Hiro Japanese Buffet

Reviews 5

RO

Robert M

This evening I decided to drive by the old LD Buffet to get to where I was thinking of eating tonight. Instead when I saw that the place has re-opened as a Japanese/Sushi all you can eat buffet, I decided to check it out. I was really in the mood to eat some sushi. At one time the LD Buffet was an amazing place to get your fill of wonderful Asian style seafood dishes, as well as non-seafood items. They even had some so-so sushi back then. But when they first were open and at least more than one year, they served Dungeness crab, all you could eat! The place was simply amazing. But over the years the LD Buffet just kept cutting corners and the quality and amount of the seafood until they became a bummer. I was hoping that we would have a situation like a new LD Buffet, where there would be lots of wonderful selections and great sushi. It is quite unfortunate that I did not see much improvement in the buffet’s quality, though the place has changed. It was very disappointing. Most of the “hot” items, though heaping full in their steamer trays was cold. There was not much of a tempting selection. You would expect them to served hot shrimp, but the only shrimp they had was battered fried American style shrimp (yuk) and cold boiled shrimp. No salt and spicy shrimp or anything that the Asians would really wolf down! They were supposed to have “fried snapper” but in its’ place was what looked like greasy fried squid and it wasn’t getting selected by anyone. So the only hot fish was the steamed salmon, which was almost white in color and very bland. They had some skinny snow crab legs served COLD! The sushi was not anything that you would call “quality” sushi. It was just your low grade, run-of-the-mill buffet sushi. I was hoping to get some smoked eel, but it was only available in a roll that was too much rice and filler and very little eel. The Nigiri sushi was very limited and nothing special. Most of the sushi was in sliced roll pieces and nothing exciting. Very, very average and limited sushi. A little warning, if you get their hot tea, they are going to charge you $1.79 for it and it too is nothing special, just a single tea bag in a pot! There are too many great sushi places, too many great Asian restaurants in this area of town for this buffet to stay in business very much longer if they continue down this path. I feel as though I wasted my money this evening and I would have been better off going somewhere else and spending half of what I did at this buffet OR by going to somewhere and spending nearly double, but then getting some excellent sushi and all I can eat of it. I walked out of Hiro spending $20.00 and it just was not worth anything near that! If you want to experience a truly great all you can eat sushi and Japanese food restaurant, one that can go up against the best sushi buffets in the nation, check out Sushi Katsu, which is very close to this buffet. I was truly disappointed with the Hiro Japanese Buffet and I don’t see where it would improve enough for me to go back there again.

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Holly Gee

Depending on your expectations this can be a 5 star rating or maybe a 1 or 2 star. It is not the kind of place that I would take a date to (at least not in the beginning), but for everyone else, its a great place to get fresh Asian food at a reasonable price. They have several hot buffet tables that include everything from lo mein to crawfish, mussels, orange chicken, fresh steamed broccoli, shrimp, soup, etc. There is a huge variety and they are very good about keeping it fresh. It is almost always very busy so the food really doesnt have a chance to sit around long. On weekends (which costs a little more), they have fresh crab legs and oysters. There are sushi chefs making fresh sushi (plenty of variety) all along one side of the food area, plus kim chi. Recently, they added a teppanyaki grill where you build your plate with raw veggies, rice or noodles, and various raw meats and tell the chef what sauce you wold like and they cook it on the spot for you. Then of course there is dessert. There are less options at the dessert bar (a few kinds of little cakes, cookies, puddings, jello, and ice cream), but to be honest, we rarely have room for dessert by the time we are finished with our meal. The staff in general is very friendly and helpful and BUSY. They really know how to hustle. My family and I go there a couple times a month.

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OB

OblivianArchAngel

So Im gonna focus on some of the bad reviews. I went by myself for lunch. Got there around 11 which was good cause it was still quiet. To the guy who paid 18, u went on a weekend. In any case, the people who complained about service werent unfounded, it is a self service restaurant after all. But there was plenty of staff so I didnt have a problem getting drinks. I was excited about 3 things. Salmon sushi, oysters, and crab legs. None of them were available for lunch unfortunately. Wish that would have been on the website. Hence the 4 stars. But for 10 bucks, its hard to beat if you love Asian food. Oh and there were several Japanese speaking tables, which is a good sign. Same with the staff. Finally, theres a couple dishes native to the east and hard to find in the US, namely mini egg custard, and several of the desserts. So, in closing, you can go and gorge on decent food for cheap, but spending a little more on dinner service does get you more of the gourmet items. Theres a middle eastern buffet literally next door, and an H Mart (Asian supermarket) in the near area, so even if its too busy, youve got options. Thanks for reading, sorry for the novel =P

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Shoua Yang

Dear Restaurant Owner, Out of the many times I have been here, this meal was certainly the least enjoyable. It was July 25th in early afternoon with my family and we decided to go to this buffet for lunch. It started with entering the restaurant and the wait wasnt to long. As one of the hostess started escorting to our seats, thats when it started. She was a short and chubby Hispanic girl. She had escorted us to a booth and we had requested one of the medium sized tables, which had six seats. She had told us if we wanted to have a table, we had to sit at one of he larger tables. The larger tables had eight seats. We had gotten to our seats and I set my purse on the seat next to mine and she looked at it and said "Thats for another family" and at that point I had asked why was she being so rude. She walked to the other table of four that made the table of eight and gave me a dirty look on her way. She pulled the table and told me "Im not being rude". At that point, she had walked away quickly. Im asking that you do something about this situation or further action will be taken of my behalf.

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Ayianna Franklin

The sushi selection is lovely and quite extensive. There are often substitutions in the buffet, so it is not the same experience every time. Hiro stocks a plethora of fresh seafood including raw oysters, crab legs, crawdads (you might know them as crayfish), steamed mussels, and more. The soups are AMAZING, by the way. Miso soup has large slabs of fresh seaweed and the hot and sour soup is quite hearty with vegetables. My favorite item is the crab cheese wontons, which does not skimp on the real crab. Go during the lunch hour for best value or if you just want to try it out the first time. I feel that I should tell you that I am a foodie, super taster, and Japanese culture enthusiast. I have eaten at many Japanese family owned and operated restaurants serving authentic Japanese food. This restaurant is not at the top of the list, but certainly falls well above the middle of the pack - and lower than the middle of the pack in pricing. Very good food and definitely worth a visit. Also, ignore Robert. His review did not even remotely reflect any of the 4 visits I have made in the last 2 months.

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