About SET Steak & Sushi
The Pendry Newport Beach brought a genuine lifestyle hotel to a market that needed one — and SET Steak & Sushi is its anchor, a restaurant that succeeds precisely because it refuses to be bullied into choosing between Japanese precision and American abundance. Under acclaimed Chef Jojo Ruiz, the kitchen operates as a single coherent voice rather than two competing menus sharing a postcode: the sushi bar's philosophy of sourcing, restraint, and respect for protein shapes how the steakhouse side approaches its cuts, and the result is a restaurant with more internal logic than most single-concept dining rooms.
The physical environment was designed with the same intelligence. An indoor dining room connects to a garden patio through retractable glass walls, allowing the two spaces to breathe as one when Newport's coastal evenings permit. Lanterns cast warm light across the patio's timber and stone. The sushi bar is positioned for watching — counter seats have front-row access to the nigiri service without the isolation that omakase counters can impose. The bar program is serious, pulling the kind of Japanese whisky selections and house cocktails that match the kitchen's ambitions without competing with the food.
Cedar River, Snake River Farms, Double R Ranch — the sourcing list for SET's beef reads like a directory of America's finest cattle operations. Tableside tartare, prepared to order with a precision that dispenses with showmanship in favour of technique, is the room's informal opener. Ice-cold shellfish tower occupies the midpoint between the two concepts: cold-water shellfish treated with the same sourcing rigour that the sushi bar applies to its fish. The charcoal grill handles the steaks with the kind of direct heat that hotel kitchen infrastructure rarely permits; Pendry invested accordingly.
Weekend DJ brunch introduces a social register that Newport Beach embraces enthusiastically — the same kitchen, the same sourcing, a lighter menu and a louder soundtrack. For the purposes of this guide, however, SET's defining character is established at dinner, when the lantern-lit patio comes into its own and the balance between Japanese delicacy and American magnitude reveals itself most clearly.
Signature Dishes
The A5 wagyu nigiri — thinly sliced Miyazaki A5, seared tableside, draped over seasoned rice — represents SET's most explicit statement about what happens when the two halves of this restaurant share a philosophy. The tableside tartare, assembled to order with smoked salt, cornichon, capers, and a perfectly broken egg yolk, is the steakhouse's answer to the sushi bar's obsession with texture and temperature. The shellfish tower delivers the raw bar with the rigour of a serious fish restaurant.
Best Occasion Fit: First Date
SET Steak & Sushi is the first date that communicates everything about you without requiring you to say any of it aloud. The hotel context — the Pendry's design language, the level of service — signals intention before you've sat down. The menu's dual nature creates natural conversation: choices to make, preferences to reveal, a shared vocabulary of food that tells a story about both of you. The lantern-lit patio provides exactly the right quality of light for a first evening. The kitchen's execution is reliable enough that you never need to manage the experience.
For deal-closing dinners, SET delivers the hotel-restaurant reliability that makes certain clients comfortable — recognisable luxury without the intimidation of the Michelin-starred register. For an out-of-town client encountering Newport Beach for the first time, SET introduces the market at its most current. Explore all first date restaurants across the directory, and see the full range of Newport Beach dining by occasion.