Hibachi Buffet — Restaurant in Brookhaven

When it comes to restaurants like these, I believe it's important to set appropriate dining expectations. Don't expect avant garde fare or experimental cuisine. At its best, Chinese buffets are about fast, dependable, and (hopefully inexpensive) food. At its worst, one ignores quality for the quantity consumed. Here at Hibachi Buffet, I'm afraid I had to remind myself of that quite a few times.

For its high points, the food is fresh. Servers swap out the trays of food from the buffet with fair regularity, especially because when we went, the restaurant was hopping with diners on a weekend evening. What was fried was still hot and crispy by the time I reached in with my tongs, and the seafood dishes were comfortingly unfishy in taste and in aroma.

A few trips to the buffet bar immediately revealed strong and low points. Americanized dishes and common Chinese takeout entrees are well done and tasty. For instance, I couldn't stop myself from getting refills of the lo mein, fried rice, and the fried shrimp.

Where things fell apart a bit were the more 'out there' items. The sushi area had chefs making the rolls fresh, bu upon closer inspection, there were rolls with nothing else besides imitation crab meat and cucumber, along with a thick layer of rice. I wasn't sure anyone would deign to call this sushi, and I felt it unfair to label it as such. The fresh-to-order hibachi area is a neat idea, where one can pick and choose their carb, protein, and vegetables and have it prepared fresh on a grill. According to the signs, we were supposed to have been given a choice for our sauce; in actuality, the chefs (albeit hardworking) used the same sauce for everything - a few dark-colored sauces and LOADS of melted butter. When done, the hot plate was actually tossed onto the counter, sometimes splashing bits of food over the area. As a result, the counter was covered with a thick sheen of oil and grease, and without a system to keep track of which order is who's, I needed to keep watch the whole time lest someone else accidentally collect my plate (which happened once).

All that said, I would've considered all of this par for the course for a buffet on a busy night. What I found unforgivable was the number of times I caught someone taking food out of the buffet with their hands. Most of the time, they were unsupervised children, which is probably more the parents' faults than the restaurant's. Still, by the fifth time it happened (the last time, I saw a child actually RETURNING a square of Jello with his bare hands), I found myself questioning the cleanliness of all the food.

So if you're game for taking chances, this is a solid deal for the amount of food you're getting, especially at these prices. But if cleanliness and food hygiene matter a ton to you, consider...

The food was ok small selection but flavorful. The services was abysmal. While were were actively chewing on our food the waitress walks over to us and shouts “you done” while holding out the bill. We told her we are still eating and she stormed away. At this point we may have been there for 35/40 minutes. Were were on first plate and in the middle of a conversation. My friend had just put in an order for hibachi that wasn’t even ready yet.The waitress then started a bunch of passive aggressive tactics to get us to leave. First she started shuffling the chairs only at the EMPTY table next to ours. This table has been empty before we got there and nobody ever sat there. She then began sweeping at that empty table and then by our feet. She swept nowhere else but right next to the table they keep the drinks. At that table she and a coworker stood and started at us. They then moved to the same table directly next to us where they continued to stare at us. Maybe 20 minutes has passed we are working on a new plate and talking, trying to mind our business as we’re are being harassed by the employees, she gives up on passive aggressiveness. She brings the bill to our table slaps it down and say thank you and then she leaves. She did all of this and never filled my friends cup and only refilled mine when I absentmindedly put it at the end of the table. About 10 minutes later we’ve finally had enough of the passive aggressiveness and try to pay. All of a sudden the waitress is to busy to come to the table but continues to walk back and forth past our table. After 15 mins of trying to settle the bill we walk up to the front to pay, she walks over with two other peoples bills to close them out and stares at us over the shoulder of the guy in the front. He helped us and we put in a complaint. This is a level of disrespect that I haven’t witness in...

AVOID THIS PLACE! I made the terrible mistake of bringing my mother today, May 10th, 2023; for Mexican mothers day as she requested. The sushi chef came to my table and screamed at me for not wanting to finish eating the old sushi on my plate. He questioned me about why I didnt finished eating the sushi and continued to interrogate me in such a condesending way. I was incredibly confused as I have never experienced anything like this in the years that I have eaten at buffets. I have seen people leave plates that are not finished, but this is a buffet, and not a fine cuisine sushi restaurant, people don't always eat all of their foods and that is the way that these restaurants operate. I strongly advice anyone to not eat at this restaurant and save yourself from the harassment that I have experienced today from this mentally ill person. In addition, the restrooms in the restaurant are poorly sanitized and barely cleaned. In other occasions, the food has had plastic in it from utinsel packages and rats have been filmed in the establishment. I dont understand how places like this are allowed to operate in Atlanta, clearly violating health department code and restaurant etiquette. Truly disgusting! I regret...