Lin’s Seafood and Sushi Buffet — Restaurant in San Antonio

Update to the 2-weeks late response from owner since there's no way to respond and y'all won't respond: Our server was no where to be found, let alone management. I couldn't even get my water refilled. I tried to talk to the cashier's on the way out but they brushed me off. I called the following morning and was told to submit a contact form on the website, which I did twice and never heard back. My doctor recommended not risking driving myself to their office while horrifically ill unless symptoms persisted more than 24 hours.

Original review: Aesthetically pretty brand-new restaurant but not worth the food poisoning. Reached out 3 times regarding the food poisoning and received no response.

My party of 4 had a celebratory dinner on Sunday evening (9/22), with myself, one pregnant individual and her husband, a toddler. The restaurant itself was very clean, very bright (might not be ideal for those sensitive) and shiny. The food was hot and constantly refreshed. However, the final batch of the hot steamed crab legs at the end of our meal was spoiled. It tasted absolutely foul. Though the hope was that nothing would come from a bite or two of contaminated food, unfortunately, a few hours later the classic signs of food poisoning emerged. Vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, weakness.

I was unable to go to work Monday due to severe illness. I reached out to Lin's by phone and I was told they didn't know how to respond (new hire, I guess) and to reach out to corporate via the website. I reached out via their contact us on their website twice preceding this review and received no acknowledgement.

Food poisoning is already serious, but seafood poisoning can be especially so and deeply impact vulnerable people like those who are pregnant and children. There were so many children and families that evening and while I hope nobody else got sick, I can't imagine this was an isolated case. If you've ever opened up a package of raw spoiled seafood before you know immediately by the smell before it ever touches the boiling water. If they have their crabs brought in already broken down, then they should have known from that smell alone. If they bring them in live... This one surely was NOT alive. This was negligent food handling and should have been caught prior to the contaminated food reaching the dining floor. Furthermore, the restaurant not acknowledging that there was food-borne illness at their establishment is deplorable. It is their responsibility to take the report seriously and investigate to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I'm disappointed that what was a special dinner in celebration turned into this. I'm further disappointed that after having had mostly positive experiences at the 1604 Lin's location that the brand-new closer location at 410 was such a disaster for our first visit. I was greatly looking forward to this becoming a regular spot for my family,...

I'd recommend skipping this place if you're interested in trying it out. ;(

Service/food: For starters, I was in a party of 3, and we went in with decent expectations. The atmosphere was pretty decent. The place looked nice and clean, and we were actually excited to try it out. The server took a good while to come out and give us our drinks once we were seated, which wasn't a big deal. We were all excited to get up and get our food, so we looked around at what they had to offer and the food looked questionable to say the least. We pushed that aside and all grabbed some food to try out and were very disappointed. There were no high expectations, just wanted to try the place out and we walked out still hungry, as we lost our appetite. Everything tastes like freezer meals, which I'm sure a lot of is just that anyways. We continued to try a little bit of everything, hoping there was something decent, but the only good things were the fruits and salad bar items. After getting up and coming back to the table multiple times we never once got a refill. We finally sat there disappointed talking amongst ourselves and waited to see if the lady would give us a refill. She never did. And never came back to check and ask. And we were right next to the server station. I'll give her some credit, she did grab a few of our dirty plates.

Cost: We were told the food would cost $22 per person + a few for a drink, which wasn't an issue. The receipt says we were charged $26.99/person, except my fiance that had his military discount. He was charged $24.99 after a 10% discount was included. Drinks cost $2.99 each. We spent a total of $94.44 there

Other: This next part wasn't exactly the restaurants fault but there were many children there, and many that were running around loose and disturbing other customers. There was even a toddler in a crop top!!!!!

TLDR: Very disappointing food and service. Poor quality for the price. You're better off spending your money...

Lots of pros and cons Pros: food was overall better than average. Sushi selection wqs excellent. Only a few bins were mislabeled and 90% of what I tried was really good. The waitress was excellent.

Cons: overpriced. Was $50 for my GF and I for a weekday at dinner. We asked if they gave teacher discount and he said yes (manager was working the register). My GF produced her ID and I asked if I could show my work email as I didn't have my ID on me (and didn't want to back to my car to get it if I didn't have to. He only applied the discount to her meal and never said, "you need to get your ID sir." We just saw I was charged full price when we got the receipt. When he asked if I wanted a drink I said root beer, but when we got to the table the waitress said they didn't have root beer. I would've just gotten water if the manager had bothered to say they didn't have root beer. The interior feel is kind of off. Not sure why. Very fancy crystal lighting with seating that feels very "golden corral" They were playing pop hits and at one point cranked up the music to play a birthday song for someone... but when the birthday song was over there was no music for about 10 minutes until someone finally remembered to turn it back on.

Overall, still feels very much like its finding its feet. I think they need another month to work out the kinks. Hopefully their manager learns his menu and communication a little better with time. I'll probably give it another go in a month or so, but at a...