Seto Japanese Restaurant | Senses and Style

Even though Richmond is known as a haven for quality Asian cuisine, I don’t quite associate it as the destination for Japanese food. There are only a couple of izakayas and most of the sushi establishments are catered for the more ’safe’ tastebuds.

So it’s a nice surprise that in the midst of the Asian food mecca (Alexandra Road), there is a quaint authentic Japanese restaurant tucked away in a plaza. Seto Restaurant specializes in traditional Japanese dishes thus when you scan the menu a lot of the items one may not recognize or look ‘exotic’ to them. But to us, it was going to be one big fun experiment.

The admittedly safe zaru soba and unagi don combo was the start to our lunch

Is that not the most ‘greenest’ zaru soba? At other places, the noodles had a more grainy whole wheat look but this one looked like it was nuked with matcha. As suspicious as I was with the colour, it was a refreshing light dish. I forgot to take pictures of the unagi don because we were too busy eating it up. Since it was a side dish, it was served in a small rice bowl topped with 2 pieces of unagi and light teriyaki sauce.

Now the interesting stuff….when we saw the life threatening fugu dish we knew we wanted it right away. Ok it was not that life threatening as it has been preserved into a jerky state. It was like snacking on beef jerky with a side of japanese mayo to dip with. We actually liked it…think because of the novelty factor.

We opted for more interesting sushi than the typical rolls (sorry Tojo) like california, salmon, etc. The Saba Battera – Marinated Mackerel Pressed in Square Mold on Sushi Rice fitted the bill. To me, anything in a square shape seems more contemporary and tastes better.

Think because the mackerel was marinated, it didn’t have the unpleasant fishy taste to it.

Now the more interesting stuff.

The Ika Shiokara (right) was one of those cases that ‘judging a book by its cover’ was not the best of ideas. The picture in the menu looked appetizing but not after the first taste. My friend, covertly, spit it out because the slimy texture and the odd strong mix of pungent spiciness was too overwhelming. Since we couldn’t bring it back, I tried my best ..but after a few attempts I abandoned it.

Next came the perplexing Yakionigiri – Roasted Rice Ball with Choice of Salmon, Pickled Plum (Ume) or Dried Bonito (Okaka). The dish arrived with the nori and the rice balls separated. It’s very similar to the nori rice balls you’d find at Japan’s convenience stores. They are amazingly packaged in a way where the nori is separated from the rice and it comes together nicely after unwrapping the plastic. In our case, they came to us completely apart. After some fumbling around, we had fun eating it. The roasted rice was a nice change with the added slight smoky flavour.

Aside from the Ika, all the dishes were delicious and of excellent quality. Even if you’ve never been to Japan, each bite gives you a taste of what that country is all about.

Seto Japanese Restaurant
8460 Alexandra Rd