SEA Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Rochester

I work close to here and have stopped by a couple of times. I have been to the Monroe location before and was a fan of the seafood soup (hu tieu mi do bien) so I was glad there they were opening a second location close by. The decor is quite average, but the service was friendly and the food was good.

Their Pho is ok. It's funny but I actually like the pho at Yummy Garden more, it seems to be much more flavorful. The pho here has a lighter taste and I guess some people like that.

My personal favorite is the chicken sauteed with cashews (thi xao hat dieu). It's not like the Chinese take out cashew stirfry that you get at most Chinese take outs. It's flavorful and has a good saltiness to it. It goes perfect with white rice.

I have also had the rice plate, BBQ meat and rice (com thit nuong). I like to add the extra egg on top which is $1.50 extra. It seems kind of steep for one fried egg, but this dish isn't complete without it.

Overall it's a decent Vietnamese restaurant with some Chinese influences. It can be hard to find as it's tucked into a small space in the Mt. Hope plaza next to Jing Li's Chinese restaurant and Country Sweet's Chicken. There is always parking but be careful of...

The seafood pho was good/decent. It wasn’t Saigon Pho good but with Saigon being closed today it definitely satisfied my pho craving. I think the key difference is the broth. When ordering the lady asked if I wanted chicken broth. Difference to me is Saigon broth tastes original & homemade and Sea restaurant uses chicken broth & maybe add a few seasonings to it. However SEA will do for me if Saigon is closed OR if Saigon continue to hike their prices up. Also, ordered their shrimp spring rolls. It came w/ no sauce … nothing. It would have been much better if served w/ some type of sauce. I used that sauce from Wegmans sushi area (Thai sweet) & it was delicious 😋!!! So overall I’ll give them a B- for the pho & C for the rolls (but only b/c it didn’t come w/ sauce) Also the lady who took my order over the phone was really nice & showed great patience when asking ?’s about prices & ingredients. Sea may become my new Pho spot!! Work on that...

We were recommended by friends who studied in Rochester Institute Technology few years ago that SEA Restaurant serves the top 1 pho in their opinion. We visited with high expectation but left with little disappointment.

Dining-in is currently allowed with social distancing and the staff was really friendly. The decor is bright and clean with limited seats. The food was overall decent but was overrated and definitely not the top 1 pho for us.

We tried their beef special pho with brisket, rough flank, rare steak, tripe and meatball, shrimp salad and fried squid with reasonable price $30 (+tax & tip) and great portion.

The broth was flavorful and light but some of the beef was overcooked. The fried squid was the best, tender and juicy, but a bit too spicy for me.

Overall, SEA Restaurant is a good place for pho if you live in Rochester, but we wouldn’t recommend to visit...