Kobe Buffet

This buffet covered my fresh seafood craving and highly impressed with the attentive staff. I did not get sick from the shellfish or from the hot MSG laden lo mein noodles and fried rice. I will be returning back on every Sunday that falls on a payday weekend since the prices are too high for my budget but it’s worth every penny.

I try not to get my hopes up in a Chinese buffet (the name is the most Japanese thing here), so I am happy to report that Kobe has reinforced my apathy towards eating precooked food from a trough. I also have very low expectations when it comes to eating in the suburbs, and this place is about as suburban as it gets. Again, this place lived up to my expectations.
On a positive note, I found the sashimi and rolls to be surprisingly palatable. Normally, the food in Chinese buffets is acceptable (never great, but semi-​edible), but the sushi is rancid. The food here was utterly tasteless, but the sushi was far better than Chinese buffet quality, easily rivalling sushi buffet quality (not gourmet but very edible).
I know most people eating at buffets in the suburbs have low expectations of food, preferring quantity over quality. On that note, I am sure this buffet will be pleasing people for many years to come. They do have a large selection of food, just don’t expect a variety of flavor.

I usually like coming to this place. Most of their food tastes good. But today I saw something that grossed me out.
One of the employees was wiping the countertops with what looked like a dirty rag. It had to be dirty because he was cleaning the dirty countertops, right? He was also wearing plastic gloves. He takes the same rag he was wiping the countertops with and starts wiping the plates on the buffet counter where the desserts are sitting. He is wiping. The dessert plates where the cakes and pastries are on. With a dirty rag. And then he takes his hands, which have been holding the dirty rag, and starts touching the desserts and moving them around on the plates.
Ew.
Consider yourself warned.

Love the place though it’s far from where we live (Anaheim area). It’s much better than the buffet restaurants closer to our house so it’s ok if we have to drive 30 mins or so (depending on the traffic).
Food — can’t complain. Love their noodle station for my daughter. The crabs are great and that’s what I usually get. They have a lot of variations for main course and desserts.
Service — ok. They are always busy so we dont expect to get helped right away.
We’ll be back with some friends hopefully soon.

Calling out all seafood lovers! Come for their Sunday lunch buffet and you’ll get spoiled with a plethora of options from the sea cooked the oriental way, and by that I mean Chinese.
Think LOBSTER! Yes, an abundance of it. A sign says get 2 – 3 pieces each time but who are they kidding. I saw the same woman each time I was in line to get some filling a plate with just lobster for fear of running out. Sheesh! The Escolar Steak Fish was something I indulged in as well as the coconut shrimp (similar to honey walnut shrimp in flavor), crawfish, oysters, mussels, clams, sea snails, and crab legs. From the non-​seafood option there was the ROASTED DUCK and beef tenderloin in pepper sauce that grabbed my attention.
They also have a Japanese section with sushi rolls and sashimi. They had tuna and salmon among others but all I really need is SALMON to make me one happy camper.
I was too full and didn’t get to try their Mongolian Bbq. However, their CHOCOLATE FONDUE fountain is certainly not to be missed. It was very popular among our little companions as well as the adults with a sweet tooth.
Service was on point. Beverages were refilled when needed and plates were cleared almost as soon as it becomes empty.
Price is $ 19.99 all day on weekends for adults while kids ages 3 – 10 are charged $ 1.25 per year. It’s not a bad deal at all and if you come on weekdays, it’s cheaper. Probably with less seafood items though.
I wish it wasn’t that far of a drive to get here but in a way I’m thankful or this would be the go-​to each time there was a big gathering. That wouldn’t be good for my waistline.

I came here one Thursday around 6:45p since my BIL wanted to try it. It’s pretty spacious inside, and being a weekday evening, the place was only half full. Weekday dinner (Monday-​Thursday) is $ 17.99 per adult, and $ 1.00 per year for children 3 – 10 (so my youngest one was only $ 9.00).
Not sure why the place is called «Kobe» Buffet, since there’s nothing really Japanese or meaty about it. Yeah, they have a grill/​teppanyaki section, but It’s mainly a Chinese restaurant with some non-​Chinese flair like sushi, sashimi, kbbq and phở on the side.
I don’t know if the menu changes depending on the day, but I saw a lot of Chinese food like fried rice, chow mein noodles, sweet and sour pork, walnut shrimp (cooked in that style without the walnuts), green beans, beef and broccoli, pepper steak, egg rolls, hot and sour soup, etc. There was also dim sum type stuff like steamed and baked buns, shumai, and xiaolongbao. Other stuff included panko fried shrimp, fried and steamed gyoza, baked fish fillet, clams, mussels, and crab legs. The salad section was limited — some greens mixed with dressing, fake crab salad, and a cucumber marinade — so don’t expect to eat healthy here. Fruit was limited too, but the fun part was dipping them in the chocolate fountain (there was also a bowl of marshmallows next to the fountain). There was an array of desserts as well, but they all looked like they came from frozen packaging, and the soft serve from the machine was watery.
I didn’t try the phở or the grill so I can’t comment on them, but I did try some of the sushi (the crunchy roll and California roll) and didn’t like them at all. Hubby tried some of the sashimi and wasn’t too impressed either… but I will say that their Chinese food was pretty good.
I haven’t had a good experience with Asian food buffets as of yet and this was no exception. Perhaps Thursday evening was not a good day to come? Either way, I’d say stick with the Chinese food and keep your expectations low for everything else.

The sashimi (including expensive white tuna) and sushi were fresh and well prepared, I personally like the half-​cooked oysters most, they were well seasoned, moist and full of seawater taste like raw oysters. Most food were delicious except desserts which were quite disappointing. There were more varieties of food than expected. All in all, this buffet is better value for the money spent. Highly recommended!

Average. Really far from everything though.
I arrived at lunch today (Valentine’s day). It was pretty busy. Lots of food. I arrived at 1pm.
$ 21.99 per person. Unilocal check in was for a dollar off so $ 20.99 plus tax. The employees all spoke Chinese.
Let’s start off with the pros: good service. The dim sum was good! I was quite pleased. They had things that ranged from lobster claws, lobster stir fried Chinese style, sushi rolls, sashimi, phở, kbbq ribs, etc!
Such a wide selection. The mainly at the lobster stir fry, walnut shrimp, crab legs, and clams.
Lobster Chinese style was damn delicious. Limit 3 pieces per person. I just grabbed 3, dropped off my plate at the table, and came back for more. They just kept refilling it over and over. It was great! At 1:30pm there was a line for the lobster and the cooks just kept refilling it over and over. So amazing!!!
Walnut shrimp. Wow wow good! Crab legs… These were good but I didn’t like how the shell didn’t crack. They were mushy. Prob soaked in hot water too long.
Overall, a pleasant experience. I don’t think I’d come back because it’s so far away from me (I live in Santa Ana and I had to exit Alton and go down a long path to get there).
That’s all for now. Come here if u want lobster lol.

I think you get more than you pay for here. If it was just a Chinese food buffet I would probably give 3 stars Bc it reminds me of Chinese food where my mom lives in Ohio, some weird made up crap that tastes like nothing. I did like the crab wontons and chicken dumplings were okay but cold
They have a teppan grill that pretty much makes it worth your while with fresh veggies and steak. The beef short ribs are very fatty I prefer to stick with the thinner pieces of steak, but the chef cooks it with everything they have at a typical teppan place
There is a sushi bar that is pretty impressive for buffet status, the rolls are pretty basic but do not disappoint, tuna and salmon sushi/​sashimi are worth it
There is an udon/​ramen bar I didn’t try Bc I was so full but it’s an added plus to try and everything looked fresh
The snow crab legs are a lot of work and taste as expected, shrimp tastes weird like it’s been sitting out too long, everyone seemed to be going for the crawfish which I did not try
Overall good experience will be back

Review Update: After staying away for a long time and never mentioning Kobe’s existence, I had to give it another shot. Mom’s friend brought her here for lunch one day and she came home raving.
«Pshh…», I said when mom relayed her experience to me. «Lunch has more turnaround so the food is fresher. Dinner is where they make you eat lunch leftovers!.»
Mom insisted «Noooooo! Mrs. Ma says the dinner is really good too and very economical for what you get!»
After her friend taking her one more time and my mom taking my brother once, my curiosity got the better of me. Did this restaurant actually IMPROVE itself since its opening? At this point, mom is basically proselytizing for Kobe (having treated various groups of people for lunch or dinner here) so we finally checked it out one evening. Forget lunch, I want to see what they’ve been doing at dinner.
I was pleasantly surprised to see a nice crowd and fresh food! Everyone seems settled into their roles except the noodle guy is gone most of the time so you’re not really encouraged to take advantage of that section. I think I mentioned a chef that yelled at people in the open. Mom said she caught that too and actually mentioned to the manager up front that it’s not professional for that guy to yell at employees in front of customers. (LOLZ mom) The «teppanyaki» grill guy is on point. Actually a pretty nice guy — sometimes he keeps track of where people sit and when they forget their food, he’ll try to get your attention.
Hot dishes are replaced on a regular basis so that it’s not obvious you’re eating lunch leavings. Mom especially loves the clam, crawfish and duck. I actually haven’t had much of that except the steamed fish and crab legs which are pretty tasty. The grill is where I get my money’s worth. A few short ribs, a few peeled shrimp, some onions… ask the grill guy to add spicy and garlic, you’re good to go.
Service is pretty impressive. Most of the time, they do come by and ask if you want a drink refill. And they’re definitely not stingy with the napkins when you ask.
I’m impressed by Kobe and the strides they’ve taken to get foot traffic. Way to go!

We found this place by accident when we were returning some stuff at Sport Chalet and decided to go across to Target.
The hot food sections are pretty good. Lots of variety from dim sum, lobsters, snow crab legs, oysters, chow mein, fried rice, steam fish, fried wings, char siu, clams, escargot (I think), etc.
In addition, there are assorted sushi rolls, sashimi, shrimp and beef noodle soups (phở), Kalbi and Mongolian BBQ.
This place is incredible and it’s huge.
The reason I gave it a four star because our picky daughter eats very well here because of the variety. She likes the Kalbi (personally it’s a bit too sweet for my taste, the marinade seems more like Bulgogi than Kalbi). But, she loves it so I’m not complaining. She also likes the tofu from the miso soup. Then, she likes the marshmallow over chocolate fountain and the fruits.
Now off the stuff we liked. My husband thought the sashimi selection is pretty good and he enjoys the snow crab legs with butter. I was recovering from a stomach flu so I took easy and mostly try hot food.
I like the Mongolian BBQ, phở (the broth is surprisingly pretty good for AYCE place), the assorted dim sum buns and white fungus sweet soup especially. I usually make it less sweet but either hot or cold. They served it warm. I wish it was either hot or chill cold.
Like any other buffet place that serves lobsters, some people are there to make their $ 19.99 lunch worth so they would be stacking 2 plates full of lobsters disregarding others. Just have to keep a watchful eye if you want to get some, unfortunately. LOL
Overall, it’s not a bad place and we definitely will come back because of the variety and our daughter eats well so that’s a plus for us.

It baffles my mind how places like this stay in business! I wouldn’t have normally come, but found myself dining here for lunch one day during a family gathering. While the parents immediately jumped on the seafood selection, the «kids» experimented to see what was most edible (you can tell we set the bar pretty high).
There isn’t a great sushi roll selection, and I didn’t even bother with the sashimi because I wasn’t sure about the freshness. The dim sum was subpar; and the grilled short ribs were mostly made up of fat.
Between eight of us trying various items, we all agreed her the fried chicken wings were the best thing of everything we tried. But, really, how can you mess up chicken wings?
Can’t see myself returning here except under coercion (in other words, because of another family obligation). Otherwise, in the world of Asian buffets, where the bar for quality is remarkably low, there are «better» bad buffets to spend your money and eat marginslly better subpar food.

Came here for new years and wasn’t a huge fan.
The food was just mediocre. I had the egg rolls which was cold without much flavor. The orange chicken tasted old and over cooked. Dim sum was not too great and the udon was with phở broth which tasted like salty soap water.
Mongolian beef and sushi was ok. Overall the food tasted old and we were one of the few guests there when they opened.
Bathroom was clean and they had no chopsticks which is weird for an asian establishment.

Good food with a lot more options for a cheap price! Obviously quality isn’t the best, but all you can eat lobster, raw oysters, kbbq, and sushi? Yum!
Environment: Typical buffet style seating, clean place and overall a smaller buffet than the Vegas style buffet.
Food: Got some salmon sashimi, salmon sushi, lobster, raw oysters, miso soup, walnut shrimp, baked mussels, and some other items I can’t think of. Alright quality food, but I love how there’s pretty much unlimited lobster and raw oysters! Obviously it’s not a high end place, but it does the job. They also have a Mongolian BBQ station where there’s steak, brisket, and chicken. The sushi isn’t too bad either.
Service: alright service, everyone seems like they’re in a hurry though.
Price: $ 20 per person, not too bad.
Overall I would come back if I wanted a quick fix buffet. Don’t expect anything of high quality, but it is pretty decent for the price and beats many other Chinese buffets

Awful food! Nasty food! It is beyond me why this place has such positive ratings. I had an awful experience here for my first and last time here. You walk through the door and are almost knocked over by the overpowering odor of old fish.
Once you sit down prepare to do battle with the masses. I cannot blame the restaurant for the clientele but this place is a social experiment. There is no order in the buffet. The only law is the law of the jungle. If you have small children be prepared for them to get knocked over from the herd of people fighting for the pan of food when a fresh batch gets dumped. Also be prepared for people to mix the food as I watched a woman take a serving spoon from one tray and use it on at least three others.
They have sushi which is suspect. They have oysters on the half shell but I have no idea how old they are. I would rather eat oysters from a roadside shack in Tijuana than what they had on display. It didn’t look safe.
I started with some egg rolls which were cold and stale. Not hot and crispy at all. Old and filled with disappointment. The fried shrimp were cold as well.
I did enjoy the coconut shrimp but it was more batter than shrimp. But I like hush puppies so the heck with it. Our waitress was super aggressive with refills on the soda and taking your plates away. So beware that your plate will be snatched off your table before you are ready.
I tried the stuffed pork buns and again was disappointed. They were cold and the filling was bland. I wondered if they were store bought? I don’t think they make them on site. Halfway through my meal I wanted to go. I got my check and to my surprise even the fortune cookie was terrible. How do you mess up a fortune cookie? Someone found a way, trust me.
I thought for the money the food was way overpriced. For what we got for what we spent, go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Bad food sold here.

My dad heard about this restaurant from his friend and he recommended our family to go eat there.
All I ate was sushi, Shiu Mai, and chocolate-​dipped marshmallows. And my family got different varieties of food. There are not that many sushi choices but I chose: Shrimp Crunch Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, and the Dragon Roll. They are all super delicious! I really love the crabmeat and shrimp tempura inside the rolls. Heck yes! The food are so bomb! I also got myself some Pork Shiu Mai and it’s awful. It didn’t taste like the ones that I usually eat at the Vietnamese Dim Sum places. Well, the price for dinner is fair ($ 19/​$ 20) and I would definitely love to come back there again! We drove 12 miles all the way to this place and it’s totally worth it. I wish that there is another Kobe buffet near my house.

I think this buffet is decent for sushi, as the selection was pretty good. If you’re not into sushi, it might be tough to see value. Other okay items — fresh oysters, fried frog legs, some of the stir fry. I didn’t get a chance to hit up the grill station.
I can’t really recommend anything else here as it was okay at best. Lobster was terrible, with the Chinese stir-​fry version being slightly better than its steamed counterpart. Peking duck was quite sad. Salad bar was kind of a joke, but that’s okay by me since you don’t win friends with salad. No real dessert items available other than soft serve (cheap kind) or fruit.
Value was good for $ 17.99 or whatever it was a person.

This is easily among the top Chinese food buffets in the area.
It has all the awesome Chinese and Japanese food you could want, at a reasonable price: excellent sashimi, sushi, rolls, Mongolian BBQ, noodle bar, Chinese food galore, crab legs, oysters, lobster, seaweed salad, and of course desserts including the yummy fake ice cream you always get at buffets. What more can you ask for?
Plus, if you have kids, they only charge $ 1.25 per year, up to the adult price — which is really reasonable if you have younger children.
The restaurant itself is fairly new on the inside, so everything looks modern and appears to be well-​maintained and clean. It had a much better appearance that 99% of all other buffet-​type places I’ve been to. That appearance includes all of the food, which not only looked good but also seemed to be much higher quality that you would find at your average Chinese food buffet. I didn’t notice any cut corners or overly cheap offerings.
We came during the weekend on an evening, and I definitely felt like I got an excellent value, consuming mass quantities of different sashimi and lobster claws. If I had more room I would have consumed mass quantities of everything else, also. It all looked delicious. We did not have to wait for seating and had an excellent time.
This is definitely on the short list for good places to have dinner, especially if there are guests in town. Five stars and I hope it lasts. There aren’t many places like this in the area and if my restaurant budget was higher I would go here all the time!

To sum it all up in one sentence: A sub par buffet that seemed like it’d be a great value/​price for what they served but the food was only so and so.
After going through some of the pictures on Unilocal,I decided to try the buffet. Unfortunately everything looks a lot better than it tasted. The best thing there was a version of honey walnut shrimp but without the walnuts. I believed they labeled it as «coconut shrimp». The sauce was great.
Nothing else was extremely memorable. We went on a Saturday night and so they were also serving Lobster. However, it seems they just buy random parts of the lobster in bulk since when it came out of the kitchen, it would be either all legs or all claws. The lobster was rather old, and you could taste it. It was also severely overcooked to the point where the meat was sticking to the carcass. (Just check out the color of the claw on my lobster picture).
Another thing I thought was decent was the noodle bar — but honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with noodles. The mongolian BBQ was subpar. The meat was extremely chewy and honestly, the stuff at the mall tastes a lot better.
The dim sum looked like it all came from prepacked packages that you can get at the supermarket and you simply reheat. It tasted like it too, so it wasn’t very memorable…
The sashimi was decent. Pretty much the same quality as an AYCE sushi place. They also had a seared ahi tuna which I was super excited for, but it just tasted old.
The raw bar was good. Hard to go wrong with crab legs and shrimp. However, the raw oysters weren’t the freshest. They were fresh enough to the point that you wouldn’t get food poisoning but they didn’t have the delicious taste of a fresh oyster. They also didn’t seemed to be cleaned out very well and some still had sand in them.
Most of their desserts seem just out of the package desserts. The only thing I really liked was the chocolate fountain. Also, dipping your ice cream in the chocolate fountain makes it 100 000 0000x better.
Overall, this place is a decent buffet. I think it’s a good alternative to just going to an AYCE sushi place which would be roughly the same price but this place gives you a bit more variety. Other than that, this place wouldn’t be somewhere I’d rushed to eat at again.

Hallelujah… they’re finally open!
Every week for the past month and a half, hubby has been asking me if and when Kobe Buffet would be open for business. We’re somewhat new to the area (moved here just under a year ago) so not sure what was here before. But we were excited once we saw something was opening up in this vacant spot. It seems this past Friday was their grand opening.
We dined here tonight, a Monday night, just before 7pm. There were maybe 8 – 10 other parties but it seemed rather empty since the place is pretty big.
There was an extensive selection of food to choose from. Since it wasn’t too crowded, they didn’t completely fill each tray of food, but they did continue to add to it as needed so the food was always fresh.
**Prepared food included but not limited to: broccoli beef, mushroom chicken, honey walnut shrimp, chow mein, fried rice, potstickers, egg rolls, and dim sum items. They even had frog legs… OMG!
**Seafood items: salmon, crawfish, oysters (cooked & raw), shrimp, crab legs, clams, mussels, sushi and sea snails… eek!
**They had a noodle bar: choice of udon or rice noodles, shrimp and/​or beef, mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts.
**There was also a BBQ section with marinated meats (steak, short ribs, chicken) or create-​your-​own Mongolian BBQ.
**Then the typical salad bar, fruit bar, dessert bar and soft serve ice cream machine. They have a chocolate fountain with strawberries but the fountain wasn’t set up tonight.
All in all, the food was good. We didn’t expect much with it being a Chinese AYCE buffet, but we were pleasantly surprised. It’s definitely one of the best Chinese buffets we’ve both been to. Service was great too! We’re rooting for them and hope they keep things up. Too many times, restaurants start off strong and just go downhill. On a regular rating scale, I’d say 3 – 3.5 stars but for Chinese buffet, I’m giving it a 4 star. Stick with the seafood and/​or freshly grilled marinated meat to get your money’s worth.
Weekday lunch = $ 12.99.
Monday-​Thursday dinner = $ 19.99.
Friday dinner + all day Saturday/​Sunday = $ 21.99.
Children 3 – 5 feet tall = half price. Children 2 – 3 feet tall = $ 7. Children under 2 = free. A very strange way to charge kids. I guess in this instance it pays for your kids to be short. And I wonder what constitutes someone being a child or adult. If I came in without shoes, bent my knees a bit and stood with a slouch, I might come within 5 ft. Would I quality for half price?
(Drinks not included in the above prices. They also offer carry out buffet which they charge based on weight.)
Visa, MC and Discover accepted. No Amex which was a bummer because we really wanted the points on our SPG card to get us closer to our next vacation.