Sekisui

Fun night ! Great servers ! Yummy food ! Had the yellowfin tuna throat special it was delicious. Servers Sara & Simon set up a table and invited everyone to join in on Saki Bombs !

It’s gone. Went for lunch today and learned it is now Samurai Restaurant. Different menu, different sushi chefs and selection. My 4-​star rating is for the old Sekisui. Today I enjoyed the sushi lunch, my son loved his sashimi lunch. But there was a weird vibe, probably because I had no idea about the change. We were the only to diners at 12:30 lunch. Service was overly eager. Affordable lunch, the two of us for less than $ 40. I’ll go back because the sushi was very good, but I hope the atmosphere improves.

I was meeting the Mr. for lunch around his office; we both wanted sushi and stumbled upon this place. Cute place and a decent size. Full menu with sushi (of course), hot items, apps, etc…, unsure if the dinner menu is different. Full bar too. The lunch menu includes several specials: bento boxes, sushi combos, etc… all for a great price. The lunch crowd was really light, but I have heard that the dinner hour get pretty crowded. I was a bit surprised on how slow the service was, but I wasn’t really in a rush so it was fine and the employees were extremely friendly.
I opted for the 2 roll special and added miso soup & seaweed salad for an extra few bucks and the husband ordered the 3 roll special. None of the rolls were rolled exceptionally well, but aside from that they were good and tasted fresh. The seaweed salad was delicious — the bed of cucumbers on the bottom of the salad made this like no other seaweed salad I have had and I probably could have drank the sweet soy dressing — two thumbs up; it was delicious. Of the five rolls we had the spicy tuna and the scallion yellowtail rolls were the stars for me. These were probably some of the messiest rolls I have eaten in a long while, but they tasted good so I got over it quickly. I am addicted to ginger and the ginger here was really good for some reason — extra crunchy and the right amount of spice and sweet.
Great spot for lunch but maybe take a pass if you’re in a hurry!

I found out about this place when someone posted a photo of the ramen here. «A place to get ramen in Birmingham!?» I thought to myself, «is this someone’s idea of a cruel joke!?» Cue the exciting (and somewhat skeptical) Googling, which ultimately ended with the confirmation that yes, a Japanese restaurant in Vestavia serves ramen. Score! …well, sorta.
Service was slow and a bit unprofessional. We had to ask for a server to come take our orders.
Atmosphere was okay. They have a tatami room in the back that adds a bit of an authentic feel to the place. The space isn’t very large, so if it’s crowded, expect a wait, especially if you have a party of 3 or more.
Food here is good, overall. The Louisiana roll is a good combination of flavors. However we couldn’t really taste the shellfish. The miso ramen was good, but on the salty side. Had it been a bit easy on the sodium, it would have been great. However, I will say the menma (bamboo shoots) were tasty and on point. Also, major props for having Japanese newspapers by the entrance!
Overall, Sekisui is a fun, fairly casual place to get okay Japanese food with friends or family. Just bear in mind that if it’s busy, you may not get the best service and you’ll be golden. I’d say this place is worth a try, especially as it closes permanently this weekend. Try ramen while you can!

I was so excited to hear about this restaurant and finally get a bowl of ramen. The food did not disappoint and my belly is happy. Other members in my party tried the Louisiana Roll and spoke very highly of it. Unfortunately, still being full from lunch, I only had enough room for the tonkatsu ramen. The ramen was good, but I do wish they had added more meat — only one thin slice of pork.
The service was sub-​par. When we first walked into the restaurant, the server who greeted us at the door kind of lazily rolled his head around to scan the two tables that were in his line of sight and when he saw that the tables were full told us that he couldn’t seat us… ok… So we stepped off to the side to wait and a second server came up to us and told us he was clearing a table so we could get it if we wanted to. Cool — we got the table. (I also noticed that they seated a lot of 2-​person parties at 4-​person tables, which seems like a poor use of seats for such a popular restaurant) Then after we were seated, it took almost half an hour before a server even looked in our direction to take our order. We eventually had to get up and tell someone to send a waiter to our table.
In short, I enjoyed the food but the service could use some work. Unfortunately this restaurant is permanently closing its doors on July 25, so get in while you can!

I can not give Sekisui enough praise. We’ve been going there for years now and have never been disappointed. Though they sometimes tease us for always only getting apps and sushi, never an entrée.
Our favorites, fried squid legs, Takoyaki, Tuna Tataki, fried soft shell crab and a long list of sushi.
The fried squid legs is a must have! And I love the fried jalapeño’s they add to it.
Takoyaki was recommended to us by our server after we told her we wanted to try something new and holy crap, it’s delicious! It’s flour based balls with octopus and I believe, it has 2 sauces over top.
We’ve been to countless sushi restaurants in town, had so many recommendations from friends (sushi village, etc etc) but nothing beats Sekisui!
The quality of the seafood really makes all the dishes stand out. The rice for the sushi is never mushy or too sweet as some places can be.
The staff is always friendly and courteous.

This place is the best. Everything we’ve ever had here has been awesome. I’m sad that they are closing for good in a little over a week. Get it while you can!

Some of the best sushi in town! Recommend the spicy tuna, house cucumber and don’t forget the fried squid legs!

Great quality sushi! The sushi chefs are the friendliest and will tell you what’s the tastiest fish of the night. You know you can’t go wrong when Japanese people are actually running a sushi restaurant. By far the best sushi in town.

The place was bland to look at and the waitstaff, while not busy, was not attentive to her couple of tables. The food was OK. The sushi (which can be horrible when done wrong) was fresh but nothing to write home about. The miso soup was a touch bland. The plating was novice. I don’t foresee myself going back.

I really wanted to like this place, I really did. Well, actually, that may be a little misleading. That implies that I have warm feelings towards this restaurant. I don’t, my desire was purely selfish. What I REALLY wanted to like was a bowl of tonkotsu ramen noodles. They are seriously impossible to find in Birmingham. I’ve tried a couple of others and left disappointed, but someone recommended this place and I made the mistake of getting my hopes up.
I wasn’t expecting anything amazing, I was just shooting for something good. I didn’t get even that. The «pork broth» was extremely bland and had none of the gelatin or fat that you find in real ramen stock. It tasted like it was flavored with a pork bouillon base and had no spice… or no real flavor for that matter. It was extremely bland with a faint hint of salt. The condiments were a sad bunch. The soup had a few scallions, half of a store bought hard boiled egg (which was still cold), and some limp ginger that might have been good when it was still fresh. The lone bright spot was the piece of grilled pork they had in my ramen. It had a nice flavor, but it was extremely small and real ramen shops definitely put more pork in your ramen bowl.
The WORST part of the soup was by far the noodles. These were your run of the mill instant ramen noodles, complete with the fake seasoning taste you can get at home for 59 cents. I seriously think if they had a decent noodle I wouldn’t have noticed anything I stated in the previous paragraph.
Our server was also very apathetic. She consistently showed up a few minutes after we needed her and when she did show up we had to ask to be served. The service didn’t quite sink to the level of bad — I’d say that it was just slightly annoying.
On a bright note the spicy tuna roll was very good. So I guess if I just happened to be in the Vestavia City Center and had a serious craving for sushi I might stop here again. I might even give it three stars next time.

I’m originally from LA. There’s nothing as good as Matsuhisa, Nozawa, or Sasbune. But as far as sushi goes, this is the best in Birmingham. Jinsei is probably about as good, but it’s twice the price.

If you aren’t into sushi, then I would not recommend. The only thing I enjoyed was the clear and miso soup. I ordered the chicken teryaki for my entrée and it was TERRIBLE, like eating cat or something. On top of that, they don’t have fried rice? Never heard of an Japanese restaurant not serving fried rice.
Will not return.

I just walked out of the restaurant and I’m about to explode I’m so full. I had the miso ramen and a dragon roll. The miso ramen was amazing. Trust me when I say that the noodles were 100,000 times better than packaged ramen. And the soup was so amazing I could’ve cried. The dragon roll was great. If you are wondering if the sushi is any good, just know that it surpasses all expectations. If I could rate more than five stars I would. Great service, and amazing food. I rate Sekisui Japan over 9,000.

After a long day of being out in the cold for the the BBVA Compass Bowl college football game we wanted to cozy up in a nice warm place with a nice warm bowl of soup… and sushi of course! Found this place on google (yay for google!).
This place was really difficult to find, our GPS took us to the right location but it was located in a vacant strip mall but then again we came in from the back way I’m assuming? We had to call the restaurant to give us clear directions on how to get there, when we finally did there was another side to the strip mall where you can spot Sekisui more easily. We came on a Saturday night thinking it would be somewhat crowded but it was not, so no wait for a table for a party of 6. The menu had both authentic Japanese style noodle dishes and sushi. My fiancé and I ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen Noodle soup and we had them split into 2 bowls for us. Very nice of them, it seemed like we got 2 for the price of 1. The ramen noodle was cooked just the way I like it and the soup base warmed my soul however the broth had a heavier ginger taste and they were stingy on the meat…1 pork slice per bowl, really? Anyways, my fiancé really enjoyed it as well. We also ordered a roll with softshell crab in it, it was like any other roll you would get anywhere else. Nothing special about it. We also ordered deep fried oysters, which wasn’t too bad. The rest of my party ordered rolls and noodle dishes, they had no complaints.
Towards the end of our meal we saved room for dessert! Our friends had a deep fried banana split and we had the deep fried cheesecake with ice cream. It was delish, I only wish the cheesecake wasn’t so frozen. it was hard as a rock! Overall my party and I enjoyed our dinner, I would come back for the ramen!

Oh I’ve been dieing to dine at this place for a few months. My wife and I had our anniversary dinner here and it was well worth the wait. Nice setup, but hidden around the corner from Rick & Bubba’s studio. Oh I had a fried bass meal which was so delicious! The fried bass was not soaked in grease and my wife’s fried broccoli snack was lightly fried with a great dipping sauce. Extremely delicious! All of the entrees came with the correct dipping sauces. Impressed and I’ll be back! The only bad thing about this restaurant is how loud it gets, other people’s conversations carry throughout the restaurant which is irritating!

You know it’s good, because it’s located in the doomed Vestavia Hills City Center. Seriously, why can nothing (except Sekisui) survive in that place?
They’ve got a large patio that overlooks a parking lot, but it’s a patio nonetheless. We were helped quickly and the food didn’t take long at all. For apps, we got both fried and grilled squid legs. While both good, the fried really stood out. For my main course I got the grilled eel over rice. It was my first experience with eel and I was some what pleased. In the end, I was hoping for more flavor.
Overall, I was very pleased with food and my server.

Holy cow where has this place been hiding?
I have found the best sushi in the Birmingham area and its been like 4 miles from my house all along. I went to a place last week where the sushi was terrible and it was twice the price!
Sekisui is INCREDIBLE! The sushi is fresh the selection is insane! Most sushi places offer crab sushi made with a crabstick, you can get sushi made with real snow crab here and the prices are so reasonable!
I had fresh water eel, snow crab sushi, spicy tuna hand roll, scallop nigiri, spicy tobiko. Every single one of them was a home run! Prepared perfectly.
Wait staff is wonderful, friendly and engaging.
I can’t wait to return so I can try more stuff!!!
Outdoor seating too!

The Hurricane Roll which was absolutely delicious. I love cream cheese, fried tempura, and sauce in any of my sushis so this hit the spot without making me feel bloated and stuffed afterwards. The Surf & Turf had thin slices of steak on the top and steak with sushi is always great for the meat lovers who settle for sushi. Even though the sushi was good, there was nothing about this place that set this apart from every sushi place I’ve been to in Alabama. The atmosphere is gorgeous and relaxing.

Not impressed :(. Had to ask our waitress four times for water and she forgot our order of edamame for appetizer. All of our sushi was delivered before the edamame since she didn’t enter it until we reminded her. Sat at the sushi bar and thought the chefs were helpful, but she must have had way too many tables this evening. Enjoyed the pyramid and pizza sushi appetizers – and our fav sushi was the Louisiana Roll. Weren’t as impressed with the others…
probably won’t be going back since there are better sushi offerings around town. Check out any of the Surin establishments or Maki Fresh