So Danny took me, Riceboy0019 (Sherman), and a few other of our friends to a Japanese Buffet near Menlo Park Mall in New Jersey last night called IchiUmi (or One Ocean if I’m right). To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from a buffet, but was going to try to eat more than my share since I was spending the money. Unfortunately because of the weather and a lack of food all day caused me to enjoy it less than I should have, but nevertheless the food was delicious. Quite a surprise from a buffet style restaurant. The picture that you actually see here is already my second dish. My first dish consisted of sushi, eel, eel, eel, eel, and eel.
This is Kaisuri’s dish. I swear that this kid has a bottomless stomach. I think one of the biggest draws of this place was that it only served Japanese food. Usually you expect to see Japanese buffet food accompanied by American-style Chinese food or something, but not here. IchiUmi actually delivered only Japanese food. Despite this though, their selection was in no way hindered. Instead, I believe that this turned out to be one of their greatest strengths. Fresh sushi being prepared at all times (which wasn’t bad! – very unlike the quality of other Japanese buffets I know), soft-shell crab coming out in the dozens, and eel out of nowhere made my stomach go into bliss for many moments during the night.
Another thing I was very impressed with, was the aesthetics of the place. It didn’t really have a huge Asian feel to it, but it was inviting and gave just enough hint of its oriental roots. It was clean, organized, and wasn’t cluttered like some places make you feel. There was always enough space for me to get the food I wanted and whenever people were there, they didn’t get in my way for very long. Once you have your food, you keep moving – people didn’t stay in one spot for very long. With the selection, it was hard to since everything was so good.
As you can see, just rolls and rolls of sushi. Awesome.
I guess as a scare tactic, IchiUmi tries to warn you that leaving extra food and rice on your dish is very offensive in the Japanese culture. I’m not exactly sure if this is true or not (at least I haven’t heard of it), but if you abuse their system and leave tons of food on your plates, they will charge you an extra 35% surcharge. It’s to their own discretion though, so as long as you aren’t too wasteful, you’ll be fine.
So I guess as a final note, I’d like to say that I’d very much recommend this buffet. If you live in the area, try it out soon, since from my experience, the quality of a buffet can drop dramatically from when it opens. I at least hope it doesn’t. Dinner was on the pricey side ($32 on weekends), but I think it was pretty worth it. Being that I had a massive headache, I regret not being able to eat more, but that’s my own fault. But yeah, definitely worth checking out: IchiUmi
