Seto Sushi- Sigh. If Only You Weren't So Pricey

I've been to Seto Sushi once before but I didn't find them amazing or affordable enough to return again. One day, Meta Knight and I wanted to go to Nan Chuu on Alexandra road, but they were closed (they close every Wed) so we had to think of somewhere else to eat. Since Seto was across the street, we decided to give it a try since I haven't been back in a few years anyways.

Seto Sushi is next to Bistro the Home (my post) located near the end of Alexandra road (the road of a billion restaurants and no parking).

We ordered the Ikura Chazuke with Salmon Roe ($7.00) which is essentially "tea on rice". I knew about this dish from Follow Me Foodie's post on Seto and I'm glad I did because it was a really unique dish! We were served a bowl of rice and a pot of green tea.

The bowl of rice contains crispy noodles, seaweed, and salmon roe. It's not a really big serving, but surprisingly it is quite filling. 

Here is an action shot for ya'll! I know.. it's hardly dramatic lol but anyways, you're suppose to pour the green tea into the rice. It seemed like such a weird concept because I imagined eating just really bland watery rice.

Turns out, when the green tea is mixed with all the ingredients in the bowl, the saltiness of the salmon roe seeps into the green tea to make this really tasty broth. It didn't taste like green tea at all! More like chicken broth. However, because of the limited salmon roe, near the end when there weren't anymore and it was really just tea and rice, it became bland. 

When we ordered the Small Tuna & Salmon Sashimi ($7.75), we didn't expect literally like... this small. To put it into perspective...

...it looks like this next to the bowl of rice. The quality of sashimi was great, don't get me wrong, but Meta Knight pointed out that we could've had double this amount for the same price at Oyama Sushi (my post), without sacrificing quality. He was so right.

The Spider Roll ($10.00) tasted really good and had ample ingredients. 

The soft shell crab was so yummy.. I can never get enough of soft shell crab. :D Sometimes, I even buy a whole soft shell crab at Izumiya, the Japanese supermarket in Richmond for 4 to 5 bucks and reheat it in my oven.

Lastly, we ordered the Chawan Mushi ($4.50 ea) which is an authentic Japanese egg custard filled with mushrooms, green onions, and seafood. The wooden block on top is to keep it insulated which is perfect because you want to eat this while it's hot.

 On the top, there are some enoki and chinese mushrooms. Inside, I found half a scallop, and a small shrimp. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of seafood ingredients.

You can add bit of soy sauce like what I have done here. The custard is incredibly soft and velvety, which are characteristics of a great steamed egg custard. Meta Knight on the other hand didn't like it as much as I did. He thought it was okay, but definitely not good enough to be $4.50 per a little custard.

For this restaurant, I am a bit torn because I can't deny the fact that they serve delicious authentic Japanese food. But it is really hard to justify spending $40-45 on a dinner for two with the amount of food we received. I feel like for that price, I can go to a pretty great sushi restaurant, such as Oyama Sushi or even Guu and leave feeling MUCH more satisfied.

Based on these reasons:

• authentic Japanese cuisine
• very unique items such as "tea on rice" and the Chawan mushi
• more expensive than your typical Japanese restaurant
• okay service

Service Rating: 3.5/5

Food Rating: 4.5/5

Pricing: $$$

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Happy Eating!

courtesy of http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1331/1091132509_d714e5a65f_o.jpg