I remember when this restaurant was a Chinese buffet years ago, and they have come a long way! We were at Kintaro for the first time, and what an experience it was! This was our family's first time experiencing a hot pot restaurant, but for my wife who has been to China, it was second nature. On the hot pot menu, you select what items you want and they bring it out on a large tray. You cook in various liquids until it is ready. There is also another station where you go and make various dipping sauces for your food! There were many items on the hot pot menu which I had no idea about, but we tried just about everything. The major difference my wife said about this hot pot versus the ones in China, is that the meats came out frozen here, but in China, they were all fresh. No big deal as it all tasted great!
Onto the sushi menu. Holy Cow! Again, the menu's come out, and you write down what you want. All the items are clearly explained as what they contain, so there are no surprises, especially for those that want to try out new things. They have just about every combination you can think of! I've had sushi / sashimi in many different restaurants, and can honestly say that Kintaro's is one of the best, if not the best! Very fresh! Their sushi menu is huge with many variety's. You could easily come here 20 times, and not try everything. At other restaurants, you could easily spend $29.95 for sushi and get pretty much a sampler platter. Not here! Wow!
As of this writing, the all you can eat hot pot is $24.95 and the all you can eat sushi is $29.95. They do have a Chef's special hot pot for $32.95 which has many more items, but we did not try that one. I do want to add if the entire party gets the all you can eat, you can easily share among everyone. My wife and kids got the hot pot, and I go the sushi. We all shared the food from the various menu items.
Okay, there is fine print to all of this. On their menu's they say there's a 2 hour limit eating. We were there 2.5 hours and no one told us we had to hurry up and eat, so I am unsure if they fully enforce this rule. Also on the menu it states they would include a 15% gratuity for a party of 5 or more. We were a party of 5, and they did not include the gratuity. Since the service was great, we naturally gave more than 15%, so it wasn't a big deal. This last one I was worried about. They charge a $10.99 per pound of wasted food! While I don't advocate wasting any food, there comes a time where you don't like something and you get rid of it. This happens all the time at buffets. Kintaro takes this to the next level. They will charge for waste. At our dinner, we had some food the kids and myself didn't like, so we put it on a plate. There was some food waste, but we were not charged for it. Again, I don't know how much they enforce this, but I'm just giving you fair warning.
Overall our experience was excellent! The restaurant was clean. Service was great. The food was great! I really can't think anything that could be changed from our experience! Go ahead and try a new experience! We are definitely coming back!
** Update 3/23/19 ** The prices have changed a bit since we were there last. The all you can eat menu is now $25.95. That includes the sushi and hot pot. Previously they had 2 different pricing for the hot pot, now the same price has all items. The food was still great, along with service! Highly recommend.
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