Watami and Yellowtail - Japanese Buffets

After all the Chinese Buffets we have had to deal with, Northeast Ohio has recently gotten two Japanese Buffets. Now I love Japanese food and have a bit of knowledge since I spent quite a few years working at Shijuro and then Shuhei restaurants, so I figured I at least had to check them out. First up is Watami Japanese Seafood Buffet at 7703 Ridgewood Drive in Parma. This is in the Parmatown strip mall. A nice sized, but not overly large restaurant has been carved out. The setting is very nice and simple, with clean lines and light wood accents; the tables are up front with the buffet in back. The overall feeling is clean and light, with a modern Asian feel. The buffet is divided into two sections, on the right is the hot side. You start with a couple of soups, miso and a crab miso. Both are acceptable, if a little strong to my taste. You then have a steam table of Japanese hot food. The Tempura falls short, with the breading not nearly light enough. The fried rice and yakisoba were pretty good, but this is not what you come to a buffet for. Overall, most of the hot food is not quite up to snuff, I blame this primarily on having to sit on the steamtable; not the best condition for Japanese food. On the Left side is the cold side, which comes through much better. The front has a number of cold salads, I tried a couple and they were not bad. Next comes the Sushi section. A number of Sushi Chefs turn out a variety of maki (rolled) and nigiri sushi. In addition to the items that they put out on the buffet, they will make selected handrolls upon request. The selection is heavily weighted towards the maki rolls, with a limited selection of nigiri sushi (where the fish is on top of the rice). While the sushi here is better then any other buffet I have tried in the area, it still is not quite up to true Sushi Bar quality. The rice is cooked properly, but it is a bit underseasoned; a problem with much of the mass produced sushi, they just do not add enough vinegar to the rice and there is no wasabi on the nigiri. At Watami, I found the fish and seafood generally fresh. Rather then rely on the best quality fish simply prepared for the sushi, Watami tends to go more towards the combination rolls, where the fish will have other food to accent it. I did want to add that the desserts that I tried were actually pretty good. The cakes were moist and flavorful and the fruit was fresh. My overall experience at Watami was good, and with a lunch time price is $7.99 Monday-Thursday and $8.99 Friday and Saturday I felt like I got my moneys worth. I have moved away from buffets, preferring to get made to order food in reasonable quantities, but if you are in the area and need to really fill up, you should consider giving Watami a try. A good place to fill up and a step above the typical Chinese Buffet. Yellowtail Seafood Sushi Buffet is in Fairlawn at 4054 Medina Road, which is right by the I-8O ramp. It is located in one of the shopping centers and took over a space that used to be a Chinese Buffet. Walking in I was impressed, this is a large restaurant and clearly a lot of time and money was spent on transforming the space. There are a number of glass enclosed dining rooms and a very nice bar area. The buffet is arranged along the middle of the restaurant, in a large U with the hot food on one side, salads on the other and sushi in the middle. Once again the hot food, while looking good, did not hold up well due to having to sit. I did at one point manage to get some tempura just after it had been added to the buffet and it was significantly better then the pieces I had tried earlier, but still not up to top tempura standards. I can tell you that I was disappointed in the crab cakes and crab balls, both of which were more filler then crab. Off of the salad side I tried a couple of items that seemed interesting, but while well prepared, they were nothing special. So lets get to the sushi, since this should be the draw at Yellowtail. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. There is a good variety to choose from, but the quality was lacking. The maki sushi were ok, although quite a few of the items were very similar, with the fish mixed with mayonnaise or other dressing and then used to fill the roll. In the end, this is a way to hide lesser quality fish and seafood, but it tends to make everything similar. Unfortunately the nigiri sushi was even worse. First the rice portions under the fish were too big; which makes sense for a buffet where they are trying to fill you up; but does not make for good sushi. Even worse was that the fish itself was not all top quality. While the White Tuna was good, I did have a piece of the regular Tuna that was quite a bit stronger then it should be. The other fish ranged in quality, but none was what I expect to be used for sushi. The food quality issue was especially upsetting considering that Yellowtail charges $15.95 for lunch and $25 for dinner. At those prices I expect to have top quality food. For me the easy choice is to take that amount and go to a real Japanese Restaurant and have a good meal. I also had a service issue. When my waitress approached me about drinks, I asked what came with the buffet, she listed off soft drinks, ice tea and the like; I had the ice tea. Imagine my surprise when there was an additional $2 charge for the drink. I called this to my waitresses attention; while she apologized she did not take the extra charge off the bill. So my recommendation is to stay away from Yellowtail, while the place looks great, it is overpriced, the food quality is mediocre and they have some of the worst sushi I have had. You get a much better deal at Watami, but for me I am headed for Shuhei and some good food.