Tokyo House

Reviews 3

HE

Heather West

I typically steer clear of buffets. I pretty much hate them. The food is mediocre, and I always question whether or not the place is sanitary. I like Indian lunch buffets. And surprisingly (when sanitation and quality of the food is MOST important), I like sushi buffets. Back home in Charlotte there is a sushi buffet Ive been to for lunch a few times, Ru Sans. The food is very good. Especially for the ridiculously cheap price. The problem: eating there is one of the most stress full dining experiences of your entire life. They open at 11:00am, and people start lining up about 10:30. Once youre inside, all of the sushi is in one (very small) area, and youre basically herded like cattle through the line. Its so busy that you really cant even enjoy your meal. Dinner at Tokyo House is nothing like that. We arrived at about 6:30 on a Saturday night and were promptly seated. The dining area is spacious & modern, and in the middle of the room is the four sided cold food bar. One side is an assortment of sushi (all labeled, neatly arranged & accessible), next is sashimi, then you have shrimp, soba noodles & a variety of sauces, and last you have salads. Im not big on sashimi, and shrimp you have to peel is just too much work, so I stuck to the sushi & salads. The sushi is not the same caliber youll find at Sushi Cafe or Sky, but its good. One roll (I think it was called the "Special" roll) was full of mostly ice berg lettuce: stay away from that one. But I tried nearly every roll offered (except for the Philly roll; not a fan of cream cheese) and that was the only one I didnt go back for. Unfortunately with sushi buffets, I never remember what Im eating, but they had almost 20 rolls out, I tried a piece from nearly every one, and was more than happy with my meal. All of the rolls stayed together, were not drenched in sauce & had good flavor. The seaweed salad was absolutely perfect and the kimchi was quite good as well. Ive never had kimchi before, so I had nothing to compare it to, but Id have it again. Downstairs they have a generous selection of hot food. I think between the two of us, we sampled everything. And I was really, really happy with everything. I had a piece of salmon, a beef roll (a thinly sliced piece of beef rolled around bell peppers & onions), udon noodles, gyoza, volcano rolls, snow peas, a spring roll & some shrimp. The shrimp were mediocre, but everything else was amazing. I could have eaten the snow peas, noodles & gyoza all day. And I LOVE that all the things that typically are served with sauce had the sauce on the side, and little containers for you to ladle it in. Brilliant. I needed more sushi, so I went back to the sushi bar one more time. They had switched out somethings and had a few different rolls up there. So I did more sampling and revisited my favorites. Oh dear Jesus, there are no words as to how much I love a simple, perfect rainbow roll. Love it. I also am a complete sucker for the Japanese cheesecake that all buffets have. I need to learn to make that... Anyways, if youre in the mood for sushi and dont feel like waiting two years for a table at Sushi Cafe, give Tokyo House a try. The food is really good, and $20 per person for an all you can eat sushi buffet? That is one heck of a deal!

TI

Tina Nguyen

My family and I went there last night. The presentation of the buffet was superb. I think this was one of the cleanest buffet lines I had ever seen in my life. They had a cold sushi bar, as well as a hot bar. I personally dont eat sushi, so this review is mainly based on the hot bar, and the service of the staff, as well as how clean the place is. I called before I entered the establishment to get a feel of what they had at the hot bar. I wanted to see if they had stuff my kids could eat as well. I asked the receptionist what they had available, and I dont think she understood me at all. I asked what was on the menu, and she said "we have a menu." So I just hung up, and I said we shall take a chance. You walk in, and there a separate area for the sushi bar, and a separate area for the hot bar. I loved the dish ware.. I think they were very clean and pretty to look at. The dishes they had were teriyaki chicken, teriyaki steak, teriyaki salmon, roasted duck, and a variety of others. They had braised pork ribs I believe, and another beef dish. They also had an udon noodle dish, as well as fried rice and the ever present steamed rice. I personally tried the chicken, udon noodles, steamed rice, and roasted duck. The chicken wasnt terrible. It had the sauce dribbled on top of it.. and it was well cooked. I would go back for the chicken. The udon noodles were chewy. I dont know about you, but udon noodles should not be chewy. Theyre noodles. The roasted duck.. I come from Northern Virginia. and everyone knows that the best duck to get in Northern VA, is from Peking Gourmet Inn. So I had that in mind when I tasted this duck, and it fell short because it wasnt cooked in the same manner. This roasted duck had the bone and skin still attached. The duck was hit and miss. The first piece I had wasnt bad, but the second piece I had was dry. I wouldnt go back for the noodles or the duck. The steamed rice also left something to be desired as well. They should have added a little bit more water to the pot when it was cooking. Either that or after it was finished cooking, add water so that the rice will soak it up just a bit more. The service was superb though. She didnt speak English that well, but she helped my disabled son out, and always got us refills. She was extremely nice. I would go back for the service from her. Overall, this place was okay. Not that kid friendly because 2 of my kids didnt eat off the buffet. The buffet was pricey, at $16 a pop.. but.. for what I ate and what I normally order from a Japanese steakhouse, then it wouldnt be too bad. This restaurant is mainly an adult themed restaurant. I wouldnt take my kids there a second time around.

DA

Danial Hallock

Its with a heavy heart that I have to revise my previous five star rating of Tokyo House. It was less than a year ago that I frequented this place almost weekly either by myself, with other repeat customers, or people that I had referred; but this last year has seen an irrepairable slide in the establishments quality. Where I had once been able to enjoy a sushi buffet of sushi of reasonable quality and variety for $15.00, I now am met with disappointment at my $19 tabs and subpar selection. Last night - at 7pm - the rice was, I kid you not, crunchy. This was simply unacceptable; and it wasnt the first time I had left wondering why I had returned. This time I will not be returning. I have given this establishment several chances to recover from their slide into irrelevence, but they have failed to do so on every occasion. The once bright and friendly staff is now comprised of individuals who either barely speak English or do not care enough about customer service to ask "Would you like more water?" instead of "Water?" The selection is still robust, and this is why I had continued to give the establishment the benefit of the doubt, and it allowed me to branch out of my "California Roll funk" where I was too skeptical of Sashimi to invest $9-$20 in trying a new roll. However, while the selection is robust, the quality is worse than you can find at a nearby Wal-Mart deli; and the deli at Fresh Market beats it in every way imaginable. The atmosphere is pretty quiet, probably because everyone else has forsaken the place, and lit well for late night dates, but a quiet atmosphere isnt worth the drive or committment. Ill miss Tokyo House - it inspired a love for sushi for myself and several others who had, due to the great location of Arkansas, been limited to a small selection of expensive rolls. However, as much as Ill miss what it once was, I can no longer abide by the feeling of being cheated every time I walk in the door.