Saikai

It was a random pick. And it turned out to be an fantastic experience! Amazing service, delicious food, great drinks… True Japanese! Thank you very much for this! Every dish was incredible!!!

nice food and drink！good to try！and their services is excellent!

Best dinner I’ve had in a LONG while! Everything is great, traditional with a slight modern twist, and a clean taste: the cucumber salad tastes like toasted sesame, the kale calamari salad (which doesn’t have too much squid) tastes like capers, the uni dishes taste like uni, etc. I recommend so many dishes, and all are definitely worth the price. The most notable of my experience includes the chicken karaage (so much more than just fried chicken), mixed wild mushrooms (yes it is a bit pricy for mushrooms but popping the poached egg on top makes it so much better), spicy shrimp (so crisp and it goes so well with the cilantro), and the truffle donabe (they shave Australian summer black truffles, which aren’t as good quality as the European ones, but its still amazing). All in all, a completely mind-​blowing experience. The staff is amiable, polite, and really funny!

I’m giving them 5 stars because I wanted to give 4.5 and felt that 4 was too low. This isn’t the best of the best in the two classes it can play in. You *will* find better sushi (Sasabune, Gari, Seki, Dojo [when David was still there]) and you *will* find better kaiseki options (Aburiya, Sugiyama)… but I don’t think you’ll find the two combined quite as nicely and there is a great pleasure to be taken with building a meal out of raw/​cold bites accompanied by a few savory grilled and smoked goodies.
The service was IMPECCABLE and our waiter/​Sake-​sommelier was a true pro.
The food was very thoughtful and mostly very well executed. A few minor touches were missing like salt/​tamari on the sprouts, a touch more flavor on the risotto, and an even number of smoked duck breast wrappers to fois fillers. But really, all of these are minor and really do not take away from the overall experience.
Sushi was very very well executed and with a surprising variety. The combination price was reasonable but our attempt to go a-​la-​carte with a few supplemental pieces was perhaps not the wisest choice.
Sake list was compelling and here, again, our waiter was the hero — navigating the right flavors for the eclectic food order.

Love this place. It’s small and intimate. The food takes me to another place and the service complimented everything really well. The servers were very knowledgeable in the food and culture.
It was very interesting as our server explained the Japanese culture. They focus on every detail, from setting up to food to the drinks.
Loved the experience!

What kind of food is this? ?? Ok so I’m partly responsible for landing in this restaurant. I’m here on a quick trip from the Washington DC area so when I’m in NY I’m really good at finding great food for a reasonable price. However this time I’m with friends that live in New York so i allow them choose the restaurant and i guess their taste buds are much more evolved than my wife’s and myself.
Ok…for starters they only give us the saki/​wine menu and although I’m not a saki drinker I’m roughly aware of prices and there was not one carafe less than $ 30 as compared to other Japanese restaurants where the lower saki prices start at $ 10. My friends are drinkers so they go get saki beer etc… and I’m asking for the food menu and they were almost like…“oh…you are one of those… unrefined one that just wants food”
Yes, A hole… that’s me. I’m starving and I’m here to eat.
Ok…so now I’m looking at the menu and where in the world is the teriyaki salmon… or the habachi fillet mignon? NOT HERE! Remember this place must be for people with evolved taste buds amd who want to spend a lot of money and still leave hungry.
Ok…so I’m annoyed at myself for not even looking at the menu before we get here, so I tell my really good meaning friends my wife can’t and won’t eat raw food so let’s get a few appetizers and finish the drinks and go to a place where we can fill up some food.
Ok…I could have been more politically correct but thank goodness my wife had my back on this one. We did order appetizers… I had the Toro fatty tuna roll and the short ribs. The roll was $ 24 and the short ribs $ 32 respectively. My wife ordered the muscles and a miso soup. She just said it was the saltiest damn soup she ever had and just said who messes up miso soup? SAKAI DOES! i forget what my friends ordered. .sea urchin for 2 wafers at 24 dollars… i forget what else they ordered.
I was starving maybe the service seemed slower than I wanted it to be so I’ll just give them 3 stars for the service… but a MINUS 3 stars for trying to be some shi shi place with meals 3 to 4 times the price of a regular Japanese place.
So…final bill… $ 234 for appetizers and remember, my friends do drink, which was probably half the bill, but we all left hungry and on to another restaurant a 5 minute walk away. So if you are a guy wanting to impress your date and want fancy expensive hoping to get laid, this is the place to go.
If this is a business meeting and your company is paying for this overpriced meal come here!
The high price is not worth the slightly better than average food they serve.

This review is PURELY BASED ON THEIR BAR EXPERIENCE
Location: Saikai is bit hard to look for if you want to find it intentionally. But if you are just wondering around at West village, this may be easier to find. Why? Because I found this place by accident.
The inside decoration is interesting, very Japanese version decoration but mixed well with some American elements in it. They have bar and dining places. We were there for the bar experience because they have 6 buck wine special that night. Yay, who doesn’t want 6 $ wine.
And they also have a special occasion to promote one of their most pricy sake — 359 for a bottle, whereas that day, we tasted for free.
Bar: Lets start with the sake. It is very smoothy. The quality is pretty high, I would say but the price never came cheap.
I had their Italian wine… It’s a red wine. I don’t know why but the wine taste really unpleasant. reminded me an experience that I did on wine: if you leave the wine bottle open up and for few days… the good wine turns to be a sour wine… this is the case tho…
My friend ‘s sake was not pleasant either…
Although it seems to be cheap, it would be very pricy if you come here for a regular day…

I expected better given the rating of this place.
The food was bland, and the dishes were very pricey.
Overall left here with a lighter wallet, and an unsatisfied stomach.
Today’s Hot Pot Nabe — someone pass me the salt — super bland — don’t get it.
Uni Risotto — GOOD — This was the highlight of the dinner. It was good, portions are small
Toro Taku Roll — EH — This is ok. the roll reminds me more of korean kimbap which you can get for much cheaper.
Grilled Maitake — OK — Mushrooms were good. Nothing great.
Overall the place looks chic and looks like they put a lot of thought in to presentation of food etc… but the food here in terms of taste and size was a huge MISS especially at the price they charge.
I wouldn’t come back.

The food was ok. We went here for their three course pop-​up lunch at 12pm, being the only party there, however the whole meal takes about an hour and twenty minutes to come out. Yes, the salad is beautiful, but we were literally starving to death to wait for our soup and rice to come out. We ordered seafood tamago soup, which is delicious, but again, an hour wait for lunch? Just NO. The rice portion is very small compare to the soup bowl. The sesame tofu had an interesting mochi like taste. This is my first time being here, and I think they might be understaffed for lunch or just unprepared. If this lunch didn’t take us nearly two hours, I’d be happy to give a five star. In short: if you are in a hurry and trying to find a place to have quick bite for lunch, don’t go here.

Great spot for a modern but largely authentic taste of Japanese food. There is a chef’s counter and overall great spot for lone diners.
The cucumber salad (⁵⁄₅) — refreshing and expertly sliced to be like cucumber I’ve never seen before
Bluefin tuna with wasabi (³⁄₅) — slices of bluefin with specks of fresh wasabi looks like a work of art. Overall good but maybe too familiar flavor profile. Would have tried the other fish but the server himself hadn’t sampled it so couldn’t tell me anything about it.
Uni rissoto (⁵⁄₅) — really strong uni flavor and this is basically an umami bomb. It wasn’t so rich I couldn’t eat the whole thing myself but it is intense. Probably one of the best renditions of this dish I’ve had
Service was attentive and on point. I’d return.

I think this is American Japanese restaurant. Every dish I had tasted good and its atmosphere was awesome, but I have never seen any dishes in Japan. Therefore, if you want true Japanese, you should look for another place.
About alcohol, they have a wide variety of sake and sometimes hold a sake event. Unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy Japanese sake on that day because my friend couldn’t drink at all.

Wonderful dining experience and impeccable service. We ordered the crab chawanmushi which was delicious, creamy and tiny hit of smokiness. The grilled maitake was a simple, delicious starter. The chicken karage were just elevated chicken fingers and fried perfectly. The sea eel sushi maki is a must, the eel is delicious and not masked in a heavy sauce. The absolute highlight of our meal was the uni risotto. Literally just unctuous, creamy perfection. The uni is sweet and the risotto was delectable. We finished with the salmon donburi which was also a soul satisfying dish. Definitely a gem in the west village.

Maybe it’s because I come with the right group. Everything here is so good. We had quite a few dishes to share. The first is uni yuba, which has fresh uni on top of baked tofu and green bean smash in between. Perfect. We also had wagyu sushi and salmon rice. The spicy duck breast is fried to the right amount as well. The foie gras with duck breast is great. Not Oily at all. They also serve dessert. The soba pudding and seasonal Sakura cake are probably top in the city. I’ll definitely come back sometime and maybe try the Tuesday chef tasting ($ 75), which is highly recommended by my friend.

Wow. this place is really good. From the service to the food, everything we had was amazing. They start you off with a sake/​alcohol list. My friend and I weren’t sure if we wanted to drink since we both dislike sake. One of the servers overheard us and offered us a tasting of three sakes to help us decide. We thought this was very nice of him! We ended up ordering one of the plum wine sakes. It was good.
Now on to the important part — Food.
I am an uni lover so we ordered —
–Uni yuba — Delicious! Uni on top of two pieces of yuba (tofu skin) with edamame purée.
–Oyster ceviche special — This one was good but my friend and I would’ve liked it to have been a little more acidic because after a while it was getting kind of fishy. They had some chopped up oysters, scallops, shrimp, uni and a few pieces of cherry tomatoes
–Tuna of the spine special — It sits on top of some scallions with wasabi all over the plate. It was very fresh but I would’ve liked more even pieces of fish. Some were very chopped up and some where huge pieces. But this was still one of my favorite dishes of the night
–Uni risotto — I would definitely recommend to share this the first few bites were delicious but then it just got too heavy. Creamy risotto with chunks of uni on top and mixed in. Definitely try it if you are a uni lover.

Come here if you are an uni lover! The uni risotto was definitely our favorite dish of the night. The other things we had were: uni yuba, smoked duck breast with foie gras, a special grill fish dish for the night (i dont remember the name) and yuzu sorbet for dessert.
The uni yuba was ok as a dish. The uni itself was really good but eating everything together, I think the sweetness of the uni was covered by the saltiness of the other things.
The smoked duck breast with foie gras was nice but nothing that creative, same goes for the special grilled fish. They tasted just kind of basic and can be found generally else where. None the less, they were preatty good.
We also really enjoyed the yuzu sorbet. It was light and the taste was perfect between sweet and bitter. They also added a surprise candy that you should try!
The portion in general was pretty small. They also has a very extensive lost of sakes and also come with sake pairings. We would come back again for more uni!

Cannot believe the amount of spare tables at this place. I suppose it was a Tuesday but still… We are in NYC.
Each dish was delicious ! We had:
* Mushroom roasted with egg AMAZING
* Tuna tartare FRRESH AND DELICIOUS
* Smoked Duck Breast W/​Foie Gras THE MOST AMAZING DISH ever!
Do it. Totally unexpected. Service was amazing, great décor. Coming back!

Esperaba más de este restaurante. Sólo un par de los platos pedidos eran destacables, el resto, mediocres.
Me parece demasiado caro para lo que ofrece. La atención fue muy buena pero la comida creo que no está a la altura de la valoración que tiene aquí.

I liked the food a lot, but the whole service and dining experience is a bit strange.
The uni toasts were very disappointing– too much bread, and the toasts were little burnt. You can’t really enjoy the uni flavor because of the toasts.
The maitake with truffle was amazing– probably my favorite dish of the night. It was very flavorful– the truffle oil and salt was incredible, and it has a poached egg on the top which makes the dish even more tasteful. The mushroom is very well grilled.
Binchotan Wagyu Beef was amazing as well. They use a5 wagyu– tastes amazing and fresh. The sauce is great and the wagyu is well-​prepared and the flavorful. However, the portion was very small, pretty pricy.
The truffle risotto is the bomb… it’s incredible– not sure where to begin. Risotto itself tastes amazing and goes extremely well with truffle.
We had their special which was raw uni, oyster, claims and shrimps in sauce and presented in a big oyster shell. The duck breast and foie gras was good too– my friend loved it but it tastes a big over-​smoked to me. Toro sashimi again I think it’s a bit pricy. The beet salad was very good and refreshing with grapes and yuzu sauce.
Overall, the food was great and it has a good vibe.

Quite pricy. Some dish could be overpriced. The beef tataki are super expensive with that amount of beef. Even it’s A5 level.
Uni toasts are such a waste. Way too much bread totally ruined texture of Uni.
Must try:
Uni risotto with truffle
Smoke duck breast with foie gras

Fresh sushi is cut small but of good quality, so everything has a wonderfully velvety mouthfeel. I was thrilled that they had needlefish… not to diminish the fluke, mackerel, scallop, salmon, and tuna. The presentation of these cuts on a glacier led to two logistical issues: any pale or white sashimi fish not resting on shredded shiso leaf and daikon stuck to the icy bed, a la Christmas Story; and the busboy tried to remove the plate twice before everything was eaten because the fluke and needlefish were barely visible.
Chicken oysters were tender and seasoned appropriately, but otherwise the least interesting plate in our meal. Truffle chawanmushi had a fair amount of uni and some ikura to garnish the silky custard. The umami rice was worth the wait and cost: great savory depth and topped with some crispier textures to avert boredom. Mushroom risotto was comparatively almost as good with hearty flavors and multiple varieties of mushrooms. Smoked duck breast had a great molecular gastronomy presentation with the soy foam and smoke dome, and was portioned more conservatively in light of the rich luxury ingredients.
Four and a quarter stars. Chic spot for a date night as long as you’re down with high-​end izakaya executed well. Plan to budget three items per person to sate a moderate appetite. Service was friendly and the pacing of the latter half of our meal was agreeable, not too rushed. We’ll pop in again to try the uni pasta, miso black cod, steam crab rice, (ice) fish & (lotus) chips, and lobster rice gratin.

As a perfectionist, I tended to be really picky when selecting restaurants, this is especially true picking Japanese ones. It is easy to have decent food, also not hard to have attentive service, however combining everything together was indeed tough. Saikai did everything that I can think of.
Food came in with small portion, so in order to feed oneself well, you need to keep ordering. The daily special oyster with uni and shrimp was the first amazing dish. It was able to preserve the fresh flavor with no extra sauce added towards it. The best of meal came at the very last, the seafood stew; and a better way to enjoy it will be to mix it with rice. Towards the end, don’t forget to give a try on the ginger crème brûlée, or pistachio cake!
Essentially you can never go wrong order anything here, and remember to pair it up with the special sparkling sake! Perfect way to call it a day!