seva — Restaurant in San Juan

After seeing multiple posts on social, my husband and I were pretty keen on checking this restaurant out.

Customer service during booking was exceptional. The person managing the reservation is genuine and doesn't make you feel like you're given a generated response. The restaurants provides a confirmation message a day before the reservation along with additional parking instructions and offers free shuttle service and parking reimbursement with receipt for up to 2 hours.

Upon ordering our Starters, our server kindly suggests that we might be ordering a lot and explains the amount of bread we would have from the Bread & Butter and Hot Crab Dip along with the Mussels & Fries. Though we wanted to try the Burnt Coconut Butter, we took the server's advice and removed the item from our order.

We then ordered 2 pastas (Spicy Vodka Rigatoni & Uni Butter) and 2 mains (Lamb & NY Strip), which our server, again, suggested that or order is a lot. We took the server's suggestion again and removed the Lamb from our order and reassured our server that my husband and I have big appetites. I'm sure the server had good intentions, but it left us wondering why we had to reassure the server as paying customers. In addition, our server responded to us fully in Tagalog while we are English speakers as foreign diners. Thankfully, I was able to comprehend thru context clues, but my husband was very confused.

The food came out quickly one after the other and we were done with dinner within 1 hour of our seating time.

Hot Crap Dip: The flavours on the dip were good; however, the bread served to us was stale (which was toasted) and left some cuts in my husband's mouth. The dip is topped off with strands of fried leek that doesn't really taste like much. Definitely more presentation than taste

Mussels & Fries: The fries were really good. Freshly fried, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Perfectly salted. However, they only served half a bowl. The Mussels were cooked nicely; however, the broth was extremely salty to our liking.

Spicy Vodka Rigatoni: We liked that this pasta dish was more on the saucy side; but it wasn't anything special. Definitely not spicy.

Uni Butter: Beautifully presented and a good choice of noodles; however, this dish was extremely salty. We both bit into small granules of what we think could be finishing salt throughout the meal. Unfortunately, the saltiness of this this overpowered the other flavours and we weren't able to finish this dish clean.

NY Strip: We were surprised by the flavour of this dish as they added garam masala or cumin in their marinade which was a nice touch. However, this dish was also extremely salty from the finishing salt so we couldn't really enjoy the flavours of the steak as much.

Crème Brulee: This was probably our favourite dish. Though not like traditional crème brulee, the custard had an ice cream like texture, which was a delightful treat after all the salt consumed. The layer of sugar topping was so satisfying to crunch.

Overall, our experience here was quite a salty one. I definitely felt thirsty most of the...

Finally tried this resto for a post Valentine’s dinner. Overall enjoyable experience and yummy, interesting dishes were served. Service was friendly, attentive and accommodating. Ambiance is nice without being too stuffy or formal.

Crab Dip- pretty yummy but the sourdough bread to dip ratio is quite ‘bitin’. Needs at least two more slices of bread. Thinly sliced fried leeks on top added extra layer of texture.

Grilled Cabbage- loved this. Seemingly simple yet the contrast of flavors was what made this really good. Smoky cabbage, slight spice and umami from the sauce, saltiness from the cheese and sweet nutty crunch from the glazed pecans. Sauce is runny so quite an effort to have it coat the inner layers of the cabbage. Maybe have extra sauce served separately so customers can just pour over their cabbage/servings instead of putting everything in the plate.

Ahi Tuna Tartare- liked this, fresh tuna and the flavors were on point. But serving is small for the pricepoint. Quite difficult also to eat if you are sharing since you have to break the base/ shell into parts and the toppings start falling off. Would have preferred to have it in 2-3 smaller bite sized pieces for easier sharing.

Uni Butter Pasta- Rich, creamy and yummy but bordering on the salty side. Needs a side bread to help balance the flavors and also wipe down the extra sauce.

Lamb- not much of a lamb eater but my hubby enjoyed this very much. Not gamey at all and it was perfectly cooked.

Crème Brûlée- this was a perfect way to end the meal. Crème brûlée done well with hints of lavender.

Watermelon cocktail was also good!

Would come back here again and try the other dishes...

Elevated casual dining.

That’s what I think about when SEVA comes to mind. It’s my second time dining here and on both instances, I was pleased with my experience.

Dining here reminds me of meals I had in some hip New York spots - nothing too fancy (no dress code policies), nothing too pricey, and definitely tasty.

I’m not surprised with the refinement with which the team behind SEVA operates because the people, running this show, at least two of them, were batchmates back in college in Ateneo.

I also noticed that the waitstaff were young, sophisticated, and presentable - I can only guess that this was a deliberate decision. This is crucial in any restaurant that operates in the space SEVA does. What good is the culinary magic and curated atmosphere if the human element (the waitstaff) falls below par?

I like that SEVA also hasn’t raised prices since their opening. I was here when they were on soft opening and saw their introductory prices. It’s still pretty much the same (I did notice that the serving of octopus shrank though).

My only comment would be that I haven’t eaten anything warm at SEVA in the two instances I’ve been here. It seems like every dish served was already room temperature when it was set on our table. This might be a conscious choice by the team which I have no insight on.

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t mind having dinner here or celebrating another occasion. I know that the staff, the ambiance, and the food are all going to be on point.

P.S. I hope to try their brunch menu sometime. I’ve been seeing it on the Chef’s Instagram, but haven’t really looked into whether it’s...