Hokkaido Seafood Buffet, Asian-Based Banquet-Seafood Buffet Tables at Bailey's Crossroads - Closed "for Renovations"

[JimRice]

On 12/15/2010 at 1:14 PM, goodeats said:

After two years of solitude, it's nice to see this space finally rented with brown paper up in its windows. The new place must be close to opening because its restaurant sign is up.

I am happy for another buffet place -- this new place looks like a rival to Todai -- Hokkaido Seafood. (Link directs you to its LA location.)

Hokkaido Seafood looks to be open now. Anyone been yet?

[catharine]

Thanks to this thread and our sushi cravings, we tried Hokkaido early Saturday evening. Dinner was $18.95 per person. It was as good as any buffet of this type... The space was clean and modern, as you would expect from a newly-opened place. It was relatively empty when we arrived, but it became very busy within the hour we were there, and we definitely stood out as some of the only Caucasians in the place. (That's a plus, in our book.) The service was very good for such a new place. The manager was a very nice young lady who was making rounds to check on everyone personally.

The sushi seemed fresh with plenty of selection (rolls, nigiri, sashimi). It wasn't fabulous, but it was sufficient. You really had to hunt for the soy sauce cups (which are to the right of the mongolian grill.)

They offered a really wide selection of other dishes. Lots of Chinese food (which was so-so) and many kinds of seafood. The highlights for me, other than the sushi were the steamed crab legs, followed by the salt and pepper calamari. They also offered peel and eat shrimp, some kind of fried, shell-on shrimp, oysters, crawfish (in sauce) and many other things which I was not able to try.

The dim sum offerings were really disappointing. The two different varieties of steamed, doughy buns that I thought might have BBQ pork inside had a sweet substance that I am guessing was bean paste. The three kinds of dumplings suffered from too much time on the steam table and general lack of flavor, although it was very early in the dinner hour. The seafood pancake was greasy but at least it had some flavor.

Hubby enjoyed the spareribs and the roast beef (not sure of the cut, other than large and rare). I took a stab at the mongolian grill. The beef was a big thick cut and the chef chopped it into small pieces and seasoned it for me, cooking it to order. I enjoyed it with the pineapple I added to my stir fry.

We won't rush back, but next time we want a quick Asian food fix with a lot of variety, we'd consider returning - probably in a year or so.

[rbh]

Went Sunday evening. So since Catharine's post, they've dropped the price a $1... it's $17.95/dinner all day Sunday and Fri/Sat. $15.95/dinner Mon-Thur. And they've now set up a local web page. Catharine's thoughts are still pretty spot on. I'll add that they have a teppanyaki grill where you can prepare your own plates (steak, chicken, assorted veggies) for cooking. They also had a selection of skewers for grilling. The octopus was outstanding. The chicken gizzards not as much.

Dim sum still disappointing. They had steamed blue crabs; shrimp cocktail; steamed clams; crawfish. There was baked lobster which was part of the buffet price but served to the table... meh.

Overall a pretty good deal for $17.95.... left very full.

[naxos]

Went to the next-door Latin market yesterday and Hokkaido is shuttered with a sign that says closed for remodeling .

I wonder if it may be permanent ?