Seto Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

Delicious food, terrible service. (scroll down for food review)

To the employee that asked why I didn’t leave a tip and started preaching to me about Canadian culture: if you’re expecting that “Canada culture is tipping” then perhaps you should also follow Canadian service cultures. As a Canadian who has worked in the service industry for years, I feel I have a decent idea of what those are (to name a few, you should at the very least be accommodating and friendly and definitely not hostile or judgmental).

I had a reservation for 5:30pm (I have proof that I called in my call history which they even asked to check at one point, although they didn’t follow through). When we arrived, the employee at the front seemed confused after finding some sort of problem in their list of reservations. Eventually they were able to find the details - it seems they had not heard my name over the phone correctly - however the lady I had talked to while making the reservation on the phone did not indicate in any way that she needed clarification. At this point I felt that they doubted I had ever called and I did not feel welcomed at all. I brushed it off as a one off mistake and that maybe I was reading the atmosphere incorrectly.

After several instances of bad/nonexistent service (forgetting a third menu for our group of three and not noticing until we pointed it out, never asking us if we’d like anything to drink or how the food was, a general attitude of hostility, the list goes on...) I had decided to not include a tip.

After we paid for our meal an employee came up to us at our table and asked “why didn’t two of you tip, this is Canada culture”. She kept repeating it without really letting us say anything. I really felt like she was just trying to make a scene rather than solve a problem here despite her initial proclamation that she was asking in order to improve service. She could’ve easily spoken to us at the door, so that the confrontation wouldn’t bother other people who were eating.

I was just going to leave a review on the amazing food but after this happened I felt the need to say something. If you’re planning to eat here, I would recommend take out as that way you can enjoy the food without having a traumatic public shaming event with a server.

I got the Chirashi-don ($44), it was beautifully presented and the seafood was very fresh. I think the extra detail of garnishing the rice with seaweed even before plating the assorted fish on top really was so thoughtful. My friends shared the Seto sushi boat which was enormous - bigger than any sushi boat I’ve seen. The oysters and the honeydew were my favourite. The anmitsu was nicely presented, I feel it could do with a bit more fruit - but that’s just my own preference. Overall, the food was very good (although a bit on the pricey side for what you get). I would never dine in again but might...

I've worked at various Japanese restaurants for a significant amount of time in the past, went on major Ramen hunting, nigiri hunting, and several occasions of izakaya hunting as well.

And I can say that this place is is the top of all. I say again, Top of all.

Went there for lunch today. Otoro nigiri (blue tuna), Soyu ramen & unagi don, and finished off with a piece of tamago. It was a bliss. Unagi and tamago are couple of the ones that most of the stores or restaurants tends to overlook in terms of quality; but taking a single bite of the eel, I wanted to save the other one til the end of the dish -it melts in your mouth. To say the least, go with high expectation, and it will be fulfilled.

You can notice many subtle services too. Warming up the tea cup before serving in order to prevent the tea from getting cold too fast, portion of rice per nigiri was proportional, wasabi was made very recently with fine quality ingredient, ginger was served at the end of the dish (tamago) with just the right amount, and the waitress with the card machine was just outside the eyesight to provide comfort to the customer while making payment.

Menu wise, they have everything. And I mean everything. From lunch boxes to soba to sashimi to ramen to nabe: they have everything.

Price-wise, I'd say it's very humble in terms of the quality they offer. Baseline prices are very modest -and if you're someone like me who looks for quality, giving a comparison of the prices of the dishes between you'd want to try with the ones that you already know the value of -which is a rare means of assuming quality in most of the restaurants- will give you an estimate of the quality they can take pride of.

Too bad this was for lunch. I'd be broke if I went there for dinner with friends in one single night for talks and drinks. Very much looking forward to visit there again. I hope to try all their dishes...

We’ve been loyal customers of this Japanese restaurant for many years. The food is always excellent. After receiving the notice that it will be closing for renovations starting June 2nd, we made a special effort to come and have dinner with our family today.

However, we were very disappointed by what happened during our visit. We ordered the teapot soup, and to our surprise, the server handed us the small teacup by pinching the inside of the cup with two fingers. This is extremely unhygienic — who would feel comfortable drinking soup from a cup that has just been touched like that?

To make things worse, after we paid the bill but were still enjoying our dessert, the same server suddenly started clearing our table. I told her politely that she could wait and come later until we leave but she ignored me and continued removing the empty plates right in front of us. This made us feel rushed and uncomfortable. We were there for less than an hour.The server-a lady with black hair , black glasses and a face mask. Her service attitude is so so so bad compare to her colleagues. She was rude and left a very negative impression.

We’ve always appreciated the food and service in the past, but today’s experience was really disappointing. We hope the management will take this feedback seriously and improve staff hygiene and service manners...