Sushi Sei — Restaurant in Budapest

Finding different types of cuisine in large cities has become easier over the years. While I'm a big fan of trying local foods, I still go back to my favorite styles during longer trips. We decided to try the Sushi Sei on my recent trip to Budapest.

The restaurant is located close to the main downtown tourist areas but not necessarily walking distance. The decor is upscale and we were immediately seated. All of the staff were friendly and we didn't have any issues speaking English.

We ordered a wide variety of food, starting with some of their fresh oysters (served either French or Japanese style), Miso soup, Spicy Octopus salad, side salad, chawamushi, and having tempura, chirashi (sashimi) and zaru soba as our entrees. They have some dinner sets but other than the chirashi we went full tapas style.

Everything came out beautifully presented and everything was good. While we had some minor issues (they brought out Japanese style oysters instead of the French that we ordered), the staff and owners took care of everything immediately and went above and beyond.

Oysters - 5 star. Fresh and delicious. Miso - 4 star. Very good Octopus Salad- 3 star. The octopus was a little dry and they mix it with real wasabi which was a nice surprise. Not to my taste though. Side Salad - 4 star. Nice light dressing and fresh Chawamushi - 3 star. Done well (which can be hard to do) Tempura - 4 star. Delicious. Not as crispy as some but very good, sauce was amazing and tasty Chirashi - 4 star. Great variety of fresh seafood Zaru Soba - 5 star. Basic dish but like the tempura the sauce was delicious. Noodles were a little overdone but good. Deluxe Sashimi* - Note this has some exotic types of food and looked good but we had to return ours and replaced it with the Chirashi set so not rating. Ambiance - 5 star. Staff - 5 star.

Overall you won't go wrong coming here if you're in the mood for some Japanese food...

The main issue is the management. We came on Valentine’s Day expecting to pay a lot and be wowed. Instead we paid a lot and wasn’t very intrigued to come back. Our servers Bernadette and assistant Gergely were nice and able to assist with orders. The food was delicious even though it was small portions it was good quality. A little overpriced for my opinion but it is Hungary and there are no oceans nearby so you get what you get. But the management was TERRIBLE. There was a manager in a white sweater and a “head” manager in a red coat. The woman in the white sweater stood at the sushi counter/kitchen with her back turned to the kitchen the ENTIRE time we were there and never managed any tables on the floor. The “head” manager was incredibly rude. My husband went to the sushi counter to have a look at the cooks work and leave a compliment and the “head” manager in a red jacket looked rudely at my husband and then just looked away without a thank you or anything. We paid almost 40,000 forint for our meal... for TWO people. Definitely not the service we expected. And at the end of the night we noticed they gave a rose to everyone else and they never gave one to us. My husband had to ask for it while I was in the restroom. QUIT EMBARASSING for the price. As a restaurant manager, did and beverage director, general manager, and Forbes inspector I was appalled by the management knowing how the the industry works and definitely don’t give them my deal...

One of the best Japanese restaurants in town I believe. Need to note, this is a very pricey place, but only a few restaurants at this price range can make me say: "you are paying for the great quality". You can go to some more affordable sushi places in the city, but the quality of the fish won't be as good as here. Service is nice and friendly, the ambiance of the place is nice and overall a pleasant experience. I had one of the special Bento sets which cost me about 10k HUF, but as you can see on the pictures it was a huge amount of food plus it had the best of everything: Sashimi, Sushi, Miso soup, Karaage chicken and Tempura. I only missed a chance to taste some of the Sake's on the menu, as most appear to be only served as full bottles and no option to try a glass of them. I did like my choice however. And finally, the Matcha cheese cake was a real winner, not just a cheesecake with some matcha powder on top, but integrating the flavor into the cake well. Overall, great place, would come back. (note: photos made by my...