Ocean Star Seafood Co — Restaurant in Great Falls

Let’s break this down and fast before you go there - if one person in your party wants the AYCE then all people in your party have to go AYCE, but exceptions can be made. Each person can only order two items at a time. Depending on the items ordered, there can be a good 15 minute wait between items. You can’t leave anything on your plate or you will be charged extra on top of the AYCE $29 price tag. Now, as soon as the waitress advised all of this upfront, my personality type should have just walked out because this structure in a restaurant heightened my anxiety to clean my plate like a 3 year old whose mother was watching. I don’t just sit there and waste food by any means, but if I want to leave a few pieces of something on my plate that’s my own prerogative. However, the thought of being charged extra if anything was left on the plate forced me to eat every bit and lick the plate’s drippings (not really but you feel like that). I right away order the snow crab and broccoli and tried ordering a sushi roll but was reminded that I cannot order more than 2 items at a time. I immediately have a paltry sized snow crab claw in front of me that’s hysterical looking with a mound of broccoli (yes my mistake there). I tear into the crab and it comes out of its shell in tiny inedible shreds. The broccoli killed me as its huge and there’s no knives on the table so open wide. Once done, I’m begging the waitress for more food - I order two sushi rolls. Five minutes goes by. My husband got his 3 popcorn shrimp and crab rangoons. Ten minutes goes by and the husband gets a second plate of crab rangoons - I think because he’s feeling sorry for me as I was capped at my 2 item limit. The waitress notices I’m still sitting there mentally begging for my sushi and sampling off my husband’s plates. Finally at the 15 minute mark here comes my sushi….and my brain has signaled to my body that I’m getting full. Uh oh. I have two enormous sushi rolls I have to now put down or I’m going to get charged extra. I’ve had some challenges in my life but having to put down these two huge sushi rolls tops this list. The husband starts helping me out of pity and by the end of them we start fighting over who has to eat the last pieces. I even contemplated sneaking them off to the bathroom in my napkin to throw away. There’s one left on the plate and the waitress doesn’t charge us for last piece as she said she watched us “choking them down” (bless her heart). That all being said, the dynamic and concept of this restaurant was too much for me. I don’t like being told all these rules; yet, I can appreciate them preventing waste - it’s conflicting. I don’t like having to ask for each item two at a time like a starving ravenous warthog. The 15 minute wait time for the two sushi rolls was unforgivable as I watched the table next to us having a steady stream of constant food delivered by humans and the robotic waiter. All I can say is the place definitely should not be referred to as a “buffet” and if you’re a sushi lover then you’re in luck because there’s a variety and it’s fresh. But good luck with the...

(Edited: see below) In an economy like we have today, with even a dozen eggs costing an arm and a leg, this place is insane. $30 gets you all you can eat from anything off of either menu. The restaurant is Japanese inspired seafood for the majority of it. It is not a buffet. You order each round off of the menu and then they promptly bring out something after they make it. For Great Falls the quality of seafood was top tier. And I say this as a guy who grew up in Seattle living primarily on seafood. There was a spectacular variety, great quality of food, but by and large the selling point is the economics of this place. I swear I had to have eaten about $130 worth of food anywhere else and my kid ate at least $150 worth of food. Plate after plate came as we ate steady for over 2 hours straight. And it's not filler food either, not big bowls of rice or bread or anything like that it's protein, it's entrees. It's quality food for absolutely the most incredible price. I pray these guys don't go out of business because this is the new best restaurant in town. (Edit): well when they were brand new it was great but they have very quickly gone downhill fast. The last three times I've been there there has been a steady decline. I went two days ago for my mother's birthday with my whole family. There must be something wrong with their refrigeration, or they are not doing proper stock rotation. Either way six out of eight of us have food poisoning, and we will never go there again. I thought about messaging the manager but when I gave a positive review they earned it and now they have earned the negative review and I really doubt that the manager will do anything to fix it. Unfortunately it's a byproduct of their business model itself. The only way that they can make a profit off of serving that much food is to hold stuff well past its expiration date, or to leave things out for the day put them back and then put them out the next day and so forth. The only two people who didn't get sick were the people who didn't eat seafood. Everything tasted fishy, everything was old, everything must not have been refrigerated or had been frozen and refrozen. But now that it's two days later and we all still have diarrhea and nausea and cramps I have come to the conclusion that I will never return to this place again. And I advise that if you go here you have good medical insurance. I'm lowering it from five stars to two because it was seriously disgusting. Almost a completely different restaurant and certainly a different level of product from when they first opened to them now. You would probably not get as sick from dumpster diving to be honest. I mean for real we are all...

Decided to give the Ocean Star Seafood Company a go. For $29.99, it's all you can eat for anything on the menu. Similar concept as Yoi Tomo in Boise, except Yoi Tomo does not allow food sharing. Very busy for a Thursday. So they have a robot that delivers food to the table. I get the purpose, but to me, it's nicer to see my waiter or waitress. First round ordered spring rolls and the fusion roll. Got the spring rolls but no fusion roll. Already placed order for round 2 of gyozas and superman roll. Fusion roll finally showed up, but not what I was expecting. 4 pieces when the menu starts 6. Had to ask for chopsticks. Waitress had to go searching for some and return minutes later. So far the food has been good, but nothing yet has blown my socks off. Third round was the zombie roll and shrimp teriyaki that come with broccoli and rice. Shrimp were overcooked and I was expecting the shrimp cooked in teriyaki, but seems that teriyaki was poured over the shrimp afterwards, which made it a bit overpowering to the dish.

With each round the food has started to come out faster and my waitress has been more attentive.

Just a reminder, but if you have leftovers, you will be charged regular price for that item.

One thing I think would have set this place up even nicer would be to have a counter area, where you could sit and watch the food being prepared. This would be for those customers that come alone or couples.

Overall, I feel this new place is a great addition to the Great...