SEI restaurant & lounge

Absolutely amazing food, and even better service. Seriously the staff just made magic happen on the table without interrupting conversations. The fish and chips roll was phenomenal. Flounder with potatoe chips sprinkled on top, creative & delicious!

Got the Lunch special which I found filling and diverse. (SEI Bento Box with Boneless ribs. Drinks: Momo, Pear Sangria) I thought it was a fair price for the food. The interior is a little dated in my opinion....but the service, food, and drinks were absolutely great!

I went to this place for my anniversary dinner and I was more than satisfied when I left. The food matched the service and I have no complaints.

The Asian Pear White Sangria is a must have with your meal. Warm and welcoming environment with great host and delicious food. Recommend the Kimchi Fried Rice and any of the Tacos.

Great food great service, my water was often refilled and i dropped a chopstick and had one within a minute with out asking

It just a short walk down from the capital one arena. Once you step down into the restaurant you can tell you are in one of the good ones in DC by how many people are smiling and talking.The grilled octopus is my favorite and my wife loves the tofu. But you cant go wrong with any of the food. We always order at least one sushi roll. Last time it was so crowded we had to sit at the sushi bar but it was impressive to watch the masters make all the different rolls. Love going here before a caps hockey game. If you want something different from the fried food, pizza and bar scene this is a must try.

A very comfortable and tidy restaurant that provides fresh, delicious sushi. Great dining environment and service, will definitely be going back.

Super friendly. Great sushi Best short rib I’ve ever had! Seemed like pot roast not ribs but 6 star pot roast!

Ok so I love traditional sushi. I have noticed a theme of mixing 2 cultural cuisines in DC in many restaurants. My initial reaction is gross! However, it actually works. I had the S.O.S. and it was wonderfully refreshing!

Great happy hour specials and they have Hibiki and Yamazaki whiskey.

I like the ambience of this restaurant. Good food and drinks.

Fresh, delicious! Friendly and attentive staff. Will come back!

Beautiful restaurant with the best sushi I've ever had. Excellent subtle flavors that blended perfectly with the fish. The service was excellent and the staff were very friendly. I would definitely come back here.

We went in early and the place was hopping, but they seated as easily and quickly. The service and staff were great and the food (beef ribs, salmon rice bowl, beef tacos and panna cotta) were done expertly. We commented that it's been quite a while since we were served so quickly after ordering. A delight and a place we'll definitely head back to!!!

Whenever we come to DC we love going to SEI for dinner. The food is amazing and the service phenomenal. We love the variety of dishes and the flavorful combinations that wake a gourmet palate. I can’t say enough about the friendly staff and the service. I highly recommend this restaurant and frequently do when given the opportunity.

The food was wonderful but the service and hospitality was even better. One of those places where the staff is genuinely welcoming and appear invested in seeing that you have a lovely time. The star of the meal was the crispy duck leg. Amazing dish. The Korean tacos and kimchi fried rice were also excellent. All the sushi rolls were good but the hamachi serrano and salmon poke were particularly tasty.

While it was not THE best sushi I have had, it was the service and the atmosphere that made this a 5-star experience for us. Our waiter was attentive and helpful as he guided us through the menu. The decor is beautiful! I could not stop gazing around and it was so visually interesting. They were also very accommodating toward us as we brought our 2-month old daughter.

Me and my girlfriend for Valentines Day and the entire experience was simply amazing. There was a fixed menu but they made sure to ask if we had any allergies and offered to make something else just in case. Of course the ambiance was all set for Valentines Day so everything was set to be very romantic. The only gripe I would say was that the tables fell a bit close to each other. However the wait staff were very professional, knowledgeable, and kind in making our experience well worth it and made any of my gripes non issues. Now to the food, it was a four course meal with select dishes at each course. I had a few questions but our waiter was very helpful in describing each one and helping us both make our choices. Each course was absolutely delicious. Even the dessert was almost to adorable to eat. Overall an amazing evening and truly made our Valentines Day special

Excellent and unique food and drinks in a classy surrounding. I highly recommend the Angry Dragon Margarita, one of the best specialty cocktails I've ever had. The small plates are wonderful and each one is convenient to be shared by two or three people (I recommend asking your server in advance of ordering: Korean tacos had three taco, seared scallops had just two scallops).

Besides typical high sushi prices this place was more than fantastic. Food came out so fast as well as everyone working there was extremely nice. Our server Solongo was fantastic and explained the entire menu to us as well as showed us what the most ordered food was and she just made our overall experience there great. Food was 10/10 and would recommend the S.O S and the Fish and Chips.

My husband and I enjoyed our meal here. Our waitress was incredibly sweet and helpful. I had the sea bass sliders, which were absolutely amazing! My husband enjoyed his fish tacos very much. Just remember it's tapas, so get a few things to share! Oh and don't forget dessert, the orange miso bread pudding with salted caramel ice cream is to die for!

I've been coming here for about 8 years. I regularly get the sea bass sliders, the lobster roll, the fish and chips, and whatever cool cocktails they're serving. This place is excellent for an extended happy hour, the sushi is good, and the ambiance is very chic. This is definitely one of my favorite places for sushi and cocktails in DC.

Beautiful atmosphere, delicious food, knowledgeable and accommodating staff. I have Celiacs and ate safely and with confidence. Our server was Alexis, and he was so helpful and careful with my dietary restrictions. He was also incredibly friendly! My friends and I kept noting how we felt so well taken care of by the entire staff! I highly recommend SEI!

Our first trip to SEI; we found the food was excellent, the service fantastic. The ambiance is fantastic as well. All the sushi rolls we sampled were above expectations and the orange miso bread pudding with sea salt ice cream was superb!

From the outside the place didnt seem like much, especially since they are doing some construction on the building. However, the food here was amazing. Coming from South Florida we are accustomed to great sushi. Many times when we travel its tough to find a good sushi place. The one delivers for sure! We ended up going back the second day we were in town. A+

Fabulous service. Delightful atmosphere. Warm and comforting. The fish and chips roll is worthy of it's legend. It's outstanding paired with the special Riesling from the Finger Lakes. Will be going back soon :)

Interesting Japanese styled restaurant serving fusion food. Good food with prices to match. Short ribs and duck leg are a must try! Garlic scallops rolls and salmon rice are decent. However, service needs some improvement.

Delicious options and interesting-themed restaurant. We tried a few different options, and I loved the tater tots and chips/salsa. The sushi was also wonderful.

Good food. Quick service. However, they only gave me three pieces of tuna sushi (???).

The sushi at Sei is so delicious and fresh and the atmosphere (white with candlelight) is very chic. We've had excellent service from the servers but the service at the host/hostess stand could be improved--on three occasions the host/hostess sent us to the bar while our table was being prepared (even with reservations) and forgot us there until we reminded the host/hostess that we were waiting for our table.

Despite the over reliance on stark white decor in "modern" restaurants, SEI manages to warm it up with textures and small details to ensure a hip, yet comfortable atmosphere. The fusion sushi rolls are truly delicious and perfect for the burnt-out-sushi-lover to rediscover the joy of the roll. Its NOT the place for a quiet date though as this place gets quite loud!

Good cocktails to try, and decent sushi. The lobster roll was pretty good, and the other rolls we got were also pretty good; they tasted well made with enough differences between each other. The inside decor is very dimly light and quite romantic.

Great staff and customer service... Beautiful ambiance. Food was ok, nice presentation however in taste it was bland.

Ordered the Snow White roll and the quality was phenomenal. I also ordered the Tofu Bibimbap and that was boring, untraditional, and soso. The restaurant service staff seems to be lacking in knowledge on how A.) Customer service works and B.) Any cultural knowledge on the food they were serving. Happy Hour is solely reserved for the bar and bar guests only. As a dining guest I had approached the bar to order a drink and was told I had to pay full price because I was seated at a table. The portion sizes are very small for the quality and price of the dishes. If you have a hard time reading, I would suggest to bring a flash light. Overall disappointed but, dine at your own discretion.

Sushi were alright. We ordered snow white (ell sushi), unagi and waygu slide (mini hamburger). The server was nice. I recommend to read the menu of the restaurant before going. The menu list is weird. This place is not real Japanese sushi restaurant.

The service was good and the staff was super friendly. It wasn't bad sushi but I didn't feel like it was all that great either. I've had sushi that was much cheaper and I liked quite a bit more. Not to say that it was really expensive, it was only moderate like many nicer sushi places. I also got some Kobe sliders and they were phenomenal. There was a large selection for happy hour food.

- Found the sushi prices to be a bit high, especially after seeing most of the rolls were not the standard full size but more like half-rolls. - The rice quality wasn't great, it was sort of dry and hard. - Most of the rolls were very small, again feeling underwhelming. - The rolls themselves were adventurous which I appreciate, however in this case I'd say they erred on the side of pretentious. Most of the rolls had awkward ingredients tacked on that sometimes didn't work at all. This was especially apparent in the Salmon-Cilantro roll which was probably the most foul sushi I've ever had the displeasure of consuming. - They informed me they didn't even have cream cheese, so if you want a classic Philadelphia instead of some pretentious big city hipster abomination you are SOL. On the plus side, the service was very good and the wine wasn't bad either. Though I did see on the menu all of their beers start at $8 which again is quite high to my mind. I didn't know the place was popular because of the Obama's and I don't care about that. I don't think you should overrate a restaurant because someone famous likes it, but it certainly explains the inflated prices.

Took my wife to dinner tonight to SEI for her birthday. She loves Chilean sea bass and the old restaurant that she loved to go to - OYA - closed and made the best she's ever had. Went there tonight and the food was fantastic. Waitress was super positive and recommended some great plates. Bottle of savignon blanc paired well with the wasabi guacamole, carmelized chilean sea bass, charred octopus, and miso-glazed lamb chops. They brought out the birthday dessert - tasty cinnamon whipped cream covered shortbread and strawberries. So why only 1 star? They wouldn't honor their own gift cards. We purchased a Living Social deal which, after dining at Oya, gifted us with two $50 gift cards, both of which have no expiration date and can be used at any of their other restaurants - SEI and Management told us they stopped accepting those cards this year (how convenient). I still don't understand why a company wouldn't accept their own gift cards. Not honoring a gift card we paid for is fraudulent. We planned on coming back - the food was great. Now we won't go back and will make sure everyone else knows why. I reached out to talk to management, sent an e-mail, and left a voicemail, and got no reply. So here's your 1 star review. Enjoy it.

Ordered a takeaway bibimbap. Really tasteless, certainly not worth the $17 price tag!!

No alcohol was being served tonight (not that it influenced my decision to eat here). Service was beyond excellent and atmosphere was great. Food was beyond unsatisfactory. I ordered the Sea Bass. The fish was cooked perfectly. However, the taste and texture of the fish was masked by an overwhelming amount of olive oil. There was so much oil that it coated your palate. The sushi was not good. The texture was very chewy and it was evident that it was not fresh. Very high hopes, yet very low results.