Shinju Japanese Buffet

Reviews 5

JE

Jeanne M.

Two words - pace yourself. Ordinarily, Im not a big fan of all you can buffets. Mostly the food is average or below and everything is just kept warm all night. This is different. Round 1 - We started our meal with sushi. It was incredibly fresh and came in so many varieties that you couldnt sample them all. I love sushi, but have a problem with the regular places because by the time youve ordered two or three good rolls, youve already spent $30. Here, you can try a couple of dozen different rolls. They go so quickly that the trays are being filled with fresh rolls on an ongoing basis. On the other side of the sushi bar was fresh oysters and crab. I dont like oysters and didnt feel much like crab, so I skipped those. My husband tried the crab and said it was better than average. Round 2 - We were on to the hot bar, which was mostly Chinese. I tried some sesame chicken, teriyaki beef, fried dumplings, lo mein, BBQ rib and coconut shrimp. The lo mein was a little disappointing as it had very little flavor and the rib didnt have a lot of meat. The chicken and beef were better than most places. The fried dumplings had maintained their hot, crisp exterior and the filling was great. The shrimp had a yummy coconut sauce and was very good. Round 3 - Time to try the hibachi offerings. I went for the hibachi steak with mushrooms, onions and garlic butter. The chef was very nice and chatted about our holiday while he expertly tossed the ingredients on the hot teppan. I have wanted a teppan for so many years, but I doubt that it will ever happen, this is such a great way to cook. The steak was perfectly cooked and seasoned. I added some tasty fried rice to balance the protein. While you might expect a small serving, this was the same size as weve always had as a full entree at other restaurants. Gee.....Im getting stuffed. Round 4 - Dessert. Okay, the Asians need to work on desserts and music. This is where the place falls short. There were a few choices of standard small pastries, ice cream and a couple of other things. Being well fed by then, I opted to try just a scoop of red bean ice cream. The texture wasnt great, more of an ice milk texture and the flavor was strictly vanilla. But by then, it really didnt matter. I just finished my plum wine, which is pretty much a dessert in itself. The servers were all very nice and empty plates were whisked away within a moment of them being finished. I dont know what the bill looked like, as this dinner was a treat from my visiting MIL. Im guessing it was sizeable, but if Id had that dinner in any regular restaurant in town, it would have been at least $75, and Im sure it didnt come close to that. Weve been to several of the Asian buffets in town, and this is by far the best. I hope we dont have to wait another two years before we can go back. :)

---

DE

deadman6720

Im giving it three stars. The sushi was good, but the mackerel was hard but that isnt their fault. The salmon was amazing, but I like the squares of fish without rice that shinju in pines serves. The furniture could be kept up a little bit better. The booths are well maintained however the manager of this place could take some chairs out and repaint them as they are starting to wear from being stacked at the end of the day. I was going to give it four stars but my girlfriend who also ate there got extremely sick tonight and it wasnt form our home made dinner. Could just be a fluke and I dont blame thus place... However the health inspector reports make it seem plausible it could be from there. I didnt get sick and I ate sushi and fried foods. Food is decent for the price. The server asked us if we wanted shoulder??? But she was trying to say soda. I would go back, but there are things that could be improved here. The shin ju in pines off i75 and pines Blvd takes the cake. I think the person below me was paid to write a bad review. It doesnt seem that a real customer would write such a bad review cause this place doesnt deserve such a harsh review as the one below. Like I said before, I would go back again.

---

A

A Private User

This buffet is nothing to get excited about. The food is mediocre and the sushi trays are often empty, even with several chefs behind the counter. Also, many of the rolls have a slight variety on the same ingredients so despite the fact that it looks like there are a lot of rolls to choose from, they all taste the same. The service was not good either. It first started by the hostess taking us to a table that already had a couple sitting at it, then scrambled to put us at a tiny table nearby. The waitress did not even know we had been assigned to her area, so it took forever to get drinks. Also, the drinks were rarely refilled. I have often gone to Kamados at the corner of University and Sheridan and they are far superior. The sushi bar is always well stocked. The wait staff is wonderfully attentive. This place seems like it is run by people who dont care very much about service, while Kamado makes you feel right at home. Skip this place and go a few miles down the street. Its well worth it. Prices: Lunch $9.95 Mon-Fri, $10.95 Sat-Sun Dinner $16.95 Mon-Thurs $18.95 Fri-Sun

---

JO

jomama isshawalrus

Nope. NEVER AGAIN. Staff are money hungry and rude. I gave one of the staff an amount of money that was over the original price in order to get some change back and she tried to KEEP IT FOR HERSELF. I went in with a couple of friends and somw ofthe female staff were literally putting their noses over the little parting/separating half walls to watch us, I have no idea why, if we were too loud they could have just told us, but the whole place was loud. They could have just been stereotyping. There are other staff cooks in the front that are just creepy and try to check you out and point at you, which is very unprofessional and rude. The food was just cheap and horrible. I tried some type of orange chicken and it was rubbery and hard to chew, it was so bad to the point that my own body was rejecting it and would make me gag so I wouldnt swallow it. The space where you get the food is VERY small to the point of almost bumping into people, not a very wide selection of food and mediocre quality.

---

C

c w

Ok, this restaurant does have great sashimi! However, Sat pm was a debacle. There was a loud explosion and carbon monoxide shot into my face and filled the restaurant with white billowing smoke. I experienced labored breathing, we were unable to eat our food, we had to exit the restaurant immediately. All the alarms were sounding, it was a frightening experience.The employees of this restaurant were overly concerned with people paying their bills versus safety. Have it be known this incident is listed on the health record as a VIOLATION. It reads, loosely secured carbon dioxide tanks. A word to the wise, fix this immediately or else you might be in further violations and god forbid someone gets injured.

---

---