Setsuna

Good Japanese food in the Northgate area? Hmmm interesting.  I had seen this little Japanese restaurant a while back, but it is set in an area of town that is a bit shady so never tried it out.  However, the Yelp reviews seemed great and the craving for some good Japanese food was there so here we go!

Setsuna is tucked away in a street off of the main street of Roosevelt.  If you drive too fast you can miss the entrance.  There is plenty of parking in the back of the restaurant as well as a few on the side.  Walking in, there is a pleasant warm family feel to the restaurant with plenty of lighting and cute hand wrapped Japanese paper chopstick covers over each pair of chopsticks.  Our waiter appeared to be either the owner or the owner's wife and was very polite and friendly with us.  She came back consistently to make sure that our waters were filled and that everything was ok.

 

I decided to try the $10 dinner combo which came with a bowl of miso, rice, salad, as well as 2 entree choices of which I picked vegetable tempura and chicken karaage.  Those two seemed to be the most popular dishes when reviewed.  My friends both ordered the tempura udon combo.  We also ordered an appetizer of Albacore Tataki which is seared tuna marinated in a Ponzu sauce.

Albacore tataki

Our food came out quite fast and was delicious! We enjoyed the tuna tataki as our appetizer. There were many pieces of fairly large tuna. The slight searing along with the ponzu sauce really made it a unique dish.  Little pieces of cucumber also gave it a crunch and texture to the dish.  Definite yes to order again!  For my main dish, I enjoyed my miso soup very much.  It was definitely not from the package and was hot and flavorful with bits of tofu in it as well.  The tempura was fantastic!  Lightly coated in a panko like breading, very crispy and light.  There was a variety of pieces that all tasted wonderful.  I had 2 pieces of shrimp, two green beans, and two kabocha pumpkins. I could have just eaten that with rice and would have been full, but I also had the chicken karaage.  It was marinated in a sauce and then fried with a cornstarch breading.  The flavor was good, but I would have liked there to have been more of a crunch to the batter.  Overall though, it was a good complement to my tempura.  The salad had a wasabi type dressing to it which was very good and helped to cool my tastebuds from all the fried things on my plate. 

Tempura Udon

Chicken Karaage & tempura combo

We were all completely full and satisfied from our meal.  Did I ever mention that I like hole in the wall places? This is one that you should not drive by if you like good, affordable, authentic Japanese food.  I will definitely be back to try more on their menu!


Setsuna Japanese Restaurant and Bar
11204 Roosevelt Way NE
(between 111th St & Northgate Way)
Seattle, WA 98125