of a great restaurant. On the bright side, Seito now fits perfectly into Baldwin Park: overpriced, pretentious, and offering a manufactured imitation of culture and class to those with more dollars than sense. I would raise my Park City Manhattan to toast the passing of a fine eatery, but $12 seems a tad steep. Maybe just a Cigar City Cracker draft beer (only $6) or a 12 oz bottle of Coedo "Beniaka" Red beer...oops...that one is $12. Scratch that. In any case, farewell, beloved Seito of old. You will be missed.

FE

Fernando Blanco

I would eat in many other places before coming back, I mean its not bad, but between food and service, place gets a meh, the actual accurate grade would be a 3.5, I round down as I felt it was closer to the bottom than to the top. Currently eating here so itll be a very dynamic review. For starters I must say the beverage options for non alcoholic drinkers isnt very deep, but I didnt come here to drink, but rather to eat, so I had to settle with a Coke. I managed to get in by the happy hour time which is 5 to 7 on weekdays, so I managed to snag the delicious sweetheart sushi, for just $6, it has a divine combination of coconut shrimp, crab, cream cheese, and eel sauce, so good I asked for two of them. Next, came the gyozas in this case the brisket and Parmesan ones, which were fantastic , to me they tasted like they were made with soft and Silky fried pasta dough, filled with solid but tender chunks of beef and sprinkled on the outside with delicious Parmesan cheese. Now when it comes to the ramen, which was the actual reason we came to eat here I was sad to receive an awfully salty ramen, both on a shoyu, and on a tonkatsu, I mean I love salty food, but it tastes like someone had poured half a cup of soy sauce in them, they were inedible unless you dislike your kidneys and taste buds. Our server Ally kindly indicated that it tasted as it usually does so it would probably be best to order something else so I went for the beef bulgogi, which tastes very similar to teriyaki. I must say we had eaten in seito last year, and the ramen was not even close to being as salty, so definitely a warning on that side. The bulgogi was pretty good, a kinda sweet and salty sauce with white rice which was my other hankering and so it was satiated, it also had sauteed onions which were pretty good, but also slightly on the salty side, having to drink two cups of water through 2/3 of the meal. Over all Id probably doubt coming here as even though the place wasnt overly packed (70%) , plates became increasingly slower to come, having to wait up about 30 minutes for the final sushi. Perhaps on a slower day place wouldve been better, I certainly have had better experiences on the Dr Philips one. I would eat in many other places before coming back, I mean its not bad, but between food and service, place gets a meh.