I have never been disappointed. It's worth going for the monk fish liver (foie gras of the sea)and beef tongue.
#SOLID. First night in D.C. Recommend by chef friend, meal was no joke. Tuna special real nice/ vegetable sides were all amazing/ mackerel special was hands down one of best fish dishes I've eaten. Will be back
Amazing food, for both the cooked and raw items. Good selection of sake and other cocktails. Highly recommend.
Absolutely amazing!!!!! Our server Daniel was fantastic. We ordered a lot of food to share and had a great time. Daniel was knowledgeable and the food was absolutely delicious.
Love this place. The food is delicious, the atmosphere unpretentious and welcoming and the service is great. It's now my go-to any time we go to U Street area for a music show.
Really yummy food. Be sure to order to share it is more fun that way. Our waitress was super friendly and helpful too. Worth visiting this hidden away gem just a few steps away from U street.
Always nice relaxing Izakaya in DC just like Izakaya in Japan. Authentic traditional tasty real comfy Japanese food here!
Great quality fish. Pretty small place but it’s fantastic.
We just stumbled in here and had some incredibly unusual items, including mackerel sashimi, where they fried the skeleton after we ate the raw part and then we crunched the rest of the fish. A new experience for us! We have walked by here many times and never saw the place. And, we can't wait to go back.
Amazing food & service; love this place. Hadn't been in a while and glad I went back!
Truly creative Japanese fare, especially the daily specials!
Very good comfy Japanese food family style. Good selection of Sakes.
Izakaya Seki has an ever-evolving, ever-stimulating, unique menu with specialty delicious Japanese items you can't get anywhere else in DC. I'm never disappointed there. Also, they have the world's cutest font on their menu.
Great authentic Japanese food!! It made me homesick for Japan!
Amazing meal tonight! Best sushi in town. Get the Hamachi for sure
Absolutely incredible. Beef Tongue, Squid, Uni. What more can I say.
日本のために寂しいとき、私はここに行く。いつも素晴らしい！
Love this place, love the CHEF!! I feel like I am in Japan, of course food is incredible delicious.
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.
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!
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.
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Food was so freaking good. All very light and fresh. We got a bunch of stuff and they all came out in a very timely manner. We were seated at the bar and was able to watch chef seki and his team work, which was great. It was clear the team puts great care into the food.
Menu can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not too familiar with Japanese food, but take your time to look it over before you go and it’ll be really helpful.
We got:
- Aji tataki - raw mackerel. Really yummy but also can be a lot for those who don’t love raw fish. When you finish, they fry the bones for you to have. You can eat the whole thing (minus some parts of the head)
- tuna nuta- has wasabi-ish sauce. My second fave thing we ordered. Sooo good.
- whole grilled squid — pretty good and we finished it all, but probably will order the eel next time
- salmon rice ball— this was a good staple but I’d probably skip this and just go for more sushi.
- motsu skewer — intestines I think? Wasn’t super fatty like I was afraid it was gonna be and had really great flavor! Would get again
- obanzai - shishito peppers, potato salad, and nasu (eggplant). All were great, loved nasu the most
- crab and corn croquettes — 3rd fave dish of the night. Comes with 2 piping hot croquettes that were stupid delicious
- gindara miso (black cod) — the star of the night omg so so good. Comes with super yummy pickled onions on the side too. GET THIS. Forgot to take a photo cuz it was so dang good
- house made green tea and red bean ice cream. Green tea ice cream stole the show for me. Not too sweet and lots of green tea flavor. My partner liked the red bean more 🤷🏻♀️
Can’t wait to come back. Make sure you venture into parts of the menu that look daunting cuz it’ll be worth it!!
A great neighborhood eat. The restaurant is nice and quiet. Everything we ate was delicious and they have a great range of hitachino beers on the menu. They also have some amazing specials. Don’t forget to order the cold udon, mushrooms and the kalbi.
Awesome Japanese small plates in a city where great authentic Japanese food is not easy to get. Had wonderful sardine sashimi and chicken karage which tasted like they were the dark meat oysters. Sake selection was great in addition to special imported beers from Japan. Food was fast to come out and service was awesome. Located in a quiet residential area a block from famous Ben’s Chili Bowl, this is a great gem.
Decent food, especially for non-vegetarians. Had a reservation, but was seated at the bar which doesn’t really allow for a clean view into the inner workings of the kitchen, so wasn’t quite sure of the advantage of having a reservation and receiving bar seats. 😐 They have a 90-minute time limit (so DC, right?), but that’s plenty of time get in and get out. Also, don’t let the tiny Coke bottle fool you: it’s loaded with high-fructose corn syrup!
Great food with a Izakaya feel
Found this restaurant on a top 50 list for DC and I definitely understand why its top 20.
Everything was good and the service was impeccable.
The fatty tuna is a must get as well as the steak with the garlic fried rice.
I personally love the unfiltered sake definitely give it a try.
The menu can be a lot but your server will help you out. And everything they recommended was amazing
Growing up in East Asia, izakayas were my go to for skewers and crispy beers. Izakaya Seki not only lived up to this standard and scratched that craving, but also far exceeded my expectations. That first bite into the beef tongue was truly exceptional and unforgettable. It was clear that it was cooked sous-vide, but the way it MELTED and literally FELL APART on my tongue was nothing short of magical. It was so spectacular that I ordered it twice. Definitely give this cute intimate izakaya a go, you will certainly not be disappointed!!!
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