Minado

[Lreda]

Taking the kids here tonight as it's across the street from me. Looked in before they opened and it's huge. Seats up to 700. Heard the rent here per month is $40,000. That's crazy money. This is the 7th location they've opened. They're in Little Ferry NJ, The east side of Manhattan, Carle Place NY, Atlanta GA, Matlick MA. Dinner is $23.95 for adults

Children 4 1/2 ft and under 1/2 price

Children 3 1/2 ft $4.95

Just what I needed, another place to suck some of the somewhat non-existant lunch business away. Lunch is $13.95.

www.minado.com.

Edited April 4, 2004 by Lreda (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

We have a Minado here in Atlanta now and I rather enjoy the pristine quality of their sushi, the array and variety of the seafood, and the overall ambiance .. because I enjoy little tastes of everything, this pretty much fills the bill ...

Setting is very attractive and unusually attentive staff .... their website has a very smart way of calculating portions for kids and the prices seem quite reasonable considering the buffet nature of the place ... top-notch? not really but quite well suited for someone who enjoys a myriad of tastes ... enjoy it!

[tommy]

Children 4 1/2 ft and under 1/2 price

rosie, it's your lucky day!

i've been tempted to try the Little Ferry location since hearing rachel's mostly kind words about the place.

Edited April 4, 2004 by tommy (log)

[Lreda]

Children 4 1/2 ft and under 1/2 price

rosie, it's your lucky day!

[Rachel Perlow]

Just as an addendum to my "mostly kind words" (don't recall and don't feel like searching for them): We haven't been to Minado in at least 18 months, and my overall impression is that white the quality of the food is decent, it is expensive for a buffet and they are stingy with the lobster (that is they say they include lobster, which is one of the reasons it is so expensive, but they put small trays of lobster out infrequently and don't refill it with any urgency).

[tommy]

Just as an addendum to my "mostly kind words" (don't recall and don't feel like searching for them):

mostly kind.

i think we probably had a conversation in person as well. still, i came away with the thought that it was better than i would have thought, which probably doesn't say a whole lot.

Edited April 4, 2004 by tommy (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

they are stingy with the lobster (that is they say they include lobster, which is one of the reasons it is so expensive, but they put small trays of lobster out infrequently and don't refill it with any urgency).

Exactly the same experience here in Atlanta with the lobster ... I think they are highly aware of the economics with regard to offering certain delicacies ... maybe I am just too crabby ....

[Rosie]

Children 4 1/2 ft and under 1/2 price

rosie, it's your lucky day!

i've been tempted to try the Little Ferry location since hearing rachel's mostly kind words about the place.

This is good news. I still can't pass the height test for the rides in Disney Land!

[Lreda]

Hmmm, I have to say this wasn't a bad deal. My 10 year old Brandon ate everything he put on his plate and even experimented with things he never had. Well worth the 1/2 price he got. On the other hand is my picky 13 year old Alec who had hibachi, some eel sushi and dessert. Not worth the full price I had to pay for my puberty stricken teenager who looks 16 already. As for me. Sushi was decent, lobster scarce, made a couple of trips but the pan was already empty. Service was good, lot of young servers, cleared plates on time, were good with the kids but they should teach the ones with colds not to wipe their noses on their sleeves. Alec had a good time with that, he notices all that shit, must have been tough to listen to me all these years but at least he'll be able to cook for his pals in college one day. Management was also considerate of the kids and even took them up to the sushi station to have hand rolls made fresh.

Bottom line, it's across the street and cheaper with the kids than a habachi house that has a sushi bar will be for me. They also have a liquor license. How do i know? Because I brought a bottle of wine with me and they told me it would be $20 bucks to open it. I had a Saporo beer. Don't blame them, insurance on the license is a bitch. Also, get here when they open cause when we left at 6:30 ( We opened the place) picking were slim as I guess they were judging what was coming through the door. Desserts sucked, fruit was good and I had jello for the 1st time since I was 12.

[Rosie]

"but they should teach the ones with colds not to wipe their noses on their sleeves."

Yuck.

[Cornellrob]

do you think you sacrifice anything by going to lunch? although the selection is probably smaller, i'm sure there's still plenty to pick at, and it's basically half price. just hafta deal with crazy crowds on weekends.

someone who has been to minado -- could you tell me what the quality is like compared to the typical nj sushi joint? how about non-sushi items?

clearly not up there with the best ny or even nj hafta offer, but as an alternative to just the local places (i.e. nagano, yoshi sono)....

[scarlet knight]

I had lunch there with my father. It is huge! The sushi is fresh and the variety is amazing.

I thought that the sushi on rice was sliced very thinly and had a lot rice. However, one cannot complain...I just ate the fish and left most of the rice.

Incidentally, a sign on the table says that anyone who wastes food gets a 30% surcharge. I doubt that this is enforced, but watch it!

I thought that the hot food was not as successful as the sushi-type food, but the BBQ pork and medium-cooked beef teriyaki were good. Also, there are many interesting, Asian-inspired salads.

I had fun, but there's a lot to eat and I wouldn't want to go here too often. It looks like there is a Thai/Malaysian buffet in the same mall. Weight Watchers may want to open a branch in this mall next.

Edited April 12, 2004 by scarlet knight (log)

[dumpling]

I've been at the one in Little Ferry and the one in Queens. Actually had a bad reaction to crab at the one in Little Ferry(although I think that may have been more my digestive system).

Thought the selection fairly good, particularly for a buffet. Lobster was infrequent and scarce but there were so many other things that really didn't bother me. Was a little more frequent with the one in Queens, which also seemed a little better in terms of the food although it was basically the same stuff.

Reasonable deal; fun to bring someone to who hasn't been to such a huge buffet before.

[Wanimoon]

I wasn't blown away with this place. It was good, but not somewhere I would rush to go back to for the price of the food. They were very stingy with the lobsters and I had to wait 20 minutes in one spot just for them to bring them out. Then they only gave me one!!! If you have the Money to blow, then I say go and have a blast, but if not, I recommend International Buffet in Bergenfield.

[Rachel Perlow]

Tell us more about that International Buffet in Bergenfield, Wanimoon. We stopped in once on a Sunday lunchtime and the buffet did look good. Plenty of crab, sushi being made fresh. But it was very crowded and Jason didn't want to stay. I say very crowded is the best time for buffet, at least you know stuff is being replenished regularly.

[Fyre]

Anyone know about the Thai/Malaysian buffet that is in the same mall as someone said? I passed it once and am very curious.

I haven't been to the International Buffet in Bergenfield in a long time, is that the one that is in a little shopping center with a big Asian food market? If it is, I don't remember it being so spectacular. I remember that they seemed to go for quantity over quality; they had a lot of choices but most things were so-so (even on buffet food scale). I do remember they had fresh sushi made by a sushi chef, but I wasn't into sushi at the time; I think I remember there not being a whole lot of variety of types of sushi, but then again that could be wrong. Has this place improved in the last couple of years? Because I wouldn't even put it in the same hemisphere in regards to quality of food AND quantity at Minado.

[dumpling]

I was to the International Buffet several times during my Mom's "buffet" phase although I haven't been there in a while(maybe a year).

It had some good things. The sushi was not very varied nor was it particularly good. Not on the scale of Minado and not in the league of sushi joints.

Has three main two sided food islands, a small sushi station and a dessert station plus a soft ice cream machine. So there is a reasonable amount of choices.

One island is cold food-salad and fruit mostly, cold shrimp. The second island is soup, fried stuff and the Chinese food. The third island is Italian stuff, fish, roast beef usually and king crab.

Positives-

there's usually shrimp and /or crab in great abundance. Salt and pepper shrimp which is pretty decent and ginger and scallion crab. There's a never ending supply of king crab.

they replace things very quickly and are not stingy about the more expensive stuff.

Their other stuff is decent. Nothing that I recall that really jumps out, but a good selection of meats and fish, lo mein, fried rice, pasta.

[Curlz]

Went to Minado for the first time this weekend...my friend's folks wanted to take us out for a belated birthday dinner. Having done a search before we went, I had seen the comments here, but was still blown away by the sheer size of this place! I don't think I've seen a restaurant and buffet this big outside of the casinos in Vegas!

Jim's folks are not adventurous eaters, but find plenty to eat there (esp on a Friday during Lent)...I tasted a bite of LOTS of dishes, but my #1 was definitely the beef tataki, which was basically a carpaccio. Couldn't figure out what the spices were on it, but they were wondeful, and the meat was buttery soft. The balance of sweet and spice was just perfect. The tuna sashimi that they put out while I was standing there was stunning, but I wouldn't call it sashimi--it was uneven chunks of maguro tuna! Looked to me like they had leftover pieces and just hacked it up, but I wasn't complaining b/c it was so fresh. I wish I could say the same about all of the sushi. From what I could see, it came out very fresh, but if there were no takers, it sat for far too long. On our second trip up, I skipped the tuna sushi b/c it was getting hard along the edges. Other dishes I/we enjoyed: shrimp shumai, calamari with asparagus, pork gyoza, assorted flounder dishes, sweet potato tempura (when it first came out), and a VERY spicy but still tasty watercress salad. We all enjoyed the green tea ice cream, but the pre-cut (and still-frozen) dessert squares were disappointing. We didn't get in line for them, but those who were eating the individually made dessert crepes seemed to enjoy them. The weirdest thing about the dessert layout is that the ice cream is at the start of the buffet, the crepe station is in the middle of it (next to the Hibatchi station) and the desserts are on the end.

I can see where this is a great bargain, esp for serious sushi eaters and those with big appetites...just be sure to take a close look at the sushi before you take it to be sure that it's a fresh batch!

[BryanZ]

Has anyone been to the newly opened Morris Plains branch? Is it any good? I have friends in MP who say it gets PACKED on weekends.

[Curlz]

Although I think we neglected to say so, LReda and I were both referencing the Morris Plains location earlier in this thread.

[BryanZ]

Although I think we neglected to say so, LReda and I were both referencing the Morris Plains location earlier in this thread.

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Gotcha. So, overall, would you say it's worth a trip? A bunch of my friends and I want to go as soon as we get back from college as a kind of tacky Japanese food reunion of sorts. We're college kids who eat a lot of pretty much anything and would be going to the MP location.

[Lreda]

Although I think we neglected to say so, LReda and I were both referencing the Morris Plains location earlier in this thread.

←

Gotcha. So, overall, would you say it's worth a trip? A bunch of my friends and I want to go as soon as we get back from college as a kind of tacky Japanese food reunion of sorts. We're college kids who eat a lot of pretty much anything and would be going to the MP location.

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Dude, this is perfect for you guys. You'll get more than your monies worth. Bring a couple of cases of brew and go for lunch. You'll scuaff triple your money.

[Curlz]

It is absolutely perfect for you!!! Just one glitch--they have a liquor license. I know b/c I drank a beer (ok, likely 2) the night I went. But definitely go!! You'll certainly get your money's worth!

[BryanZ]

Although I think we neglected to say so, LReda and I were both referencing the Morris Plains location earlier in this thread.

←

Gotcha. So, overall, would you say it's worth a trip? A bunch of my friends and I want to go as soon as we get back from college as a kind of tacky Japanese food reunion of sorts. We're college kids who eat a lot of pretty much anything and would be going to the MP location.

←

Dude, this is perfect for you guys. You'll get more than your monies worth. Bring a couple of cases of brew and go for lunch. You'll scuaff triple your money.

←

Oh the perils of being only 18 and 19.

[BryanZ]

So I finally went to the branch in Morris Plains and am still feeling the effects 7 hours later. This place is very similar to Todai, a perhaps better known Japanese seafood buffet chain, in terms of offerings, quality, etc. I recommend getting the handrolls at the sushi bar, as they're made fresh. Generally, the quality of fish is certainly acceptable and the setup of the restaurant allows for small samplings of a lot of things. I also enjoyed the hibachi station, as this was also made to order. On the night I went, they didn't have lobsters and featured jumbo head-on prawns in their place. These were suprisingly unpopular with the diners but were very good. All in all, not something I would be able to repeat on a regular basis, but fun for the experience.