Kuishin-Bo Dining

Another great trip to my favorite Japanese buffet. I was promptly seated (I recommend reservations) and I went straight to the sashimi and sushi. Good variety and it was constantly refreshed. Good fried food section and I really liked the chicken wings. So many choices and quality food all around

This is a buffet which is not for those with a very tight budget. The food standard & quality has also significantly dropped over the years.
The only outlet of this Japanese Buffet restaurant can only be found in Great World City Shopping Mall. Although there are several bus services to this place, it is not worth the travel time. The outlet looks big & seem to be able to hold alot of customers, but the walkwaya are cramped & you tend to bump or knock onto people taking the food.
Price of the buffet comes at around 30+++ to 50+++. Although there ia quite a selection of food, the standard and quality are not maintained very well. The Shashimi are usually a mix of fresh & frozen seafood & fishes. The snowcrab legs are hard to eat as there ia inconsitency in the preparation method. It can be either just perfect or overcooked as the shell most of the time tend to stick to the meat itself.
They do offer BBQ selections, but the only item that is worth trying are the chicken wings which is slightly done better than the others.
They offer a variety of desserts which are just plain weird. The japanese mochi is prepared with the weirdest of flavors & the normal flavors do not have much of any impact in aspect of taste. The only good desserts which are considered good are the cream puffs & choclate eclairs if you are lucky & fast enough to swoop them off the dessert line.
In all, it is not worth the price.

Usually hesitant when it comes to Japanese buffets, but apparently I had heard this was one of the «better» ones… Except it’s really not.
We were making plans for a cousins dinner and was looking for a place big enough for a big group of us, where everyone could eat as much as they wanted, with sashimi /​protein options (those, low carb dieters!) so naturally, Japanese buffet seemed fitting.
When you first walk around, you’ll notice there are truly a lot of options. Sashimi, make-​your-​own-​chirashi-​bowls, japanese curry, chawanmushi, udon, ramen, grilled foods, tempura, cooked foods, fish cake/​radish soup, porridge, a chocolate fountain, ice cream, desserts, chocolates… It actually got me all a little excited. The problem, then, wasn’t the selection but the quality (I’m not expecting the finest quality but for $ 60 a head on weekends, could we at least have something somewhat yummy?) as well as the bad service.
The quality — nothing was good! nothing! everything was mediocre at best, the salmon sashimi was too slimy and mushy (I couldn’t have more than a bite of it), the best thing was probably the ramen and the fishcake soup. Which you wouldn’t come to a buffet for.
The service — I don’t think I’ve been to a place with LESS service. It wasn’t bad, or rude. Just pretty non existent. The food on the buffet table looked soo messy and disgusting, I barely even wanted it. In the two hours we spent there, not once did our plates get cleared (we had to put them away on other tables ourselves before they came to remove them), the drinks are ALL self service on the furthest end of the buffet (why wouldn’t you put it by the tables?) and even the utensils are self service (not that it’s a problem, just makes me wonder what the staffs job actually is) I understand that this is a buffet and would overlook the service if the food was actually good.
For $ 60 a head on weekends, I’d much rather spend my money elsewhere. Not impressed at all.

Let’s talk about positives first.
$ 50 a head for a buffet with snow crab legs, a decent spread of sashimi (salmon, tuna, tai, hamachi), and quite a few other Japanese food items as well. The staff working the floor are generally friendly and helpful… and I suppose overall it’s hard to say that there isn’t a good variety of food.
BUT. There’s nothing more frustrating than a buffet manner by lazy kitchen staff. Food items take forever to be refilled, they don’t promptly check the a la carte orders (done via dropping your table tag in bowls by the respective items), the coffee’s horrible, and food isn’t always at the ideal temperature (have you ever tried cold chawanmushi? it’s kinda icky)
I mean, for the most, food’s pretty average. The fish is fairly fresh, the fried items aren’t soggy, it’s just a good, solid selection of average food items at a pretty competitive price. I love that they have soft serve ice cream, and that they have dobin mushi (teapot soup) as part of the buffet. The soup takes some time to be replenished, but it’s pretty flavourful and I had three pots.
Overall, I think Kuishin Bo is nowhere near the Japanese buffet favourites like Ikoi and Irodori are still significantly better in terms of quality. You get less variety (particularly in terms of desserts and cooked items), but better raw fish and soups (and an a la carte buffet is always better when raw fish is part of the selection).
Which is more important? Well you need to decide for yourself.
Here’s a tip though. For reservations made before 3pm, each diner is entitled to half a grilled lobster (topped with cheese). Free. So do as they want you to. Make a reservation! I didn’t and spent the whole evening staring at the lobsters going past me. :(

Kuishin-bo’s been around for yonks, and its draw is undoubtedly the snow crab legs. Reservations are imperative, else it’d be next to impossible to get a seat as the place is always crowded with diners. Noise level, as with all buffet places, is over the top. The area is on the long and narrow side, and it can get rather uncomfortable when squeezing past the crazy people swarming in on the crab legs. Food range is extensive, and has the usual suspects like sashimi, chawanmushi, nabe and then some. I didn’t quite expect the grill section outside, so that was a bit of a nice surprise, with yakitori and other meats offered. The dessert section is pretty good too, and the chocolate squares are often snapped up quickly. If I had to nitpick, I’d whinge a little about the steps leading out to the outdoor area, as well as the dining area. Not very convenient when trundling plates of food about. While the price range is a little on the high side, it’s a great place for a celebration or a meet up with a group of friends.