On a mobile device? Try our mobile site, optimized for faster browsing.
Loading...
I came here so long the bus boy knows my name. My favorite here is their lunch specials. It's kind of a no brainer that they are always different, always good, cooked daikon, small chirashi sushi, whatever.
My standard gauge unagi donburi gets top rating not only tasty but it comes in a nice lacquered covered box, like how you would get it in a nice unagi restaurant in Namba, Osaka.
Their other store on El Camino changed hands a few years ago. The deli closed recently too. But the Borregas original store is still running very strong and always busy.
My parents took me here and we ordered fried soft shell crab, Udon with egg, mushroom, chicken, and a shrimp tempura, tuna sashimi, eel nigiri, salmon roe nigiri, and a burdock root saute.
Everything was really fresh and so yummy, but man so expensive! The chicken in the udon was basically a few tiny pieces...like 1/2 inch wide cuts..and like 3-4 pieces at that. So the udon noodles were really good but the other things included in the soup were stingy portions.
The tuna sashimi was amazing, about 8 pieces for..$16?
All the nigiri were fresh and yummmmy. The soft shell crab was about $8 but not that great. Lacked flavor in my opinion. The sauted burdock root was SO good. wow. and according to my mom it's hard to cook it right so yay :)
The waitress that served us had an accent and was not japanese, which is totally fine but it was kind of odd when we had to repeat what we wanted to order and point at it on the menu until she understood. But other than that she was really nice and super attentive :)
People thought this was:
Stopped by here today for lunch & tried the sushi lunch special.
Pros
- Tasty sushi lunch: for $12 included 6 small California rolls & 1 ea: Hamachi, Ebi, Unagi, Maguro, Sake, Hotategai nigiri. Included miso soup. Pretty good deal for $12.
- Nice clean interior
- Fast Service
- Parking lot
Cons
- gets pretty crowded at lunch
Return Visit
- Yes
The sushi and tempura were good. The rice in the dinner set was not good at all--it was mushy and smelled. The service wasn't bad though. I've only been here once, but I didn't get such a great first impression--and so I may not give it another shot. It's a bit pricey to try again. I'd say this place is average. It's worth going at least once to see for yourself though.
The Benchmark for Great Japanese Food: A very nice traditional Japanese restaurant featuring a Sushi Bar and many dining tables. Quite large, it is always crowded at lunchtime! (Get there early!) This is my favorite place for Japanese food. The best and highest quality Sushi in town. I enjoy their Bento boxes for lunches giving you the choice of 1, 2 or 3 items. Have some Eda Mame while you decide! For lunch, their service is quick and efficient, food arrives quickly allowing you to enjoy the meal and yet get back to work on-time.
Alot of years ago, I had three engineers working for me who were on-loan from a company in Japan. During their 6 months in the South Bay Area they tried alot of Japanese restaurants. Before they returned home, Seto was their choice for the best Japanese food in the area. Since then, I have visited Seto many many times and comparing Seto to other Japanese places, Seto wins everytime.
BTW, they have a deli across the street which is great for take-out.
came here for lunch the other day with a friend and i thought the food was just mediocre.
we ordered
1. sushi lunch set ~$12 - just okay.. just a plate with different types of sushi. their sashimi was quite good though
2. seto chirashi set ~$20 comes in a box thats two layers. first with sashimi and the second with rice and other cooked items.
the food here wasnt bad but wasnt amazing either... i guess i expected more than just bento boxes for lunch here. and when i tried other things, they weren't the best. and it wasnt too crowded when i went. didn't even have to wait, which was good
and what difference does it matter that the restaurant is "owned" by japanese people when their staff isnt even japanese? do you see whose working in the kitchen? probably not japanese people.. how do you judge that its owned by japanese people? b/c there are japanese people cutting your sushi? i think you should judge a restaurant by their FOOD not by what nationality OWNS the restaurant...
Japanese food for white people.
That is the best description I can come up with after several visits here. The food is decent, and the interior is full of blonde wood, rice paper screens, and Japanese art. The prices are high, and waitresses wear kimonos. Everything that white people (like me) expect from a nice, traditional Japanese restaurant. And just to support my statement further, here's a description of the patrons on my last visit:
White patrons = 43
Japanese patrons = 0.
Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. But when it comes to some types of food, I guess I expect to see more cultural representatives.
Here's some more stuff white people like: (#58 is appropriate)
http://stuffwhitepeopl...
== Things I like about Seto ==
- A-la-carte sushi is top notch
- Service is friendly
- Décor and atmosphere is pleasant
== Things I dislike about Seto ==
- Prices are some of the highest in the area
- Always very crowded at lunch
- The sushi that comes in bento lunches is pre-made, tiny, and sub-par. On one of my visits, the avocado in my CA roll was beginning to turn brown. Bleh.
- Power business types are as thick as thieves. Just check all the expensive cars in the parking lot. Now I know at least one reason why the food is overpriced.
People thought this was:
This will certainly be a different review from most of the others on Seto because I'm not necessarily writing this solely on my own behalf... let me explain.
I do tons of business in Japan. I (my company) hosts many many Japanese visitors from Japan, sometimes for 2-3 weeks. As a result, we are constantly searching for restaurants to take them to. Sincerely, we have scoured the South Bay area looking for quality Japanese and Asian restaurants that would please our guests.
Whether our guests are from Tokyo or Osaka or Kyoto or... inevitably Seto ends up being the restaurant that they request time and time again. Even when we have taken them there 2-3 days in a row, they will choose to go there a 4th or 5th time on their own because it is what they consider to be authentic (and a good price).
Personally speaking, my favorite sushi restaurants are House of Sake in Dublin and Osho in Burlingame... but that's another review for another time. But Seto wins the hearts and minds of many many Japanese visitors... so I'm writing this review for them today! So give this review some consideration if you are looking for a true Japanese sushi meal. If you're looking for a more American experience with wild and crazy rolls or quantity over quality, this won't be the place for you.
And as several others have noted, the deli around the corner is really really good too.
People thought this was:
This place is pretty decent. It's locale is somewhat curious - Seto is surrounded on 3 sides by residences but it's just 1 street down from Mathilda, a main-ish street in Sunnyvale.
I had a bento box lunch with salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi, and tonkatsu. I also ordered a side of amaebi, the all-around awesome sweet shrimp. I can happily report that the amaebi was fresh and the right temperature - nothing spoils it like overly cold (or warm) temperature. I was somewhat less impressed with the smallish bento box - the sashimi were 3 pieces, but the tonkatsu was good overall.
Prices are typical Japanese - could be better, but not bad. I'm sure I'll try Seto again!
People thought this was:
So I have always had this cloud hovering on top of my body that stubbornly tells me that Silicon Valley is "barok". " Barok" being a colloquial term in Manila high society (the upper class if you will of third world colonial society), that means unsophisticated or simply "baduy". In fact, for patricians of Euro class and other such of third world countries, even "the city, San Francisco" is not up to par with London, Paris or New York.
Back to the case in point, while knowing that half of me is geek, knowing I cannot survive in the shallow culture of high fashion and finance of the Milan, NYC, and the Frankfurt genre, albeit having frames of references who keep hounding into my every fibre of being that I live in an "oh-not-so hip-metropolis", I have always expected lunchtime in Silicon Valley would be subpar.
At Seto's restaurant, I was oh so wrong!
I spent about four lunch visits at this place and was surprised every time.
First time was a large engineering group, I enjoyed a warm and fresh Udon soup while salivating at another person's order of fresh sushi. Sushi ... fresh? I came here again with my Japanese friend who is a kindred spirit and snob for authentic food, and surpringly, we both enjoyed a Bento box. We smiled, "Sunnyvale venue like Jtown?"
I even spent Christmas eve lunch alone with a couple of papers to read, just to check if it was that good, it was!
This is a Sunnyvale Japanese place that seems to be uprooted right out of SF Japantown.
People thought this was:
I went here for lunch with some friends last week, and the quality of the food was really not good. I've definitely had a lot better Japanese food, and honestly, I could probably make better at home myself.
What's strange is that the food at the Seto Deli around the corner is so much better than the restaurant. If you're in the area, I'd go for the deli instead.
After hearing plenty about Seto, I finally visited for an early dinner after work, and I liked it… Read more »
Their staff is not friendly at all, but their sushi is yummy great place to go for lunch....prices are decent... It does get pretty crowded for lunch so go early or late... They do have a deli right next door for to go orders....
Da Googl3 plays with names again this time. The listing says Seto Japanese Cuisine, some referred to Seto Sushi to some of us Yelp plebs, but the takeout menu and receipt both say Seto Tempura House.
Unfortunately the real name does not represent a tempura-ya where that would be the only specialty (unlike Southern Cal or Torrance that has places like Komatsu http://www.yelp.com/bi...), but you can certainly find set lunches of common fare and the ilk here.
Seto is located in a residential neighborhood and seems like it has been there 10 years if not 20. Quite big and spacious with one tatami area.
The sushi bar is long and spacious, seats 10 one way and 2 to its left side around the corner. Two middle aged Japanese chef man the bar and other than taking the oddball nigiri request from the duo next to me, they focus entirely on customer orders. The chef nearest me hardly made nigiri the whole time I was there (other than maguro and salmon for the "sushi combo" lunch sets), and seems to be delegated to spicy tuna inside out rolls, shrimp tempura rolls, and the occasional California roll. One quick look around and the customer base consists of $unnyvale $ilcon Valley High Tech $lave$, virtually devoid of any Japanese.
They have the standard stuff in their sushi counters. For specials it was a grim and short listing on the white board
Toro - $14
Toro Sashimi - $30
amberjack (kanpachi) - $8
Torigai - $forgot
Sea Bream - $6 or $7
Awabi - $8
Crazy Roll
Dragon Roll
Atlantic Roll - $14!!! That included spicy tuna, salmon, and fluke
So it was a sign that really good old school nigiri sushi was not going to be their strong suite here.
As a workaround I tried the Seto Chirashi ($20.50) which was a few grades and buckeroos more than the regular verison.
It came in a very tall container, exactly like the kind used for una-ju (unagi over rice in a nicely laquered plastic box) except it was strangely tall. Upon removing the lid, there were actually two boxes one of top of the other. The main box at the bottom was the chirashi and the second box was I suppose the "Seto" special consisting of the bulk of the seafood theme.
Bottom line, presentation was notches better than the overall experience.
The main box looked like this
=========
| TY I W |
| TY E U |
| PG M TK |
=========
TY - two total pieces of tamagoyaki (egg) average.
I - shio Ikura (salt marinated salmon roe). Small and half decent texture, but a bit too strong in salt taste
W - wakame salad, the bright green seaweed salad strands (more like
W for WTF, why is this in a chirashi?!)
E - ebi. Cooked shrimp, rather limp. Once you have blue prawns at Jin Sho (poached and served like cooked shrimp, like Japanese kuruma ebi style) you will never have limp shrimp like this again.
U - one piece of unagi that combated the sourness of the whole bowl a bit
PG - gari or pink ginger (not the light brown kind, so the pink one is dyed cheap stuff). Uggh, give me anything but THAT as a condiment!
M - slices of heavily soy sauced (and sugared) mushrooms
TK - tako or octopus. I've had better, decent sized sliced, to their credit.
Now the box above that hosted the main meats
==============
| DDDDDDDDD |
| t MMM ho S |
| w (lw) s H ht |
===============
DDDDDD - quite a bit of shredded daikon
w - wasabi
lw- lemon wedge
t - tai (sea bream) - yawn.
MMM - Ma.....ma..... (ahem) maguro - three big pieces of light colored (arguably big eye) tuna, but looked awefully grainy. Give me the bloodier red stuff anyday (sigh). I could do better with Nijiya maguro, seriously.
H - big piece of not so sextacular hamachi
s - salmon. blah.
S - saba, pretty big piece. Decent for run of the mill
ho - Hokkigai. Oh jeez this is one of the worst fillers. Sometimes called surf clam. Chinese supermarkets have a frozen box of these sourced to Canadian surf clams. Unless it is live, it is forgettable.
ht - hotate. Scallops. Decent for what it is
I think I enjoyed the chirashi at Sushi Club a lot more, and cheaper with similar ingredients.
This place feels like a cross between Sushi Kuni (Cupertino), Hotaru (San Mateo), Fuki Sushi (Palo Alto). Old world in new world type restaurants, perfect for everyday high tech slavery generic noshing, but certainly not a destination stop for the food snob or authenticity enthusiast.
People thought this was:
I've been dining here since I was a kid, and I'll have to agree with Tim L: the food has been somewhat inconsistent over the years. However, my parents (who spent almost a decade in Japan) deem Seto as their favorite place to go for fresh fish in the South Bay. My personal favorite is Kitsho, but Seto is my fallback.
The quality of fish here is usually quite good and fresh. This is saying a lot, because I will have to admit that I am quite the sushi snob! Last night, I ordered amaebi, 2 orders of hamachi, tobiko with quail egg, and saba... which I was very much pleased with! The fried amaebi heads also came in a bowl with a little ponzu sauce, which was unique and I really enjoyed.
Aside from sushi, they also have a decent selection of interesting small plates (izakaya style), such as beef tongue, smelt tempura, fried tofu, and grilled squid. Their small plates menu is not as extensive as izakaya restaurants like Tanto, but it's great to be able to go to a sushi place and have the option of getting some tapas as well. We had the smelt tempura last night, and everyone really enjoyed it. Their "Seto Deluxe Dinner for 3" is also a looooooot of food. At $55, it is great bang for your buck if you're the type of person who likes katsu, chicken teriyaki, gyoza, tempura, maguro sashimi, and California Rolls.
Pictures uploaded! http://www.yelp.com/bi...
People thought this was:
I'll be honest. If I hadn't seen Seto in a Yelp review by South Bay sushi connoisseur, Carol L., I'd have never come across it. I'm not really familiar with this part of Sunnyvale, but given it was between work and home, it was a convenient place to stop.
Upon arrival, I found a spacious parking lot and a large sign for Seto Restaurant. Confusingly, there are actually two buildings. The building near the parking lot is not the restaurant and, from what I could tell, has no entrance of any sort or connection to the other building. Perhaps it's a storage area or private room? You must walk around the buildings and will find the main entrance facing the street.
Once I found my way inside, I was actually impressed by how large and relatively nice the place was. It was empty at the early dinner hour and I took a seat at the sushi bar.
Service was polite and I browsed the menu I was handed. As I looked at all the items offered, I began to like the place even more. While sushi and sashimi are a focus, Seto also offers an impressive variety of soba/udon options, donburi choices, and many small plates. I love sushi, but I also like being able to order non-sushi dishes on occasion to mix it up.
This time though, I stuck with the chef's sushi platter ($32). Disappointed by some chef's choices at other restaurants, I asked if the platter included my favorite toro and amaebi. Happily, it did and I proceeded to leave the rest up to the chef.
The platter was out within minutes and it was among the better selections I've seen for a "starter" chef's choice platter. Besides the aforementioned toro and amaebi, there was uni, ika, hamachi, ikura, maguro, and sake. Really, you can't complain about those choices. As for the quality, I'd consider it fair. The toro wasn't as glistening white as I've had elsewhere and the amaebi was smaller than others. Overall, the pieces were all "bite-sized," vs. the gargantuan trend at many sushi roll places. My one complaint is I found most of the sushi lukewarm in temperature. I prefer my sushi to be a bit colder and only the rice (or cooked items) to be warm.
I look forward to returning soon and trying their combination dinners with both sushi and traditional Japanese items. Now that I know the sushi is fine, I can explore the other items more, particularly the soba.
P.S. Seto happily accepts American Express. They also offered a 3% cash discount on my bill for dinner.
People thought this was:
So glad to finally find a Sushi place owned by Japanese people. The quality of the sushi here is excellent and the service is really great too. I came here and had an array of sushi/sashimi ranging from Hokkaido fresh scallops to their super fresh Toro. Sat at the sushi bar on a Friday night, surprisingly empty. I'm thanking God for this sushi haven right now. I don't think I've been this pleased with a sushi joint in awhile (Ocean Blue comes close..) A tad pricey but that's obviously expected when they fly their stuff in fresh from Japan. Worth it too.
My friend Chris and I went here for lunch today, there was plenty of parking, and we were greeted instantly and gave us a seat right away. So they gave us the usual hot green tea and iced lemon water.
So we had ordered this donburi with chicken and scrambled eggs, it had alot of rice and less chicken.
Miso soup: kind of bland with big chunks of tofu and no seaweed
California Roll: I love california rolls but this one was my least favorite!! the crabmeat and mayo mixed together was dry and our sushi smelled fishy!!
People thought this was:
I wanted to check out Seto Sushi because this was 2 miles from my job and i took my co-worker and a… Read more »
Ordered the lunch special.
Pretty terrible, if you ask me. The chirashi bowl came with smoked! salmon, spicy tuna, and hard, inedible mackerel.
Perhaps, if I had ordered off the menu, the quality of the fish would be better. But then why offer bad fish to your clients as a "lunch special"?
This place left a terrible after taste in my mouth - and it'll be the last time.
People thought this was:
A good place for lunch or dinner; the chirashi lunch is tasty and of generous proportions. If you want to grab some quick take-out, visit the Seto Deli across the street; if you want a nice sit-down dining experience, visit Seto proper. Good food, prompt service.
People thought this was:
My husband and I love Seto restaurant! Like I said in my review of Seto Deli, this is the only place we go to eat sushi. We usually go there for dinner and service and food are excellent. I am Japanese (born and grew up in Japan till I turned to 22 years old) and have a family who owns a Japanese restaurant. So I am very picky about Japanese food.
We highly recommend the restaurant!
Good food, so-so prices, excellent service.
For lunch, the 3-item bento ($13.99) and 2-item bento ($10.99) are solid choices. Comes with miso soup*, rice, salad, beans, and fruit (honeydew). You can choose any items (the selection includes shrimp-and-vegetable tempura, tonkatsu, chicken katsu, salmon teriyaki, beef teriyaki, California roll, tuna sashimi, grilled salmon, and more... 11 items in all). This is a step up from Miyake, which offers only a handful of pre-set combinations.
*: The soup is hot like what. Totally burned my mouth trying to drink the soup immediately.
Naturally, you can get hot tea and iced water (served with a slice of lemon). I think tea is provided at no extra charge? I'm not sure.
Seto is kind of in the middle of a residential area... but it's a nice neighborhood. Decent place to take a walk after an early lunch, if you don't mind braving the less-than-indigenous junglesque foliage. (No really, do people not trim their plants? They're all sprawled across the sidewalk like something out of Indiana Jones.)
Service is outstanding, almost to the point that you feel rushed... though that is certainly not the intention. The waitstaff is very attentive, quick, and friendly. Ready to order? Done. Need more wasabi? No problem. All finished? Consider your dishes collected. I've only been to a handful of Japanese restaurants, but of those, Seto has the best service by a country mile.
Prices are certainly steeper than Miyake and the like, but in this case you get what you pay for. The food is better, and the service is worlds better.
People thought this was:
Standard disclaimer: i'm a vegetarian. I don't eat fish.
That being said, i go here with a collection of fish eaters, so i at least have some second-hand knowledge about the quality of the sushi. They say it's generally good, but that the quality has declined steadily over the past year or so. It's still tasty, just not as delicious as it once was.
As for the things i actually eat: the miso soup is pretty good (i've never had the dishwater experience someone else mentioned), and the veggie tempura is always delightfully crispy.
One thing that annoys me tremendously about Seto is the dearth of vegetarian rolls on the menu. They make california rolls, so they have the ingredients to make avocado rolls, but you have to ask for it, it's not on the menu. They have an ume&cucumber roll that i adore, but no fried sweet potato, no oshinko, no kampyo, none of the stuff i see at every other sushi restaurant in the known universe. I don't like that i feel like i'm making a scene every time i have to order 3 or 4 things that aren't even listed on the (extensive) menu.
And their mochi is indistinguishable from the mochi you can buy at Trader Joe's.
(The waitstaff is very kid-friendly if your kid is relatively well behaved.)
People thought this was:
Pleasant Lunch Boxes Centrally Located and Uber Polite
Lunch Box with Teriyaki Salmon and Tuna Sashimi was pretty good, I enjoyed the teriyaki sauce since it was on the thick and sweet side more of a glaze. A fun little paper cup with beans was on top, and the rice and salad were average. Good lunch spot, in a central location and all the staff were unusually polite for a restaurant in the bay area.
People thought this was:
Decent donburi done quickly.
Rob & William and I went for a quick lunch today. They wanted Bento boxes. I thought I did too, but I went for the simpler Chicken Teriyaki Donburi. The food came quickly and the place was clean and staffed with polite people who were fast to clean up the table when someone (R..) spilled his miso soup.
The Donburi looked nice (I should take pictures...). The chicken was a little on the gristly side of the spectrum for my tastes, and the teriyaki sauce was pretty definitely straight from the bottle. The rice was warm and not dry. All-in, OK, but nothing to write home about.
I might be back, but I am sure there is better.
People thought this was:
The ambiance is so nice and clean inside. I feel like I'm in Japan! Though I've only sat at the bar, there's other special seating rooms where you take your shoes off and sit on the floor the authentic way. I believe you must make a reservation prior to sitting in the room because there's only a select amount of rooms. The owners and staff are so freakin sweet! The food is pleasantly fresh and good. It's packed during lunch but I never have to wait because it's pretty large. I would reccommend this place!
People thought this was:
From the outside, Seto doesn't look like much. It's a somewhat drab-looking gray building located on a corner next to a gas station. If you're trying to find Seto for the first time, you'll be hard-pressed to spot it from your car even if you're just driving 35 mph. Yes, there is a sign --- but the name "SETO" is written rather artistically, and the "O" in the name "SETO" appears as a rising sun. (See photos.) If you're meeting friends here for the first time, be sure to tell them that you're meeting at the restaurant, and NOT the Seto Deli that is located about 100 yards away. Anyway, my 4-star rating is primarily for the consistently fresh and delicious sashimi. The buttery salmon literally melts in your mouth and is absolutely amazing! The rest of the food on the menu is very good, but it's the sushi and sashimi that really stands out in my mind. Seto is a great place to meet friends for lunch, and their Bento Boxes are reasonably priced. But if you really want to experience Seto, I recommend coming on a weeknight when they're not too busy, and finding yourself a comfortable spot at the sushi bar. Get to know the guys working behind the counter, and if you're not already a sushi expert, feel free to ask lots of questions. I've been to Seto many times over the years, and I always look forward to my next visit!
People thought this was:
Bummer that this place has gone down hill since the tech boom, then crash. Fish quality is still good, prices have gone up, and Bento boxes have shrunk significantly.
This place primarily survives on location, location,location. How sad for it.
People thought this was:
Summary: good quality Japanese cuisine with a fairly through menu and friendly service, in the $15 range for lunch.
Service: very friendly and good natured
Food: good, but not spectacular (for the price)
Ambiance: Nice and simple, nothing fancy
Looking for Bento boxes in the Sunnyvale area. Could not find any good ratings for single $ pricing, so we ventured out to this place, which was rated well.
There is a deli on the other side of the street, but did not look inviting, so we kept going to the restaurant.
We walked in and were received warmly. Nice service they have there.
Bento boxes are very good ($11 for 2 items, $14 for 3 items). Sushi lunch combinations are all priced at $15+, so I went for the bento box.
I ordered 3 items: tempura, grilled salmon and tuna sashimi.
Tempura was perfect: crunchy and sweet. The grilled salmon was just ok, nothing fancy about it, but seemed fresh. Sashimi was very good, no fishy flavors and it almost melted in my mouth.
Overall, good quality food. But slightly higher price that I'd like to pay for mid week lunch (around $8-$10)
People thought this was:
Came here for lunch with a coworker and it was just alright. Decently priced bento boxes for a quick bite. The portions are pretty small and I was disappointed at the imitation crab in the California rolls. The terriyaki didn't taste that great. Something weird in the sauce, can't figure it out.
It was surprisingly busy when we came here, however I don't think there is much competition for sushi in this area, so that's probably why.
People thought this was:
Parking is a little pain in the butt if you go during the lunch rush. I suggest leaving a 15 mins early before noon, or take a late lunch. They have those japanese booths where you need to take your stinky shoes off. (Do not wear socks with holes :)
When I worked in Sunnyvale about a year ago, I dropped by this place about 3-4 times. Each time mine lunch experience feels pretty authentic. I normally get the bento boxes since they have a variety of selections to choose from. I have tried their array of raw dishes to the cooked ones.
It's nice to have authentic japanese food washing it down with a cold bottle of sapporo beer.
Two thumbs up from me.
People thought this was:
Expensive and not very tasty. I did lunch here the other day and was sorely disappointed. As I'm not a big Sushi fan, I ordered teh Bento and was bothered to see the cost (very high considering what you get) and even the Miso Soup seemed tepid and bland! I have to admit that the tempura was pretty decent, though.
The service wasn't great (kinda slow and they kinda ignored us for twenty minutes after we get our stuff due to the place startig to fill up) but they were very nice and polite. That's what got them the extra star.
We come here for lunch every so often with my coworkers and it's pretty great. It's cute inside-- once we even got one of those booths where you sit on cushions-- and even though it's busy at lunch, we get seated and served quickly. Food's good too-- definitely one of the better places in Sunnyvale. Parking's a pain though: you'll probably want to skip the lot and go for the street.
My friend and I were able to reserve a Tatami room at Seto with conditions (Must spend over $120) this was no problem because we ordered two bottles of premium sake.
The fish was very fresh, the Toro and Bene Toro are to die for. I'm more of a sashimi fan, so cannot comment on the rolls. The service was excellent, and they even let us stay after closing to continue chatting.
This place is huge, as is the menu.
It's definitely more izakaya, than sushi joint.
The menu is really extensive, and takes a few minutes to go through.
We had great service, and the place looked immaculate.The food was only so-so.
I had the miso-glazed hamachi. It was a little too salty for me,
I also had their dragon roll, which was a tad too salty. The unagi that was on top was so bony I had to spit it out, (in a polite way.)
I know unagi is a bony fish, but this was really bad. I get unagi a lot, and never had it this bony. Really annoyed me, because i love unagi.
We also shared gyoza.They were cooked perfectly, but had a little too much green onion for us. (That's not bad, just my personal taste.) If you like green onion, they'd be much better.
This isn't really my 'hood anymore, so I probably won't be back.
For me, it's the kind of place that I'd go back if someone else wanted to.Otherwise, wouldn't return. There's too many Japanese places that I like a lot better.
People thought this was:
I have to qualify this review by stating this is for lunch visits only. I've visited three times now, each time for lunch.
Never a wait...one of the prime draws of Seto. If there isn't a table, the counter makes for good conversation. The place is always hustling and busy and the turnover is rapid here in the heart of Silicon Valley. The other draw is the sushi. Super fresh. Simple. Twice I've had the Maguro Sashimi (Sliced raw tuna) entree for lunch (served with rice, miso soup and a simple salad). I leave sated but never heavy.
The service is fast and friendly. This really is the place for a quick Silicon Valley lunch meeting. I'd like to try it for dinner sometime at a more relaxed pace. Highly recommended.
Seto's not bad, they are definitely authentic and the chefs as well as the majority of the staff is Japanese. I think overall it deserves 3.5 stars
However I think they try too hard to please everyone; their menu is so extensive and I think its because they are trying to add the fusion/Americanized sushi dishes in their menu to please their American customers, but at the same time they have good nigiri specials sometimes/occasionally for the "sushi snob"
I wanted to keep my order simple since it was a weekday lunch, we were seated at 12:30 pm and the service was great. However..read a couple of reviews and I guess people have received mixed feelings about that, but ours was definitely prompt.
I ordered the sushi lunch which comes with 6 pieces of nigiri and miso soup for $12. That sounds like a good deal to me since most nigiri pairs are like $5-6 bucks; also, the waiter was very nice and let me substitute the ebi nigiri for the kanpachi nigiri which was very cool of him.
All in all this is authentic Japanese and the nigiri was good, the size of fish were just right and the rice was good. However I think their authenticity may have lacked a little because they try too much to add the fusion dishes to their menu- I guess this is to keep the menu attractive for the employees that work at companies nearby
Nonetheless I would come again, it was really pretty decent of a place!
Easy parking too! just across the street =) sweet deal for downtown Sunnyvale.
One suggestion could maybe be a fresh coat of paint or an up-do. The restroom was clean and up to standards but the interior is just a tad-bit outdated.
1.) Food taste - 3.9 stars
Good sushi
2.) Cleanliness, freshness - 4.5 stars
Very good
3.) Presentation - 2.5/3 stars
Standard/simple
4.) Location/price - 4.5
Location is kinda hidden but its pretty easy to find overall, and good parking. Prices are decent.
5.) Service - 5 stars
Friendly people, kept refilling our teas... we had a good experience with this fortunately. =)!!
I don't know what to say. I ordered Yakisoba seeing as I have yet to find a Japanese restaurant that serves it in Cali. 20 mins of wait they say they're out of Yakisoba, WTF? I proceed to order the next best thing (I guessed) Sukiyaki. It was decent....But I'm still giving 2 stars because all of my colleagues got shitty bento boxes with cold chicken, small dinky sized salmons, and disgusting sides.
Note to you all, don't go in big parties expecting great food, because it's just not worth it. 15 dollar minimum to charge, thank god the dinner was expensed. But upside is that it was a going-away lunch so it makes me feel less angry for the rest of the people who went :O
Seto's a Japanese restaurant hidden away in an offstreet between Fair Oaks and Mathilda in Sunnyvale. Known by locals as a relatively authentic Japanese restaurant, serving bentos and sushi.
The strengths here are in its lunch specials. Specials vary day to day, but most of them are usually very special, in the sense that it can't be found in general on other menus in the area.
Sometimes, it may be very homestyle-ish, as in oden sets, agedashi tofu, stewed chicken or pork with daikon, etc. Others, it may be more regional specific, as specials have had oshizushi of shimesaba and smoked salmon.
The experience is relatively dependent on the day you come in. Sometimes, it has suffered from not as fresh fish being served at lunch times. And sometimes, it can deliver a near top flight experience.
My general go-to items are either the daily special, or the Seto chirashi.
Although a bit pricy, the contents of the chirashi are quite well put together. They take the time to separate the cooked items, from the uncooked items. Also noted in the chirashi, on this recent occasion, was marinated shiitake, unagi. Very melt in your mouth piece of hamachi, nicely cut. Three very good pieces of maguro, bordering on chutoro fattiness at the end cut.
-1 for using preserved low quality gari (pink colored).
Tamago seemed the pre-made type, not homemade. Shimesaba slice was overmarinated. Chirashi rice was slightly warm (but it was a busy lunch hour).
3.5 stars - Rounding up due to decor/service. A solid experience, on a good day. A fair to middling experience on a not so good day. Has potential to vault it into stardom, but little items hold it back. Also, on the pricy side for lunch.
People thought this was:
This rather large sushi restaurant is going for the authentic Japanese feel. They have the tatami mat section, and most of the employees look to be native japanese speakers.
I usually order a sashimi dinner/lunch plate. If you're into sashimi this is your review. Ordering the pure hamachi sashimi does not include soup or salad, and is only 6 pieces. For the price it did not seem worth it. I ordered the much more expensive sashimi dinner (12 pcs). This was twice the price of a typical dinner plate. The cuts of hamachi were not the best, but were definitely tasty. They were medium to large cuts that ended with a large triangular piece. This is unusual. The salad was so-so.
After the quality of the food I like to consider price and service. The price is way too high for mediocre sashimi. The waitresses were very prompt and helpful. Something I always note being a car guy is parking. Unless you're driving a mini the parking is horribly tight. I kept thinking of the big door ding I was going to walk out to see. If you want to impress someone with how much money you can waste this is the place. If you're going for good sashimi keep looking.
I was working the election polls at the elementary school across the street and decided to take my lunch break at Seto, having heard good things about the place for so many years.
I ordered some tempura and katsu don. Why not sushi? Well, it was just me, it was a quick lunch, and the sushi looked slightly expensive so I figured I would check it out first with something a bit more economical.
Hmmm.
Miso soup was not so good. Eating just a piece of tofu, there was a dishwater-like flavor left behind. I'm not saying they use dishwater to make their miso soup, but for some reason the flavor was just off.
The katsu don was passable but not great. The pork was dry and the egg lacked excellent flavor.
The tempura was pretty good. I'm a sucker for tempura, though.
Finally, the service. Eh, not great. The place was pretty slow at about 1pm so maybe it was just a lack of momentum, and I was a solo eater so maybe I wasn't quite so interesting, but they didn't have to make it quite so obvious.
End of the day, I doubt I would go back. Not necessarily horrible, and perhaps their sushi is better and maybe going with one or two more people would have made for a better overall experience, but I'll shop around a bit more.
Sunnyvale, CA
Category: Japanese
Sunnyvale, CA
Sunnyvale, CA
Category: Sushi Bars
Sunnyvale, CA
Category: Japanese
Sunnyvale, CA
Category: Japanese
This list includes anything south down the…
Some of my favorite dining destinations in the…
These are generally the hole-in-the-wall places…
Some of my favorite Bay Area spots, mostly near…
My local dry cleaner, watering hole, deli, cafe,…
Places I would frequent if the funds were…
Out of all the types of restaurants I've been to,…
Pretty much everything that tastes good has been…
