Seito Japanese Restaurant   

The Baldwin Park location is the third Seito outpost for Seil and Misun Chin, who founded their first Japanese restaurant back in 2000 in Winter Park Village. Chalk this latest Seito up as the most stylish of the bunch: Exposed brick walls alternate with paneled sections painted baby blue, and minimalist lighting dimmed low completes the subtly chic surrounds. Sushi is the main lure, with an extensive roll menu that includes such exotic offerings as spicy octopus and stone crab rolls. The Eelbow roll mixes the best of both worlds -- barbecued eel within and a colorful spread of assorted raw fish layered on top. Bento box lunches are a bargain at less than ten bucks for your choice of chicken or pork cutlet, grilled salmon teriyaki or N.Y. strip served with miso soup, ginger salad, dumplings, California roll and fried rice. And dinner selections that branch outside the sushi box include lobster stirfry, Kalbe beef short ribs and Asian pesto grouper. Dessert, in fact, is the only thing that's not exceptionally innovative here, with the ubiquitous offerings of tempura fried ice cream, bananas and cheesecake. -- Terry Ward