Kintaro All You Can Eat Sushi & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Brooklyn

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! ...

Words cannot describe the terrible experience I had with my family at the Brooklyn location. Stopped in with another family that spoke highly of the restaurant. Started off good. First order was mostly kid food as we had 4 children under 5 with us. 2nd order took well over 40 minutes to get and we had to go find someone to ask about our food. Also went 40 minutes with no water refills. And that means every glass was empty for 40 minutes. Only got refills after asking. Our waitress was running every direction and trying which we understood. We didn’t want to take it out on her so we asked to talk to the manager. His name was Jay. He came out and only said sorry we are busy. We told him we understood, but that is no reason to go without drinks for 40 minutes in the middle of the meal. He refused to address the issue and instead told me to look around and see that they are busy and we just have to deal with it. I told him that was unacceptable and he just shrugged and told me I had to pay because he had work to do and couldn’t talk to me anymore. I asked for corporate number he told me there was none. I asked for general manager and was told there wasn’t one. I asked him if he built this establishment from the ground up and owned it. He said no. I asked for the owners info. He refused to provide it. Told me I could leave my info. I asked if I would get a call back and he said he didn’t know, he hoped so. Then told my wife the managers name was Jeff and he doesn’t work much because he’s the boss. All I asked was for them to take the gratuity off because I wanted to tip our waitress in cash because I didn’t want to punish her for the manager not accepting responsibility. He refused. I wanted to make sure she got the full tip, he said she would get all the gratuity. Then told my wife she only gets 10% of the 15% charged. As we were walking out, he stopped our waitress, started yelling at her on the lobby floor and made her cry. It wasn’t her fault at all. Manager refused to help her and then would not try to rectify our concerns. Food was good, but by the time the second wave of food came, the kids were done and we had sat so long that we didn’t feel like staying any longer. Very disappointed. Our friends were embarrassed because they spoke highly of the place and had not had a bad experience . However, they may not return atleast to the Brooklyn location. Manager took no responsibility, blamed it on the server and told me to deal with it. I wanted the gratuity taken off so I could tip the waitress more because she really was trying and I wanted the full amount to go to her. Hope the 5% gratuity that the restaurant took was worth losing...

I am a regular customer (at least twice a month), and I love the food. But I am giving a one star because of the recent experience.

When I go in, I know exactly what and how much I am going to eat. Last Sunday, I literally did not have one bite of food all day. We got there at 9pm with only 1 hour before close.

I ordered a bunch of hibachi, no rice, avocado salad and miso soup. I asked the waitress that I would like all my hibachi on one plate. Knowing the child size portions they give you, I ordered 3 salmon, 3 scallop and 6 shrimp orders. I knew I would have eaten every piece. Remember, I order with no rice. And I don't drink pop.

I am known as a Kintaro expert by some of my friends lol. All jokes aside though.

The waitress looked at my orders, and started saying she won't place this order. I had to convince her that I will eat all of this food. She said fine.

Then she comes back only with the scallops!? I asked where is the rest of the food and she just said 'No'. 'No...what?' I said. 'No, I can't place your order, you already have a lot of food'. (My friend had ordered a bunch of rolls, and I do think he ordered too much, but still NOT MY ORDER).

Long story short, I had to decrease my portion, and eat the rolls that my friend ordered.

P.S. They charged us an extra $15 for 8 pieces of sushi, without weighing it. The menu states it's ~$10 per pound of wasted food. But the manager just came, looked at the food, and said $15.

UPDATE 8/13/23

Food still worth the price, which is why we still go.

But man, the service has to get better. They need stop hiring inexperienced waiters, or thoroughly train them

Wasn't that busy today for lunch,we were seated right away. But we had a new waiter, and right away I knew we were going to have problems.

Waited 10 min after being seated to get pens.

Waited 20 minutes for the waiter to pick up our order sheets.

Waited another 5 minute, then got our drinks.

Then waited another 25 minutes to get our food.

I wrote on my sheet, that I didn't want rice. Gave me 3 orders of salmon hibachi with rice.

Then the waiter had the audacity to charge me extra for he left over vegetables that I couldn't completely finish. This was only because he gave me rice that I told him I didn't want.

Asked for spicy mayo, he gave me one little side for 3 adults and one child.

Lesson - always request that you get a...