IchiUmi is a “Japanese Sushi and Seafood Buffet” located in Korean Town, right above Ichi Cellar (you can read about it here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/ichi-cellar/ ). I have been to IchiUmi once, several years ago, and I was not impressed. But, my hubby got curious when he heard what they claimed to be, an all-you-can-eat sushi and seafood.

The entrance is large, good for when it gets really busy with people waiting for their tables. They had a red kimono on display, although if anyone who knows and loves kimono sees the way it is “displayed” they will have a heart attack…but then again, I don’t think it was a real, super fancy, high quality kimono, so…

Anyways, we had a reservation for right around the time they open on one weekend. But yet, they took a few minutes to figure out where to sit us. After going through a narrow walkway, the space opes up to a long buffet table and large dining area.

The space is pretty impressive when it comes to its size. They take up almost the entire block in its depth, making the whole restaurant to have huge space. Not very common for NYC. They had many empty tables, as they just opened up for the day shortly before we arrived.

They also have upstairs seating, which is smaller than the main floor dining room. About the time we left, it was pretty packed on both floors.

The buffet price changes based on the day and time. for weekends (Sat & Sun) between 11:30am – 4:00pm is $24.95/person. With its size, they get to have a very, VERY long buffet table. It goes from the front of the wall to almost all the way to the back of the wall. They are separated into several sections, like salad, cooked food, noodles, and sushi.

In the noodle section, they have a few ramen (you need to get the staff to assemble it), and also a single serving of cold soba. I took the soba, added broth, veggies and dried seaweed. Since the bowl was very small, the topping kind of covered the soba… It was not so bad, a good and easy option to have.

They had a grill section also, and they were grilling some asparagus and meat. You could either take the ones that are already done, or wait in front and get the freshly grilled items (especially if they don’t have any already-cooked food out yet).

The staff was just finishing up with marinated Kalbi beef (?), and everyone was getting them directly from the grilling staff. I did the same and she gave me two small pieces.

As I mentioned, this place is located in Korean Town, so even though they claim to serve “Japanese” food at their buffet, don’t expect anything really Japanese to be served here. Now, let’s move on to the sushi section. They call it “Japanese Sushi” but there is nothing Japanese about it. I was disappointed with their sushi when I first visit this restaurant, but I think the quality went down even further…

The sushi was very small, not very well stocked, other than cheap kind. From what I saw, they make some Salmon and Tuna nigiri sushi, but not often. And when they come out, it disappears within seconds. So, you are more likely to get one of those other white fish sushi. They list 37 kinds of nigiri sushi on their menu, but yet, you will get to see maybe five or six kinds.

We decided to try some sushi regardless of how they looked… I didn’t get too adventurous, but my husband certainly filled up his plate. They didn’t have much options when it came to the nigiri sushi, so we just picked a couple of them. They had more rolls than anything else. The rolls had strange flavoring with spices (I assume some kind of Korean spices?) on them, making them all taste the same. And they were really bad. I mean, REALLY bad. I saw a family sitting next table (Asian family) asked their waitress to take the plate full of sushi, I guess they were not edible to them at all. I remembered that the sushi was bad from my previous visit, but I didn’t think it was this bad…

When we went back to the buffet table, we didn’t really see much of option. Why? Well, most of the buffet was for what they call “Shabu Shabu” section. Now, anyone who knows or had shabu shabu would know that what they are offering is NOT shabu shabu, but a hot pot. I guess since they are supposed to be offering “Japanese” food, and many Japanese name sounds more fancy and expensive, they decided to go with shabu shabu? When I came here few years ago, they didn’t have this, instead, they had more ready-made food options.

Anyways, the options for hot pot was pretty good. They had lots of fresh-looking veggies, and I mean a lot! Probably the best stocked item on this buffet table (LOL). They also had some yam, mushrooms, bean sprouts, tofu, konyaku, etc.

They also had some fish cakes, sausages, and thinly sliced pork and beef. The pork and beef looked ok, nice pink color and looked fresh.

They had good amount of seafood for the hot pot, which was pretty nice. They had shellfish, crab legs, octopus, white fish filet and shrimp. My husband wanted to go with the seafood for our hot pot, so we mainly got those items.

Your table does not come with hot pot, so you need to ask someone to bring one for your table. They brought a tabletop burner with a gas canister, but the gas canister was almost empty when it came to us, as the flame died out during us cooking our food. Our server grabbed another canister from a nearby table with a customer who were about to pay and leave.

We got some veggies, meats, and seafood for our hot pot. I recommend to get a small amount of each item to make sure you like what they are offering. Just because they look good doesn’t always mean they are tasty, and just because they look fresh doesn’t always guarantee quality, especially at a buffet place.

They have the sauce for hot pot across from the hot pot ingredients section. Yes, the sign says “Shabu Shabu Sauce” but we know it is not shabu shabu… I thought the options available for sauce was pretty good. Many choices and variations.

So, we started cooking our hot pot. It is a fun thing to do with family and friends. I saw many family gathered around the hot pot, making all sorts of hot pot. It is pretty cool, but hot pot is not something that will cost $25 per person, unless you go to somewhere really fancy, or you are a real big eater.

We watched them getting cooked, and since not all the ingredients take long time to cook, we ate as we watched and cooked more food. It was very filling with lots of veggies that we had in there.

The shellfish seemed nice and were good size. They were not too bad.

If you want to get some sort of pallet cleanser type of food, they do have fruits section also. It is located between the main food buffet and dessert buffet. They don’t have much options, but had some melons, cantaloupes, jello and such.

Speaking of desserts, their dessert buffet features few kinds of sweets. They are very small in size, I would say most of they are a single bite size, unless you like to take a really small bites.

I took a few to taste, and shared it with my hubby. It is better to just get one kind and share, just to make sure you like it. If not, it is not so bad since you are just getting a really small bite by sharing anyways. I took a super mini cream puff, rainbow cake, Apple delight cake, red bean ice cream cake (although it didn’t feel or taste like ice cream), lemon delight cake, and cheesecake with fudge glaze. They were all a-ok. Nothing special.

I do say that the cream puff had a good amount of filling. Just a whipped cream, nothing fancy, but better than getting a whole lot of puff pastry with tiny amount of cream in it.

They also have a small freezer next to the dessert section, holding single servings of ice creams. It seems like their green tea ice cream is popular, but when I went there, the group in front of me took all the green tea ice creams… So, I got red bean and cookie & cream ice cream. They were both a-ok.

The bathroom is located in the middle, one side is for women towards the back, and for men towards the entrance.

The bathroom was nice size, although it could be bigger for a restaurant this size. It was nicely lit, but not kept very clean. I am sure it is not easy to keep on top of it with so many foot traffic.

I heard that they stop bring out the food an hour of so before they close, which is understandable. The service was cold, not rude, but definitely not friendly. It was not easy to grab out waitress, so we had to grab whoever was nearby when we needed something. The food quality was not good, in my opinion. For them to be advertising their establishment as “Japanese Sushi” and seafood buffet, they should have better quality sushi that are edible, and more offerings, true to their menu indicated on their website. I wish if they don’t call their hot pot “Shabu Shabu” but it is a fun dish to share with your family and friends. Again, I don’t think hot pot is worth the price, as hot pot is supposed to be economical dish. I don’t think we will go back to IchiUmi, but at least my hubby got to experience what they are like, and what they offer. If you are really curious, I recommend trying them during the weekdays when they are much cheaper, or go to their NJ location where I hear they have better service and food.

 

IchiUmi – 6 E 32nd St, New York, NY 10016