Kaito Sushi (Downtown Seal Beach)

food: 3.5/5

experience: 2/5

overall: 2.5/5

My first visit to Seal Beach, which is a super cute beach town by the way and I need to move there, ended in a trip to Kaito Sushi. It's a small yet popular sushi restaurant on Main Street in Seal Beach's tiny downtown.

Upon arrival it took quite a bit of time and confusion to seat us. When we were seated, we weren't presented with the sushi menu. When we finally received the sushi menu, I informed my waitress of my food allergies and she sent the sushi chef out. When he finally came out, probably a half hour had passed by since we first arrived. Not so great. I spoke to him about the rolls and pointed to two I wanted to order and if he could just make them without soy sauce or sesame seeds.

He ended up giving us two random rolls he just created on his own. Some might like that. I wasn't particularly in the mood for a surprise. They were decent. Just fish with crab salad, pretty much.

We also tried one of the appetizers, the fried shrimp.

It's got a squishy tempura batter with sweet and sour sauce all over it. They're very tender. A nice appetizer, if a little pricey at about two bucks a shrimp.

We went back the following week and, just like the first week, the service was just...bad. The main waitress is definitely a first-time waitress. She waited on other tables in between dealing with our requests, didn't seat us, just a bunch of general no-nos. After waiting about twenty minutes just to get a question answered we left. I like to give places second chances but unfortunately the second time was as bad as the first so this restaurant is heretofore crossed off the list.