My favorite sushi spot in the world is closed, making way for another pan-asian noodle bar. If you appreciated the unpretension, clean flavors, authenticity, and hard-to-find ingredients that Saito's constantly brought to its customers, you know that a similar experience is not to be found in Seattle (I've looked). Make way for the high-concept, stylized, hot-waitress sushi restaurant. Make way for the Filipino or Chinese-run sushi conveyor belt "experiences". Maybe the popularity of a food that places like Saito's introduced to the world became its undoing, with restaurant owners thinking up more lucrative business models that better suited NW palates than Saito's glass-and-wood sushi temple. And in the end, maybe some people will really seek out a better eating experience once introduced to the conveyor-belt production line sushi.

Saito's is closed - another casualty of tightened budgets. The Japanese businessmen still came. The ballplayers probably still came. The rest stayed home, or went elsewhere and allowed themselves to forget what it tasted like and represented. I wish Saito and his family and staff the best of luck in the future.

i'm from baltimore. i am prejiduced when it comes to all things seafood. i think dungeness crab is the most overpriced watered-down crap this side of the chesapeak bay. that being said, saito's is without a doubt my favorite sushi spot in seattle, and i like to believe that i've eaten at 95% of them. plain and simple, it just tastes FRESH. the trick is to sit at the sushi bar- don't settle for a table, the table service is short-bus slow

Simply Saito has the best fish in Seattle. The room is always a bit cold but the fish is always perfect and the servers are always kind and have great suggestions.

Saito not only serves the freshest sushi, they do it at a reasonable price. While the sushi is excellent, the kitchen food is the best in Seattle. Do not dismiss the beef tongue, overlook the broiled eel, nor turn your nose up on the agedashi tofu. Each is a perfect compliment to the Uni, Toro or Amaebi. Finish your meal with Tamago. This fluffy pillow of egg will put an exclamation point on a fine meal.

After increasing disenchantment with sushi in this town Saito's is the only place that I enjoy lately. Quality sushi with good flavor. The man knows his stuff and has access to good fish. Might be a tad pricey but you gets what you pays for.

Full disclosure: I can't afford this place. I went with Japanese friends who were visiting from out of town. They never even looked at the menu -- just ordered as they went for all of us. I don't think I've ever eaten Japanese food this good, and don't expect to again unless I go to Japan. Perfect for special occasions.