If you know me, you know I love Japanese food... and I especially love Japanese food that still speaks to its traditional roots. Fusion sushi is hit an miss and abundant all over Vancouver, but the classic traditional fare is surprisingly rare in a place that has the ocean's bounty on its door step. Well, if you're looking for a great traditional Japanese meal with menu items you'll not likely see anywhere else.. head to Seto Japanese. They have incredibly great prices on lunch and dinner set meals that make me wish I had a longer stay in Vancouver just to try them all... but onto the fooooood!Service is friendly, and we're lead into a large dining room full of booths of brown woods, muted bamboo golds and black accents flanking a large open sushi counter with bar seating if you like to watch the Chefs do their magic.
the APPYs
The menu is HUGE and pages upon pages long! And it took a while to narrow down what we could eat without exploding from fullness lol! With a pot of fragrant green tea, we didn't have to wait long before our Agedashi - Tofu Deep-Fried Tofu in Tempura Sauce came out first.
Next out is the Kawahagi Mirin Boshi - Grilled Sweet Semi Dried Filefish. No, its not fugu or blowfish.. its a completely different type of fish, but man is it ever delicious!
The filefish is dried to concentrate its flavors, grilled, cut up into slightly chewy strips of slightly salty, sweet, savory, unami packed bites of essentially grilled fish jerky. Soooo good!!! We largely ignored the dipping sauce it came with. Nomnomnom!
The Shishamo were three Smelt fish grilled nicely to have a nice charcoal flavor with the yummy little sweet eggs inside contrasting nicely with the salty savory fish.
The Seafood Motoyaki - Grilled Oyster with Homemade Sauce was a hit as the oyster hidden in the rich sauce was hot, super tender savory awesomness!
The Chicken Karaage were crisp golden fried to perfection pieces of chicken with a light ginger taste to them. Nom!
And last but not least for appetizers, we had this cool little pot...
The Chawanmushi with Fukahire is a Steamed Egg Custard with Shark Fin, Seafood and Vegetables. The shark fin I'm fairly sure is of the faux vegetarian type, so you can eat this amazing savory egg custard loaded up with fresh seafood, shitake and enokie mushrooms, vegetables and unami punch guilt free! Its so good, I want a hot tub full of this stuff to swim in!!
the SUSHI NIGIRI
The sushi rice was seasoned to perfection, highlighting the freshness of the seafood without taking anything away from each bite of fresh sweet seafood. The sushi nigiri was about a finger's length long and on the narrow side, but we ordered a whole bunch of random sushi nigiri, so the smaller size didn't really matter to us, though we would have preferred the seafood to be cut just a bit on the thicker side.:
We ordered some Tobiko Dama - Flying Fish Roe with Quail Egg..Loved the creamy richness of the quail egg yolk against a background of the crisp texture of the flying fish roe. Nom!
The Unagi - grilled river eel was so moist the tender if almost melts in your mouth as you bite into the slightly sweet terriyaki glaze this morsel of eel is gently glazed with.
The Ango - grilled sea eel had gentle smoky undertones and also nice and moist bite.
The Hotate -Scallop were delectably fresh, sweet and I wished I had more tummy room to eat a bucket of them!
The Sake - salmon was a creamy bite with a touch of sweetness
The Maguro - tuna was fresh with creaminess inherent from the fatty fish
The Aji - Horse Mackerel and Saba - mackerel, and the Blue Fin Otoro... we were happily food-gasming!
And since its my boyfriend's fav, we couldn't leave without trying some tekka maki - little mini rolls of fresh sweet and creamy rich tuna wrapped in wonderfully seasoned rice and roasted nori.
And yes, we... just the two of us finished all that wonderful food, super ran out of space for dessert... and nearly had to roll out the door :D Stay tuned for another post.. there was a lot more things we wanted to try so we'll post up another review soon!
the VERDICT
One of the best places to have traditional Japanese food in Vancouver with its huge menu - from menu items you'd not likely see anywhere else, traditional gems as well as easy on the wallet set lunch and dinner menus.. its a must eat!
Seto Japanese Restaurant Vancouver
Address 8460 Alexandra Rd, Richmond, BC V6X1C3
Phone (604) 231-9493
Hours Lunch: Wed-Mon:11:30-14:30, Last Order 14:15; Dinner: Wed-Mon:17:30-22:00 Last Order 21:30, Closed Tuesdays
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