Sekisui

Even with a deal off groupon could not make this experience any better. The only thing good about here is the door to exit. Just drove past ate there yesterday wasn’t gonna do a review. But decided to give heads up.

Living in this neighborhood, I’ve been to this place a ton. I LOVE their sushi! I also enjoy that they have Groupons quite frequently! Their outside patio is a little on the small side, but it’s cozy, shaded by trees, and has a darling, wrought-​iron fence surrounding it.
The service is fast whether you’re dining in or snagging some mid-​week take out. The pricing is pretty reasonable, but their happy hour is where it’s at. They have a pretty big selection of half-​price appetizers, compared to some other happy hours in the area. This place is well worth a try!

This is my first one-​star rating on Unilocal.
With this one-​star rating, I have a question:
How in the name of the culinary gods does this place still operate a business?
This place is officially the worse Japanese food I have ever eaten. I barely have the will to write this review.
We went in search of their Ramen menu. They have a ramen menu! We were so excited, since it seems like no one else in St. Louis has a ramen menu.
UGH it was awful. I can barely write this.
How does a place on the corner of Grand and Arsenal, adjacent to Tower Grove Park stay in business with such poor-​tasting food?
First off, in order to try several options, we ordered the Salmon Roe. The salmon eggs were sticky in a not-​so-​fresh way.
We also ordered some vegetable tempura. It was several dollars for two pieces of each vegetable. What a joke. It was a very small serving with thin tempura batter and bland tempura sauce.
THEN the ramen. Oh lord, I’ve never had such bad ramen. The broth was clear and tasteless. I’ve never had to add anything to a ramen broth to make it have flavor at a table. We added the leftover tempura sauce and tons of soy sauce to the bowl, and it made it almost edible. My dinning companion didn’t finish his, and I have never seen him not finish a bowl of ramen. The soup was tasteless, the noodles were overcooked, and add-​ons were worthless additions.
Don’t eat here. Don’t waste your time or your money.
St. Louis deserves good food. Financially supporting such places lowers the standard of good food in our wonderful city. There should be a high standard and a demand for better food. If no bar is set, we won’t have the renaissance we deserve. Go down the street to Café Moochi for sushi and demand from local chefs more ramen.

Very strange smell. the food was subpar… and the place was a bit dirty… Although there were 5 people no on swept… save your money

A friend and I had dinner at Sekisui last night and had a lovely time. Our server was attentive and made sure that we had everything we needed and answered any questions we had. The sushi was delicious! We tried several types of nigiri, tuna sashimi, and a couple of different rolls. All of it was good. The owner circulated through the room checking in with each table to make sure diners were happy.
The outdoor seating area was full and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. We sat indoors and the only minor complaint that I have was that the air conditioning was set a little on the warm side, but I got used to that pretty quickly.
I hadn’t been to Sekisui in a couple of years, but will definitely be going back again soon.

I have never had bad fish at this place. Fresh delicious and beautiful to the eyes. The host was attentive the servers at your beckon call.

Waited a long time just to see a waitress, never a good indicator. Menu is lacking in non-​sushi items, my dining companion was looking for stir fry and got the chicken teriyaki.
Sushi roll was not fresh and was extremely small for the price. Wait for the food was awful and the salad accompaniment had wilted leaves. My friends chicken came out a good ten minutes after my roll and tasted of nothing but soy, the vegetables were raw.
Used to come by for the happy hour but I really think it’s not worth the stomach ache (literally) anymore.

We went here on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. The atmosphere was greatly lacking (it smelled musty, there were visible wires everywhere, honestly the entire place just appeared old and dirty). My sister really wanted a soda for a pick me up and wouldn’t you know the soda machine was broken and besides coffee the waiter informed us there were no alternatives.
As for the food, as an appetizer the lump crab Rangoon were pretty delicious, however for sushi the oyster po’ boy was the only roll out of the 5 we ordered that I really enjoyed. The tempura rolls we had were a huge disappointment (I didn’t know I could dislike something that was fried)! The breading was just really odd and tasted almost mushy. The philly roll was also off-​putting mostly because the salmon just didn’t taste fresh.
We went with a groupon but I do not think I would go back. Perhaps I’d give it a shot for the happy hour only considering the prices would be good but from now on I’ll just go down the street to Café Mochi.

This place has reasonably priced sushi. The sushi is average at best. They have ½ priced happy hour and good prices for li
The two stars are really more for the cleanliness of the place. He tables and the bar had lots of leftover food bits from previous patrons even through we watched them wipe the tables down. Not the most appetizing environment.

The food is GREAT! But the service is awful! The last 2 times we have gone the service was awful. They brought out raw chicken skewers… twice! I got a groupon thinking that was a fluke, we’ll give them another shot.
We showed up there was a 20 minute wait. No big deal, we waited, only to have 2 other couples seated before us. The hostess said she thought we left, but we were sitting in front the whole time.
Our server came to our table once to take our order and once to drop off our drinks, we never saw him again… at least at our table. Food came out all at random times, at one point I had all my food, except my sushi and my date had nothing. We had to ask the bus boy for our salads. Dates sushi came out and mine never did. Thank goodness the bus boy was working, we had to ASK him for everything.
No one ever brought us out check, we sat there for 30 minutes waiting for it.
Food was good, but service was the worst I have had anywhere… ever! I think we will stick to Café Mochi from here on out!

Strange atmosphere and generally not a good sign that there weren’t any Asian customers. Some people might really appreciate how western friendly (all in english) their menus are with raw/​cooked items separated. Good nigiri sushi for the middle of the country. Their dragon roll, shellfish delight, and traditional Japanese appetizers were very good. It wasn’t the best value and would cost a bit much to have a full sushi dinner. I can’t recommend their shrimp tempura roll or xmen roll. I’ll still be looking at deals to go back (groupon, Facebook, happy hour deals), but I’ll definitely keep looking around St. Louis for the best sushi and Japanese food.

Despite an initial wait to be seated, the service was pretty good. Our server was good, but it was the buser who was truly attentive. My water glass was at least 75% full during our entire dining experience.
The food was very tasty. We started with a seafood and veggie tempera appetizer. The tempera had great flavor and texture. The sweet dipping sauce it was served with was also nice. We kept the bowl of dipping sauce as an alternative option to soy sauce for our meal.
The highlights of the rolls were the dragon roll and the seafood roll. Both were very well executed and had excellent flavor. The nigiri was also very good; we had the unagi, squid, and blue fin tuna, all of which were great cuts of delicious fish.
The shrimp tempura roll was good, but not as good as shrimp tempura rolls I’ve had elsewhere. The veggie rolls added nice variety to the menu. The mushroom was good. The sweet potato was good, but a bit too starchy. The x-​men roll was a bit too spicy in an odd way — the roll had potential, but seemed to have saracha sauce squeezed on top.
Overall, great dinning experience! Looking forward to eating there again soon and further exploring the menu.

Service was mixed, some staff were friendly, others were not. Sat at the sushi bar. Big mistake. Was in view of the sushi chef, who only washed his hands with soap once! Most other times a quick rinse, and never towel dried his hands. No gloves were ever used. Bare hand contact with ready-​to-​eat food is a critical food code violation. His assistant was wearing the same pair of gloves the entire time, not changing them between tasks. I have been in before and had good experiences, but this visit was quite disgusting.
I would like to come back to Sekisui, but not not if important food safety procedures continue to be overlooked.

This is my favorite place to get sushi. Laid back atmosphere and good sushi. They have a big room to take larger parties too.
Every time I go there I’m happy with what I order. Sometimes it’s rolls sometimes it’s off the menu. I’ve never been disappointed. The shellfish pot is amazing. Stuffed full of seafood with an amazing spicy curry. The other thing I can not do with out when I go there are the prawns with heads. Don’t knock it till you try it. Crunchy, briny goodness.
Just writing this is making me want to go get more! Yumo!

Not good quality sushi. If you’re somebody who knows the difference between good sushi and and less than average, shitty, cheap sushi, then you will agree with me about the lack of quality. On the flip side, good prices here.
If you are going to eat here, just do yourself a favor and avoid the oyster po boy roll… based on other reviews of this place, avoid any oyster-​containing dishes here.

So way back in the day, I thought Sekisui was the business. 5 years and many other sushi experiences later, yikes… not good. Tried to go to Mochi, but they were swamped and had issues at the front door (standard), so we went to Sekisui instead. The service at Sekisui was good, no issues there. Ordered a seaweed salad, came swimming in a pool of soy/​ginger/​sesame sauce. Whatever, no biggie. I can get over a salad being a soup.
Then, got 3 rolls. Can’t even remember which ones, there were a ton on the menu. They weren’t the deep-​fried-​American variety, though. They were just ok. Comment after our meal was, «I didn’t think I’d ever had bad sushi… but now I get it.» I guess there was too much rice: fish, foul-​tasting seaweed, and it just seemed very Sansai-esque…as in, a chain restaurant that will make the moms and kids feel comfortable.
Nothing against that at all, but I feel as though I now have a better barometer on good vs. bad sushi.
… And yea, I’m sure those who’ve lived on the coasts/​Japan/​anywhere other than the heartland will have a comment on that. Congrats — We’re all very impressed. :)

This review is for a takeout order. The person on the phone was very nice and went to double check for me that everything I ordered was indeed gluten free. I was told it would be a 15 – 20 minute wait but it actually turned out to be more like 35 minutes.
I was super happy to find out that they carry gluten free soy sauce! I wish more places would think to do that for folks.
The rolls were definitely smaller than most places I go to but still really delicious. Everything tasted fresh and the prices were pretty decent.
We’ll be back again.

3.5 Stars. I keep coming back because of their happy hour. Ridiculously well-​priced sushi that tastes good. Happy Hour is every day of the week from 4:30pm-6:30pm, and it is a steal.
If you order a bento box for $ 12.95, it includes soup, salad, an entrée, a sushi roll, and an appetizer.
I usually get sashimi for my entrée, an unagi/​avocado roll, and edamame or vegetable tempura. Definitely fills that sushi craving.
I may be done with grad school, but I love a good deal. I’m going to say that it’s half the price of Tani and the quality is not much lower at all… with fewer snobby people.

A solid 3.5 stars.
The dining experience overall was great. This was our first visit, at the recommendation of a friend who called Sekisui the best, most authentic Japanese cuisine. I got a
certificate and told the hostess (who also ended up being our server) that we had the certificate. She told us about all the deals going on — it was happy hour, so there was half priced sake (after I heard sake I stopped listening to anything else…). And she walked us through the menu, which was pretty helpful, because they have alot to choose from. I ordered the bento box, the bf ordered a noodle soup, and we had raw octopus as an appetizer. And of course, a large hot sake — rose sake, I think.
Wow! Delicious. At the end we were both stuffed. My bento box was amazing, I ended up with leftovers.
Well, my main complaint was, after it was all said and done, the server comes over and tells us the bento box doesn’t count toward the minimum $ 50 that has to be spent for the $ 25 off coupon to be valid. This majorly irked me, since it was literally the first thing we pointed out to our server when we came in. So, we ended up spending $ 60 (after the coupon was deducted, tip included). In order to spend the required amount, we ordered more sushi, a soup and wontons to go. For the amount and quality of food we got, it was worth it, the only issue was, I wasn’t quite planning on spending that much.
Overall, a positive experience.

We’ve been here 10 times at least over the years. This visit was not the most stellar. The chair fell apart when my wife tried to sit down. Sapporo is served in a can — a first for me, but maybe this is normal now (?). They got rid of the cool fountain up front and kind of made it more, uh, ordinary. It is more spacious, though. They’ve expanded to the north, then apparently gave up on the back room along Arsenal, which we noticed, from outside, looked like a closed restaurant — a few chairs and an unused bar.
I’m guessing there’s new ownership now. Sushi was good, not great. The tuna nigiri didn’t seem all that fresh, and I would think that’s pretty much a staple. They did have a pretty interesting selection of rolls, I must say. We got a few ordinary type things, plus an Oyster Po Boy roll, which had fried oysters and was very good. So the fun menu might just bring us back. Service was also very good and the prices weren’t bad at all.
I think this is a good place for a sushi beginner, since they separate the «cooked» and «raw» items.
Overall, I can recommend this if you’re in the neighborhood, not on a date and want to try some rolls. Or a beginner. Not what I’d consider a destination, though.