Seto Japanese Restaurant

We went to Seto because Zomato said it was the closest thing to where we were with good reviews. It was almost all reserved by the time we got there (almost 6pm) unless we wanted to sit at the sushi bar, which was exactly what we wanted to do.

The three sushi chefs were all Japanese, which was a great first sign. Also, the youngest one in the middle reminded me of Tim Kang (love).

B and I ordered 7 nigiri each. Left row: 2 ika, Aji, kampachi, albacore toro, and Tako. Right row: Saba, 2 salmon toro, and 2 hamachi toro.

We ate them in this order so that will be how we describe it.

The ika was very well prepared and so creamy and crunchy at the same time. It was in no way tough to eat.

B said the Tako had a good, firm, and crunchy texture.

The Salmon toro was creamy. In my opinion, salmon usually had no taste, but this has a lot of flavour to it.

The Hamachi had fish taste but it was not fishy, if that makes sense.

The Kampachi had a subtle flavour and was very smooth.

The Albacore toro had a strong tuna taste and falls apart in your mouth.

B said the Saba was good and had the strong taste he wanted, but not fishy. It was very well balanced.

The Aji was subtle but good.

Generally the rice had a good balance of vinegar and the fish was fresh all around.

We also had a chopped scallop nigiri and ikura nigiri. The chopped scallop was very creamy, but the flavour of the scallop itself was not overpowered by the cream sauce. The ikura was as good as it gets here in Vancouver, so I still miss the ones I had in Sapporo.

(They served a good amount of wasabi and ginger separately)

We also ordered a hot sake to go with our meal. It was $28 for the bottle, and despite the really strong smell, it went down really smooth.

Instead of the Saba Battera, I thought we should have the Anago because I have had good experiences with eel and less good experiences with the Saba. Here, the eel was well proportioned to the rice and it had the perfect amount of sauce. The textures were on point and the temperature of the rice perfect.

Lastly, we can't not have the Saba Shioyaki if they have it, and good thing we did. Best one we've had yet in Vancouver (even better than Isami). It was oily and moist but the skin was still crisp. It was well prepared and served with a generous amount of daikon to help take some of the grease away.

Overall we had a great experience. The bill came out to around $110, after tip it was $130. It might be considered expensive but we thought it was well worth it, considering we also had a sake.

The chefs were really good. Especially Tim Kang (that's what I'll call him). He was putting out nigiris and rolls at the same pace as the chef we met in Sapporo and they were perfect. The older chef directly in front of me was blocked by the fridge door, so I didn't see how good he was. According to B, he was so impressed by the way he sliced the fish to get all the fish without the skin perfectly.

We will definitely recommend and return.