Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar Awards

Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar Restaurant Review:

Forget any preconceived notions about Sansei being just a traditional Japanese restaurant. The phone number is 808-669-OCTO, as in octopus. The slogan? Home of the other red meat: ahi. We like the seared foie gras nigiri sushi with caramelized Kula onions and unagi demi-glace. You also will find Japanese BLT sushi with crisp salmon skin and tomato, Asian rock shrimp over ginger-lime chili butter with cilantro pesto and panko-crusted ahi sashimi over soy-wasabi butter. Put these on the table, and customers yell and shout with joy. In fact, owner D.K. Kodama's cutting-edge cuisine and upbeat ambience make it planets apart from other Japanese restaurants here. It's youthful and alive, contemporary and fun. This is the perfect place to graze on a number of appetizers, such as half lobster tail stuffed with spicy crab and masago and slow-roasted, black-tea duck with orange-ginger-soy vinaigrette (yin) and Cabernet demi-glace (yang). If karaoke is your cup of tea, Sansei offers the laser variety on Thursday and Friday nights from 10 p.m. to closing.