Ichiban Buffet

Reviews 3

PA

Patrick Toomey

After seeing a strange mix of very high and very low reviews I decided to try this buffet. Most reviews seemed to talk about good food but terrible service. My experience was on a very busy night when I would have expected worse service. The result though was happily the opposite. I was impressed with both the service and the food, both of which were better than any other buffet Ive been to, especially in this area. I am a local and have visited at least a dozen buffets in the tourist areas so I speak from experience. When I arrived, I was greeted and seated promptly. Although not overly friendly, the host staff were professional and certainly not rude of off-putting in any way. Based on how busy they were, the speed was impressive. The overall appearance of the restaurant was clean and well decorated. The tables and booths in the area in which we were seated were in good repair and were also clean. Having used the mens restroom, it was clean and the paper products and soap were stocked. First impressions on the food selection was that it was impressively large. The buffet is broken down into areas for sushi, cold foods/salad, several hot food bars and a desert area. There was also a hibachi area but I dont know exactly how that worked. I didnt see a raw food area to build a meal to be cooked so maybe this was for custom orders? I was very impressed with the quality and quantity of the sushi. There were at least 12 selections ranging from tuna sashimi to rolls. All were fully stocked every time I looked and were all very fresh. The tuna was as good as I have had from any average sushi restaurant and I certainly ate more than my $12 worth of that item alone. The cold foods and salad were all good. The eggs were fresh, the vegetables were good and the lettuce was not wilted. The hot foods excellent, well above average in my opinion. All the chicken dishes I tried were good high quality plump chicken cooked properly and not dried out. Soups were good and not watered down. I also tried the boneless ribs which were not as flavorful as I would have hoped but they were fresh and not over cooked. The selection of hot foods was impressive and diverse. The desert area was mostly as one would expect from a buffet but with the addition of a cooler with I believe 8 different flavors of ice cream. I did like the selection but I was a little concerned with having an ice cream scoop with so many people sticking their hands in to scoop it out. That was the only possible cleanliness issue that I saw but as it involved frozen food in a frozen box I would imagine the contamination risk is somewhat lower. In summary, I was very happy with my visit, would recommend it to others and will definitely be returning.

LM

lmand71

I have been to at least seven Chinese buffets in scattered locations throughout the greater Orlando area. Ive been to three up in the north west of Orlando, one in the north east, three along lower OBT/Conway area , and so on and so on....as ive always have been searching for a decent one i can go back to. Ive been to Ichiban more than a few times and in the past have found them to be "OK", not the greatest, but ever so slightly better than others in tiny ways. One time, i visited at night and was very disappointed. The food was dry, salty and they hadnt rotated food very often. This time, I went for Mothers Day and WOW!! Did they step up their game!! The food was far superior to any experience Ive had thus far in the Greater Orlando area (including a "good" place in Tampa), and even better than visits at Ichiban in the past. I cant tell you if this was because it was the weekend or it was Mothers day or they are just getting better overall. A few of the standouts were the steak (cooked to perfect medium rare) and their seafood in general. Fried softshell crab was AHmazing. Stir fries were not salty like other places, people came back with crawfish piled onto their dishes (im not a fan) and the steamed flounder was fresh and not salty. Chinese roast duck was fresh and meaty (not all fatty skin). Everything was in constant rotation. The softshell crab would come from the kitchen in a gigantic pile on the warmer tray and you turn around it was gone in less than 5 minutes. No lie. It was that good. Yes, they have green tea ice cream (and the other basic flavors). Sashimi was fresh and the rolls were not very exciting but still good to eat. The pastries werent dried up. I really cant think of anything to complain about at this particular visit. Oh! I stayed away from the sui mai as it typically never looks like what youd get during dim sum but it still looked a bit better than what youd usually expect from a typical buffet. If you want crab legs its $3.99 xtra on your tab and adult meal is $11.99 on non holidays. I have to give four stars because of the inconsistency in the past. But WOW was this a great visit....be sure to go on the weekends when there is high traffic.

NE

Neely Cruz

A friend turned us on to this place about a month ago and we went a few weeks ago and it was great. Well we went back on Sunday the 19th and I ended up sick to death at about 3:30am on Monday morning. The place looks very clean and the hot buffet is actually decent, but after sitting behind the sushi bar and then getting sick, I will not ever be going back. After filling and eating a plate of sushi, I noticed the sushi chefs continuous cross contamination behind the bar. The more I watched, the more I lost my appetite. I watched one of them continuously pull up his pants WITH his gloves on, scratch himself WITH his gloves on, then rummage through the freezers and fridges near the floor for food WITH his gloves on, then roll sushi, the take his gloves off, go to the back somewhere, then he came back and put the same gloves on over and over. He even sat his gloves on the counter while he ate his own dinner then put them right back on. The hibachi bar was very dirty, there was raw chicken and steak, shrimp, and scallops sitting on a cart near the floor the entire time we were there, it was not covered and left unattended for long periods of time, and when he needed vegetables, he grabbed a glove and then re-used that same glove each time but did not cook with gloves on or when serving the food. I saw him also leave the station numerous times but never once wash his hands when he returned to the station. When he was cooking one mans vegetables, one of the onions fell in the grease trap and he pulled the onion out of the grease trap and put it on his plate. The crab legs were not fresh and not worth the extra $3.99, the meat had a brown tint to it and after that we left because I already felt sick knowing what I had eaten before I saw what I saw. My advice, I would not recommend but if you are into taking chances, then go for it, the hot food bar isnt horrible. Like I said, the first time we went we were fine, food was fine, but after seeing a "behind the scenes" look, I think I have had enough. Ill stick to my regular sushi bar where not getting sick is worth the extra money it costs.