Keito (Pub Kei) — Restaurant in Região Imediata de São Paulo

Out with the old, in with the new.

As old customer returning to this traditional (the original Pub Keito started in 1988) japanese restaurant after 8 years it was a sad surprise to see the fall of a little giant from the past. The Keito family seems to spend more time taken the on-line orders than respecting the customers that are inside the restaurant.

The loud music from Alpha FM does not make any sense on ambience that pretends to evoke the Edo era. Where is the hōgaku music?

The attendants are not prepared, or are too deaf to hear what the customer is ordering. In my last visit, I had to repeat my order two times to the weak and poor boy trying to emulate a Japanese language and a culture he will ever be able to assimilate. That is the big problem in this current version of the once great Keito restaurant. It lost its origins. The original tatames are nowhere to be seen, and the bamboo details are long gone. Now they are using "boteco" wood table and chairs but are selling overpriced Japanese food. If they want to be a common Japanese restaurant they should decrease the price. Jun Sakamoto is just around the corner with the delightful and amazing restaurant inside the Japan House. There all the crew speaks japanese, they say arigatô, gomen and onegai on almost every situation.

I entered and left the Keito Pub and didn't hear any kind word, in fact I even heard a big fat lie, when I asked if I could site on the Mezzanimo, the attendant boy lied to me saying that the entire Mezzanimo was reserved. It was ridiculous because it was late night Sunday, and the restaurant was almost empty, and during my stay nobody occupied the reserved tables.

The dawn for this restaurant has already arrived. Tonight, the ditchan acting as the sushi man, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, was not using the face mask wrongly with his big nose and mouth on the outside, breathing over the dishes. Again disrespectful to customers.

I ordered a salmon teppan and a side of three fat tuna sashimi. Almost R$ 200 (more than US$ 40). Excellent ingredients, common presentation (photos attached), subpar preparation (the shashimi was warm) and the salmon was too oiled by the butter used to cook the vegetables.

For this overprice, here in Sao Paulo, you get top Japanese cuisine very close to Paulista location. Go to any Michelin restaurants in the vicinity. There are at least three. And better service, educated crew and true...

This Japanese restaurant is located in a shopping center and it tastes like you would think.

The grilled fish and miso soup was good, but every sushi piece we ordered was terrible.

They have the worst sushi rice I have ever had — it tastes like some pieces of rice we’re not even cooked. We ordered all the premium sushi (Uni, toro, chutoro and Ikura), which all were a let down due to the rice. However, the Uni was especially bad as it tasted like it was expired and frozen, leading to a very slimy taste. Very disappointed...

When you come from a Japanese family you probably like and want to have traditional Japanese food, no inventions out of the cannon, no westernized variants, no ingredients to cover the real flavors you get from simplicity. Either you are from that kind of family or like that tradition, then the place to go in São Paulo is the Pub Key led by sushi chef Nobu. Seat at the sushi bar whenever you can, have the house omakaze, order good sake, and let...