TAKAYA — Restaurant in Barboursville

This is an aggressively mediocre buffet Very empty and open design with not very many options on food. At first, it seems like theres a decent bit, but their menu might be smaller than panda express' menu. Kids running around grabbing food and eating in front of the buffet. Theres ice cream in tubs that you scoop yourself, but they really dont look appetizing with half melted ice cream and a scooper in a puddle of running water (its literally a small spicket), or if you prefer little premade cups with the silly paper lid and a plastic spoon.

They have a neat stir fry thing where you build your plate, then they cook it and serve it to your table, but all the food is sub par and the beef was low quality and tough. The noodles half cold and half burnt at the same time. You also write your table number down with a random pen and notepad. Made me worry if they even changed the plate they use because of the raw meat youre allowed to just pack onto a plate to have cooked. A better way would be to not let the customers slap raw meats onto a plate with noodles. Theres genuinely barely any food here. I only had orange chicken and sweet and sour pork but the buffet was actually very small.

They have fried chicken or microwaved pizza if youd rather not try the sushi bar (glad i didnt) and all the food was low quality or just sat out and not rotated so you might get something a bit old. The rangoons were literally just a glob of cream cheese with a few tiny flecks of maybe something else. Couldnt tell you what. The orange chicken tasted more of oranges than chicken and the sweet n sour chicken was also bland and tasteless. The sour sauce being the only thing you taste. The workers seem to know how shoddy the place is but they were nice. The decor also reallyy doesnt match with booths having an odd pattern with random words and british flags on the seats, and its over all unwelcoming. And they dont let you pay at the front, for some reason you have a tab like a steakhouse. Its odd and gives the servers extra work for no reason when we could just pay at the door. It seems like its changed drastically from a few months ago since the reviews show better food and better presentation than what i saw.

Both me and my partner got sick after eating here. Golden corral does 100× better for the same price i paid. Just drive to the corral in ashland instead. Your stomach will thank me. ($13.99 per person just because...

My honest review. My expectations were pretty high as this was a new place in town, hoping it was authentic Japanese steak house Buffett Cuisine. Brown rice wasn’t done enough, Al dente. I didn’t see a white rice steamer anywhere. I decided to sample and get a bite amount of several different dishes. Teriyaki chicken had very little teriyaki flavor, general tso chicken the batter was rather thick and the red sauce has little to no flavor as though it was diluted with sugar water, Chicken and Broccoli in brown gravy lacked flavor and salt and seasoning very plain. Beef pepper and onions in a brown gravy did have flavor because the peppers and onions enhanced it however, the gravy sauce seemed to of been diluted also, and lacked flavor because of this, the meat was a little chewy I was able to eat one 2x1 in bite. Spring egg roll was crispy and seems as though there was no filling inside had turned to mushy and doughy, pork egg roll was the same inside very mushy and I didn’t get past one bite. Crab ragoons were chewy and the cream cheese filling was just that plain cream cheese with a hint of garlic powder no crab meat or sweetness as expected. Mixed vegetables consisted of zucchini and carrots onions and they were over cooked also. Mussels my husband tried them and the sauce was gross he said the muscles were tough and chewy very fishy. The Steak was sadly not good either. It tasted like lighter fluid straight up. Chewy and over cooked. Frog legs had an after tasted like they were fried in the same fat as the fish. Fried cabbage was very oily and tasted like fish oil also, no other seasons notes. The was a salad bar that I didn’t try that looked very fresh. I looked at dessert bar and passed there were 6 large ice cream containers and only 2 had anything in them. I hoped this was good. If the owners doesn’t make changes it won’t...

No restaurant’s first day goes off without a hitch, and anyone who reads this review should be aware that I am making such on Takaya’s opening day. That caveat stated, I offer the following…

Pros -

When thinking about the kind of restaurant that Takaya is, you would be unwise and quite rude to compare it to a Michelin Star establishment. Instead, understanding that Takaya is marketed as being an above average “Chinese buffet” allows you to appreciate it as exactly that. Compared to other local buffets, Takaya offers higher quality cuts of meat, fresher vegetables, etc. without breaking the bank.

The service is also exceptional, as every employee seems genuinely invested in the customer leaving happy, satisfied, and cradling a belly ready to burst.

Finally, the entire building has had a facelift since the previous occupant and boasts a clean and simple interior space. The seats and tables are comfortable, the silverware is served in sanitary wrapping, and all surfaces are wiped down regularly.

Cons / Nitpicks -

Takaya is a classic Chinese buffet: chicken with broccoli, pepper steak with onion, etc., and one should not come with hopes of “inspired” dishes.

Kitchen prep was slow, and the back-of-house staff struggled to keep trays/pans full. However, this review (to remind you) was submitted on opening day; it is not only possible but likely that this will improve in the near future.

Final Verdict -

If you’re in the Huntington/Barboursville area and are craving a Chinese buffet, you’d be hard pressed to find a better one than Takaya. That said, if you’re looking for a top shelf restaurant that serves impressive, traditional Asian cuisine, there are other establishments that will...