Todai Restaurant

05/09/2008 Posted by chellbee

The perk of this place is that you get a free dinner in your actual birthday, and free is a good thing. Yes, the food selection is large, but not large in a tasty way. A LOT of the food looks and tastes as though it has been sunbathing under the heat lamps for a while. The crab and shrinp island is pretty good. The crab is pretty big but often times a bit dry. There is a ridiculously small selection of actual sushi and it is nothing spectactlar in my opinion. Nothing that bursts in your mouth and does the grasshoppah hah-cha. The "hot side" where all the hot food is kept, is a cornacopia of greasy fried fish, oily noodles, gelatinous sauce-covered "things" and a scant amount of actual vegitarian options. Kudos to the crape station though. Lots of yummy selections. The dessert section is rather wierd. When is jello an Asian dessert?? The best is the creme brule....which of course is usually always completely depleted. The little petite cakey things are flavorful, but they do have an odd "gel" quality that makes you wonder if you will need a but of fiber afterwards. Thank goodness they serve beer and wine here. Asian plum wine is potent and helps you get this stuff down. All in all, I dont really think the dinner prices are worth the quality of food they serve.

Pros: Large variety. Booze.

Cons: Old greasy tasting food. Pricey.

04/15/2008 Posted by Edana23

If you want bad food and high prices this is your place. They say that they have 40 different types of sushi, well that’s a lie. I went there this Saturday for a friend’s birthday, and I will never go back. I read some of the reviews on here before I went and I thought, well I will try it, it can’t be that bad. I like to consider myself an almost expert on sushi, so I figured it was most likely people who had not done a lot of sushi before, Boy was I wrong. The only good thing about this place was that the service people were fairly nice. The soda tasted old, and the sushi was not fresh. I love mackerel, but the mackerel here was very dry. The only good thing they had to eat there was the tempura shrimp. The prime rib was dry and old, and the crab legs were not very good at all. And the dessert was a little odd. The bottoms of all the cakes were made out of some sponge material. Needless to say if they only cost like $8.00 for dinner instead of $27.00 I still would not go back.

Pros: Service staff were friendly.

Cons: everything else.

02/14/2008 Posted by parkee14

My boyfriend and I went to todai for Valentines day, excited to eat some sushi. I've been here couple times before, and never found a problem with the restaurant until today. We made reservations a while back, but when we came, they stuck us in a crappy place. Someone came and took our drink order, gave us drink and we never saw the server again. They were out of a lot of food, the crab tasted like awful (like crumbling apart because it was so dry), ran out of creme brulee early on and did not get more. We asked another server for a refill, never saw her again either. I understand that it's a buffet and that great service should not be expected, however, I was appalled that no one even came to clean up our plates or ask how we were doing. I don't understand why they expect to be tipped if they give such horrible service. I will never go there again. ALSO, they charged a "holiday" price for valentines day, and didn't even bother telling anyone... Umm, since when is valentines day a "holiday?"

Pros: easy to make reservations

Cons: everything else ex: service, quality of food, cleaning plates, etc

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

12/21/2007 Posted by rainbowgirl47

I went to Todai 5 years ago with my family who are seafood eaters. They enjoyed the variety and freshness of the food. This year that was not the case. Contrary to what is listed on their website, Todai no longer serves lobster and a variety of other items. This was the only reason our family drove to Downtown, Portland and payed for $5 at the parking garage. They did not have the selection you would expect and the non-seafood dishes were borderline 'gross.' We tried a few things but were so disgusted that we stopped mid-bite. The food they did have looked unappetizing and my family was forced to sit and eat because of how much we were paying. The price is ridiculous compared to what you're getting. Unless you like sushi and dessert, don't go here. I would suggest you take your $20 and treat yourself and a friend at either Beaverton or Hillsboro's China Moon. Now that's a buffet.

Pros: Free meal on your birthday

Cons: Noisy, very expensive and poor selection

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

11/26/2007 Posted by greshamagent

I have been going to Todai for 3 years. The service has been consistently good and the food is always tasty. As a business owner I have found this to be a wonderful place to take clients. It offers a variety of Japanese sushi to sample and other asian foods. Although this is not a place I would recommend for ambience, the variety is wonderful for a large group that may have different food preferences. I recommend this restaurant to any seafood lover! I taken many clients, friends and family to this restaruant and every single on has loved it and returned for more. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Pros: Excellent for Families and large groups, Food, Variety and Service

Cons: Ambience, Noisy

11/04/2007 Posted by zensunim

The first time I went there three years ago, the sushi was excellent. The second time a few months later, it was frozen solid. And subsequent visits over the last few years have been anywhere between sub-par to just ok. I had a particular fondness for the crème brûlée dessert cups, but the last time I went, the cups were replaced with a large pan that you were supposed to just scoop your portion out of (and it fell apart and made a big runny mess). Like the reviewer before me stated, this place is definitely quantity over quality, and over the past few years, I haven't been impressed with the changes. It's disappointing for me because the Todai near Chicago is excellent, so I know just how good this place can be. Sadly, the Portland location seems to be going steadily downhill and I haven't returned since my last and probably final visit last August.

Pros: Lots of choices, all you can eat sushi

Cons: Quantity over quality, and the quality seems to change with every visit

06/05/2007 Posted by woodchuck2

Having just gone there yesterday I have to say that the food was decent but this place failed to shine in any other respect. It is expensive, the atmosphere is poor (mall), the service was fair (friendly but sparse). Just generally not worthwhile, particularly at over $25 per person for dinner. This is the place to go if you want to gorge on seafood but I've had far better meals in this town for way less money in more interesting locations. Basically this is the place that goes for quantity over all else but even as a big eater I didn't feel like I got my moneys worth from the meal. Having not gone to an all you can eat buffet since being a teen ager the joys of gluttony are no longer as apparent to me. If you want to eat until bursting with little thought on anything else great but otherwise forget it. As for the the food it was decent. The crepes where fun, some of the salads were good. The seafood was acceptable quality. The fruit and desserts were lack luster and not worth eating. I had some tasty mushroom fried rice but I've had good fried rice meals for $10-12 else where that were better, and served in more interesting locations. The fact they don't validate parking in the malls ramp only added insult to injury, they do validate for smart park but you have no way of knowing this before hand. The staff apoligized for this and blamed the management who did nothing. I guess they think all you can eat is enough of a virtue, and for some dinners well into their 3rd or 4th plate it may be but for others, look elsewhere. So on the whole just don't bother. It wasn't that the experience was terrible it was just at the end of the meal I felt like "what? I paid for this? why?" I didn't find the food as offensive as some have but this place is a poor value, go to the sushi-go-round and escape for about half the price with a similar quality meal. And you get to avoid the mall...

Pros: lots of different food, eat as much as you want

Cons: poor value, sterile mall like location, average food for too much money

05/29/2007 Posted by leilani49

I went to Todai last Saturday night for the first time and I have to say it's the best Japanese buffet I've ever been to. I don't eat sushi personally but they had more than enough appetizing entrees to satisfy a non-sushi eater. Including delicious prime rib, fresh king crab legs, teriyaki chicken, oysters, fresh and sweet, and more desserts than I could dream of. And the cheesecakes they serve are hands down the best in Portland. Todai has such a fun and inviting environment too so it's great for families, with fun characters decorating the walls and ceiling for kids to enjoy and a flat screen TV for the dads. And the prices are very reasonable for the quality of the food. All in all I was very pleased with the whole experience. I am definately going to go back again!

04/15/2007 Posted by bluesteel

This place is disgusting. I went there for the first time today and was totally unimpressed by the food, service, and atmosphere. In fact, the food was so bad that my boyfriend ate six bites and gave up. I kept eating just to make it worth spending so much freaking money, and then paid for it on the ride home, when I spent the whole time thinking I was going to be sick. The only reason I went was because of the positive ratings it got on here. I just re-read the reviews and can't believe that ANYONE would give this place such high ratings. Either these people have no tastebuds or someone is paying them good money to write glowing reviews. I used to live near Reno and went to all-you-can-eat sushi there many times; it was nothing like this. The fish at this place is not fresh, the rolls taste weird, and some of the plates at the buffet still had food stuck to them from the previous diners. The only thing worthwhile in the whole joint is the soft-serve ice cream machine. If you want good sushi, STAY AWAY from here! What a total waste of time and money. (P.S. I wouldn't even go back for the free birthday meal. You couldn't pay me to eat here again.)

Pros: None

Cons: Food, Ambiance, Service

04/15/2007 Posted by handgrenade

We went in search of all-you-can-eat sushi, and ended up at Todai because it appears to be the only place in Portland to find it. In retrospect, we would have been better off eating a plastic box of sushi from the Safeway deli. If you're looking for quantity rather than quality, this is the place for you. Served buffet-style and located in a mall, Todai offers an array of sushi rolls and assorted other Asian foods (egg rolls, tempura, yakisoba noodles), all of which are mediocre and seem to have been sitting around for hours. Lunch costs about $17 per person. It does not seem physically possible to eat enough of this food to justify paying that much for lunch. (Unless you're really hungry for warm sashimi and rolls that are made with lots of fillers like fake crab and mayonaise.) The service was also lacking--though we were seating promptly, we had to wait ten minutes after we started eating to get a drink, by which point our eyes were watering and our mouths burning from the wasabi. The sushi was tasteless, the egg rolls and tempura mushy, and the only redeeming part of the meal was the ice cream machine and the fact that they validated our parking. Anyone who has ever eaten good (or even decent) sushi will be thoroughly disappointed by this dining experience.

Pros: Validated parking

Cons: Everything else