A Big Asian Buffet With Crab Legs, Hibachi and Plenty to Explore

A plate can take several different directions here. Start with a few pieces of sushi and a bowl of hot-and-sour soup, head back for fried shrimp or teriyaki chicken, then put together a small hibachi selection with steak, vegetables and garlic sauce. The whole point is not settling on one direction too quickly.

This is a large all-you-can-eat Asian buffet built for browsing. Hot dishes, vegetables, rice, chicken, seafood, soups, sushi and desserts occupy enough ground that a first walk around the stations is useful before committing to a full plate.

For families and mixed groups, that breadth solves the usual dinner question of who wants what. Someone can stick with familiar fried items and rice while another person builds a seafood plate, tries nigiri, or spends time at the grill.

The hibachi station breaks up the ready-to-serve rhythm with a freshly cooked option. Diners choose their ingredients, then return for a hot plate prepared from that selection.

Steak, chicken and baby shrimp are among the choices that have appeared at the grill, along with mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, carrots and garlic sauce. A modest pile of vegetables plus shrimp makes a nice counterweight to a plate that may already include a few fried buffet favorites.

It also makes repeat trips more interesting. One round can be sushi and soup; the next can be a hibachi plate with a different combination of meat and vegetables.

Soup gets more attention here than at many large buffets. Wonton soup, hot-and-sour soup and beef noodle soup have all been among the options.

There is also a custom soup station, so a bowl need not be limited to a pre-made choice. It is a good place to slow down between bigger plates, particularly for diners who would rather assemble something lighter than take another helping from the hot line.

The sushi area offers assorted sushi and nigiri, giving the meal a cold, clean-tasting counterpoint to the steam-table dishes. It is easy to make a small sampling plate rather than treating sushi as the entire meal.

Elsewhere, the buffet has included kimchi and tempura vegetables, along with the expected rice, chicken dishes and mixed vegetable selections. The variety is broad enough that a plate can be carefully assembled or pleasantly random.

A few of the more indulgent finds have developed their own following: fried biscuits, fried wontons, shrimp sticks, fried shrimp, and teriyaki chicken with shrimp and vegetables. The fried biscuits are the sort of item that can turn a sensible first plate into an immediate second trip.

Stations are kept replenished as food moves, which matters in a buffet of this size. Freshly set-out items can be especially worth watching for, including thick-cut salmon when it appears.

Weekend meals are especially associated with the seafood spread, when snow crab or crab legs are a prominent attraction. At busy times, the seafood stations can be hard to miss as diners carry back plates stacked with crab and clams.

Other seafood selections have included lobster tails, fried blue crab, Dungeness crab, crawfish, baby clams, shrimp and salmon. The lineup can vary by meal, so it is best thought of as a rotating spread rather than a promise that every item will be waiting on every visit.

For a buffet meal, crab legs change the pace a little. A table that began with soup and sushi may turn into a longer, more leisurely seafood stop, with a pile of shells accumulating between trips to the hot bar.

Dessert is more than a token tray of cookies. Fresh fruit, cookies, pastries and soft-serve ice cream provide several ways to close out the meal.

The chocolate-and-vanilla twist is a particularly easy finish after a plate of crab, grilled shrimp or spicy soup. It is also one more reason not to fill the first plate too aggressively.

The dining room is notably large and has handled a party of 14, giving it a practical advantage for family gatherings, birthday meals and groups that do not want to negotiate one narrow menu. Smaller parties can still keep the visit simple: pick a table, take a lap around the buffet, and compare notes after the first round.

Conversation can be comfortable here, though the room may rise to a moderate hum during active meal periods. That is a fairly natural trade-off in a big buffet where tables are making frequent trips to the stations.

Parking has been available in a free lot with ample space. Many meals have fallen in the reported $20-to-$30-per-person range, with weekend seafood meals often around the upper end of that range; prices can change, particularly for the seafood service.