Umeko Japanese Seafood Buffet

went to go eat at this place for the first time with my friends and there food was really cold and it seems like it have been sitting there for a while. it was a waste of my money and gas going over there. Won’t be going to this place ever again

More bad than great to be honest. I remember TV commercials for this place, seeing plenty of well stocked fish and such. I get there and there was next to nothing in the buffet. Half of the stuff was out, and what was there didn’t look very appetizing. The
sushi looked okay, tried some, not again.
The next interesting thing was the little kid running around the restaurant into the kitchen and other places around the restaurant playing hide and seek with what ended up being the sushi chef. The health inspector would have a fit I’m sure if he saw that. The place was dirty and they were so proud that they got a liquor license that they made hand written all over the joint advertising «Beeer & Saki».
Odds are I probably won’t be back unless I have no other option.

Pros: One or two of the employees are nice and actually dress nice.
Cons: Food is often stale. Stale or not, quality is poor and it’s still not worth the price. The restaurant lacks professionalism. Who lets their employee work in a wife-​beater? If they let their employee dress that way I wonder how much concern they have for the way their food is being made. One of the sushi chefs lacks hygiene. No one, especially the chef, is supposed to touch the tongs on the side food is being grabbed on using their Dirty hands. That’s how people get sick. Customer service can be bad depending on who you talk to. For example, I asked the sushi chef if he had any other rolls he could make me. He said yes and stared at me. Then I asked if he could make me one. He stared at me for a while and said, «No.»
Overall, I don’t recommend this place at all. It’s overpriced for bad food. Spend a few more bucks and take yourself somewhere nicer.

Hadn’t been in a year or so. It was maybe 2 ½ stars then, but I was hungry and wanted an easy lunch. It changed. Don’t know where they get those pictures on the website, but doesn’t look like that at all. They used to have shrimp, but I guess that’s too expensive now. I ate 2 pieces of sushi and am hoping I don’t get sick!

First time for my hubby and me as we had a $ 2.00 off coupon for lunch. We had heard some very nice comments about this place so decided to give it a try. Was very disappointed that there were no shrimp dishes at lunchtime, except for 4 or 5 sad looking shrimp reclining on a wilted bed of lettuce leaves. Almost every warming tray had only one or two items in it, some floating in a sea of sauce like unwanted buoys. Wanted some won ton soup, but found only weak broth and one lonely won ton. That one won ton was so gummy and thick it was laid to rest on a bed of cheap thin white napkins that matched the cheap thin silverware. The fake crab with cheese was just totally nasty… the consistency was like nothing I’ve ever tried before. The Lo Mein was equally gross, just a lump of overcooked spaghetti noodles with a tad of cabbage. The thin noodles were cooked OK, but extremely, and I mean over the top salty and could not be eaten. The deep fried chicken strips were like leather with almost no actual chicken. The only saving grace of this meal were the fruits, ice cream, sesame balls, french bread, and service. If you are looking for even mediocre buffet food, don’t come here or you will be very much disappointed. Will never be back!

This is a great restaurant if you like food that is bad. And when I say bad I mean Michael Jackson bad. You know how he looked real bad at the end of his life… In conclusion… Ehhhh

Not bad, not great, just average. Recommended? Sure, but other options would come before.
This buffet is what you expect; lots of food for one price, but food quality is usually overlooked.
The sushi bar was constantly preparing new sushi, but unfortunately the sushi that is NOT deep fried (sashimi) was fishy and bland tasting. Granted, it may have been sitting out there for a few hours since not many people choose raw fish, but it’s the base of the fried American sushi and shouldn’t be overlooked by the chef. Fried stuff good, raw not so much.
The hot area has a good ample selection of food including frog legs. A bit salty and greasy on most items.

It doesn’t get any better then this! This place got me the second I walked in. the food smelled so good and fresh! The service was great too… it was Valentines Day and the placed was packed. They kept our glasses filled and our table cleared for our next round which was plenty of them… they kept bringing out new things and I tried to at least taste everything. Im not real big on sweets but their cake was off the charts and the crème puff just about made me cry… it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! GOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!! OMG!!! Trust ME… You wont be disappointed!!!

Most affordable that Ive been too in sac…$ 11-​dinner with all u can eat sushi. awesome!!! Only thing id love to see more is spicy tuna and tuna stuffed inside the rolls instead of crab meat or deep fried.

This is an OK buffet for Chinese & Japanese. What makes this place a 3-​star rating is the amount of seafood. If you like seafood, this place has an array of options. If you don’t like seafood, I would not go here.
The service is efficient — the server cleared the table and refilled beverages without being asked.

Okay, let’s really think about this. Should oily Chinese food and sushi really be placed under heat lamps and sneeze shields? No, the only way both these items are good is if they are made fresh, and eaten immediately.
With that said, I feel like a 3 star review at a moderately busy Chinese buffet is pretty good. It’s not the freshest, but it’s decent. I’ve had worse.

If I hold this place to my quite low buffet standards, then I give this place 3 – 4 stars. The service is usually friendly, they have sushi, they have all the usual Chinese food buffet standards, they are quite cheap, and they now are constantly checking temperatures of all their food. I don’t see that happen too often and considering I also work in food service, I know how important that is and I appreciate them taking the effort into it as well as posting the information on the sneeze guards.
I am not a huge fan of buffets. i don’t like to engorge my self on copious amounts of food, as I am the type of person who would rather eat little meals throughout the day instead. But since this place is so cheap and just down the street, we make it over here every couple months or so with friends or family. Nothing has ever been so bad here that I swear to never come again (the can’t be said for other buffets… yuck). So with my rather low standards for buffets, this place is pretty good.
Food:
Price is about $ 8 or lunch and $ 10 for dinner. I seen a lunch special advertised for $ 6.75 between 4−6pm Mon-​Fri but I don’t know if this is still valid, and I never come here for lunch anyway.
Sushi is my favorite, so I always hit that up first. They have a lot of rolls to choose from, all pretty tiny about the size of a typical spicy tuna roll, and quite a few have cream cheese in them. I do not eat the cream cheese ones but I have tried them. They are okay if you’re into that sort of roll. They must pre-​roll their sushi and then set it out as needed but that’s okay, its a buffet. One thing I love is the cold sashimi they have out. They are cut into tiny pieces but its a cheap buffet, I understand. They have various nigiri and the typical huge bowl of ginger and wasabi.
Their deep fried, appetizer like goodies are always slightly cold and not too fresh, I usually avoid those. I also avoid the dim sum items, which are pretty mushy but expected. I always get the salt n pepper shrimp to peel and eat as well as the stuffed mushrooms and clam shells. BF loves the BBQ pork and the general chicken. I also avoid the pre scooped ice cream and usually get a plate of fresh fruit. I haven’t tried the soup but it looks good. They noodles weren’t very good the first time I tried them so I never tried them again but they may be better now since they check their temps now. They also have crab legs but you have to ask for the butter since they don’t have any out.
Service:
Pretty fair, never pushy. They are pretty laid back, casually dressed, and their children run around from time to time. sometimes making a ruckus but not too much. Not every time we went there were children running around but it does happen. The waitress running after her child was actually kind of funny. They refill water pretty fast and will get you more soda/​tea.
If you are looking for cheap food, come on guys its a cheap buffet, then come here. They won’t impress you, don’t expect to be impressed. Expect to get your $ 8 dollars of worth of decent food in crab legs, shrimp, sashimi, and even crawdads.

A good deal. Make sure and print out the coupon. I was just in San Francisco and ate at nice places like Scala’s on Powell and had Thai food at Osha on 2^nd near Market. Also dined at Neptune’s Palace on the Embarcadero and it was junk. Now that I have established some food cred let’s talk about Umeko. It is an excellent value. The sushi is fresh and made with good ingredients. This is no 5 star restaurant but it is perfectly acceptable for a casual evening out.

Most of the food here was delicious! The sushi bar was mediocre. What was cool was that we saw the sushi chefs making the sushi and cutting sashimi right in front of you. But overall I was satisfied with most of the food they served. I liked the décor and the place was spacious enough to hold several big parties. Also I was surprised for a buffet, the prices were lower than the other all you can eat places I usually go to.
However, with all the raves I have about this place, there was one big disappointment. The service was horrible. The wait staff were not attentive to our table as I would prefer. It wasn’t busy, the staff were talking amongst themselves. Usually when I go to buffets, the waitress were constantly refilling our drinks. They seldom did that here in this establishment. When we finished our plates, they did not take them away. So when we went for another plate at the buffet, it was an inconvenience for us returning to our table full of our previous plates. It came to a point where I took the initiative to put our previous plates to the empty table next to us. I did that TWICE.
Overall, the food was good and the price was affordable, but the service was not up to par. I would come back again, but in a party of four or less and once in a year type of occasion.

I don’t know where to start with this review as I don’t really giving 1 star. When I got here I was waiting to be seated by staff, ended up waiting a few minutes as one employees where were chasing their kids on the the other end of the restaurant «how professional» I finally get seated ordered my beverage and went to get my eat on. I got the craw fish, frog legs and sushi. Everything was dry including the sushi! The sushi was rubbery and dried out like its been sitting for a while. The frog legs were slightly over cooked but edible and the craw fish was a epic fail. The only edible food was the soup especially the hot and sour soup and the bootleg sugar donuts. As for the staff 0 stars after we ordered our drinks it took the guy 15 minutes to bring our drinks after asking if he was going to bring them and we had to keep finding the guy to get refills. Overall I could have went to a better buffet for $ 30.00 for 2 ppl. This will be my last time eating here, never again. Yuck! Not to mention my friend ended up hugging the toilet a couple hours later. This may be cheap but keep in mind you get what you pay for!

ALL YOU CAN EAT!
gotta love restaurants like these! i LOVE to eat and I eat alot! :)
UMEKO IS DEFINITELY A PLACE TO GO TO IF YOU WANT CHEAP AND DECENT ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET FOOD!
my family and i always come here for their king crab legs. I also posted a picture under photos for you all to see how fresh and delicious it looks like! :)

Very reasonably priced considering that the food is actually good, and in general, fresh. Sashimi was pretty good, and they even have light soy sauce if you ask for it.
Typical asian buffet fare, with sushi better than most. The chinese fried chicken was the best we’ve had in an economical buffet. Just 4 stars food value for price, but.. .
We do have one complaint — They played very sad music which is a total turn off. Not sure why they would want their diners depressed. We will probably not return because of the music. This is also the reason why I brought the 4 stars down to 3.

I personally did not like this place.
When I first got to Sacramento I immediately searched for a Chinese/​Sushi buffet.
I found this place, and it was pretty much down the street so I thought this would be perfect. I got there, and the service is nice and welcome. The food was so so. Wasn’t good, but I didn’t get food poisoning. What I was most upset about was the sushi bar. It wasn’t good in my opinion, and I love sushi.
I went back for a second try, thinking maybe I just caught them on a bad day. But it was exactly the same the second time. Will I be back? I will not.

Sushi bar, sesame balls, fruits and dessert station, broccoli beef, some shrimp in a shell, fried rice, chow mein, among other things.
I think I ate more of those shrimp shells, sesame balls, and sushi rolls. They were good for a buffet cause you can never expect good ass food at buffets anyways.
We had a $ 1 off coupon but per person, be expected to pay about $ 7-​$ 8.

A Decent All-​You-​Can-​Eat Chinese Buffet & Sushi Option
SITREP
This is the local Chinese Buffet in my home hood. Needless to say, since it’s okay, I’m happy it is here.
SETUP
They have have traditional Chinese dishes, four different kinds of soup, several different selections of dim sum, lots of seafood dishes, lots of chicken dishes, etc. etc.
They also have a respectful variety of sushi. Better than the Chinese buffet down on Broadway & 13^th Street in my humble opinion.
So as far as I’m concerned, this a my go-​to place to get satiated on Chinese fare.
All right. So they don’t have a Mongolian Grill. I’m sorry that makes a couple of my friends whine.
PRICING
The one «peeve’ I DO have with this place is the price-​scheduling. What I don’t understand is why if you want to a «To-​Go», they give you a container, but won’t let you grab items from BOTH the Chinese buffet and the Sushi counter. It’s either one or the other.
And then, why is it more expensive for the To-​Go option when clearly the dimensions of the small (ish) container will not let you take near as much food as I get on one plate?
Anyways, I sure people have different ways they measure food vs. pricing, but since in this instance I find it to be punitive, minus 2-​stars.
THE LOWDOWN
A very good Chinese buffet & Sushi option, especially if you are a dine-​IN customer.