Izakaya Seki

"Very good food, slightly above average for Tokyo, but totally Tier 1 for America. The sea urchin was very fresh and sweet, and the yakitori was also very good. A bit overpriced (especially when you convert it into Japanese yen and find it is 10-15k yen). While, the service was a little unpleasant...I ordered soba noodles after being seated (7:30pm) and asked for the check at 8:20pm and was told that I would leave at 8:30pm, they just served my soba at 8:32, and even served the noodle of the table that arrived later than me BEFORE THAT. They insisted that since I ordered too much (is that a discrimination?) at once and didn't finish my uni (actually I wanted to eat with soba), they thought intervals should be set between different courses. They refused to provide a packaging cup for my soba (they claimed they didn't have one but they actually did) and refused to refund me. And they often kept me waiting while having this unpleasant communication with me, which directly resulted in me changing my next trip and paying for it. I would say that, if I had time, I would choose some Michelin one-star restaurants in DC at this price. If I have time and want to eat at an izakaya INDEED, I will order multiple times and only order 1-2 items each time. I don't need them to set a meal interval for me PASSIONATELY. Hope they consider cultural adaptation in the future while trying to serve authentic food."

"Absolutely delicious meal in a cozy izakaya atmosphere. Highly recommend asking your server for recommendations. The menu has a good variety of food served similarly to tapas, and their sake collection is excellent. Our server, Bat ("like baseball," he said), pointed out a few of his favorite menu items and did not steer us wrong on our first time eating there! We ordered toro sashimi (real wasabi, what a treat!), grilled gindara black cod, fried snap peas, garlic and butter mushrooms, udon noodles in hot dashi, chicken karaage, an ume rice ball, and a salmon roe and yukari rice ball. Everything was plated beautifully and tasted excellent. I really liked the decor as well, lots of traditional Japanese elements including what I'm fairly certain is shou sugi ban wood paneling on the wall (gorgeous!!). All-in-all, I would come back again and again!"

"My friend recommended we grab an early dinner and drinks at Izakaya Seki, and I’m super glad we went. This is definitely a high end Japanese restaurant, that has an authentic menu and vast array of sake options. The sashimi omasake was amazing, as was the mushrooms with garlic and butter. Honestly, everything that was had was delicious and we sampled a lot of the option from the menu. With the seating that we had, it wasn’t quite chef’s table seating - but certainly felt close to it because of our proximity to the kitchen and servers. This made the service great… There were no long waits between us placing orders and the food coming out… But with no compromises on the flavour and freshness. The restaurant space cover two floors, we were seated upstairs but the downstairs space looked equally spacious with lots of natural light."

"Small restaurant with a cute downstairs room-a small area around the sushi bar-and a small intimate dining room upstairs. Fresh fish-large cuts and portions-delicious- The mushroom butter dish is amazing as is the eel. Everything was fresh and delicious-"

"Blown away by this place. The food, AMAZING. The service, AMAZING. The atmosphere, AMAZING. The server was great in helping recommend food for us, and we got to sit at the bar and were fascinated watching them prepare the meals. I got the raw fatty sardine (special) and their vegetable plate with tomato salad, eggplant, and shishito. I can’t even explain how good it was. The tomatoes and eggplant were unexpectedly one of the best parts. The sardines were complimented so well by their fresh wasabi. I was expecting a decent meal, but ended up being blown away by this spot. Far exceeded expectations."