Sushi Village — Restaurant in South Hackensack

Nov 26 2022 update

This place is now a different retaurant with different management and chef. Food quality has decreased somewhat noticeably from Sea Shai, and you can notice that outright in some of the menu. Sushi now has too much rice, with rice lacking moisture and being too hard. Sashimi quality seems decent but cuts seem to be bit worse off and squid quality is worse. On the plus side i think price is now cheaper at $30 per person AYCE. Not a bad spot and quality is on par with average all you can eat joints, I think Sea Shai was just exceptional (might be why they closed? Focused too much on quality?) I did like their appetizers and some of the items and can imagine this place is well suited for those who favor quantity over quality.

After having driven by this place so many times on route 46, my wife and I finally made a stop today to check it out. We visited around 1 PM on Saturday but had no issue finding a parking spot or table. In fact, the place wasn't too busy when we went to our surprise. We were greeted courteously at the front and seated immediately. We went with the $35/person AYCE option to check out variety of different sushi. The menu is very comprehensive and has most of the standard sushi options, and also has some nice Korean dishes. We didn't have high hopes of quality sushi (given that this is an AYCE spot), but was pleasantly surprised at how good the sushi were. The fish used were fresh and they didn't give too much rice per sushi (which some AYCE places to do get you full). Rice was well done, not too sticky or hard, and came apart easily in your mouth. Our favorite was the red snapper of regular sushi, and baked lobster from the baked rolls. Takoyaki and the wings were very good as well (don't underestimate the wings for this being a seafood joint, they were super good!). The service was great with staff checking on us just at the right time and being very timely with our food, repeated orders, and drinks. My wife put on a light jacket because she is sensitive to AC, and the waitress was observant enough to tell her that she could bring down the AC level if she wanted. Overall, the food was great and we had a very pleasant experience. My wife and I would likely return, and we may even invite our friends who like AYCE.

Easy access from route 46 (this road does get congested during certain times of the day) Parking lot is relatively small. We didn't have any issue, but think it might be hard to find a spot if it gets crowded. $35/person AYCE is a decent price. I would never recommend cheap AYCE places below $30 as quality of fresh food do matter. Quality of food is great and all menu items we tried were good. Staff are extremely friendly and...

We always drive past this place so finally decided to check it out on Labor Day. It was around 12:30 and while the dining room wasn’t full, there were a good amount of tables dining. Since it was a holiday, it was weekend prices. There are some pretty interesting items on the menu. Unfortunately, nothing was really that good.

For apps, we ordered the yuzu tuna. This came with mango popping boba in it, which had no business there. The seaweed and kani salad had way too much tempura flakes in it. The mushroom soup was just a salty broth with boiled mushrooms, that weren’t even cooked all the way. The agedashi tofu was actually pretty good. The yellowtail jalapeño was pretty good but it could have used a little less of whatever sauce they put on it. I also liked the fact they had crispy rice on the menu. This is the first time I’ve ever seen it on an AYCE menu. However, their spicy tuna/salmon is way too minced. It’s like they put it into a food processor because it has almost a paste-like consistency.

For other items, we ordered mostly sashimi because we didn’t want to fill up on rice. I liked the white tuna sashimi, which is usually my fave. We ordered a spider roll, which could have been good if there wasn’t so much rice in it. We also ordered another roll which we didn’t realize was a tempura roll meaning they dunked the whole thing in batter and fried it, and that was too much. All you could taste was oily tempura.

For dessert, you’re only allowed one scoop of ice cream per person. So if you wanted more than one flavor, too bad. They do have Oreo tempura though. I’m not a fan but my husband loves it so he was happy about that.

Overall, it seems they try really hard here to fill you up with the extras, which most places do but I felt Sushi Village was overdoing it with the extra rice, tempura flakes, popping boba, etc. Not a good...

This place is a solid 2 star.

Price: Can’t complain about the price since it falls within the average range of AYCE restaurants. $30-40 depending on time/day and additional costs for drinks. However, I found it absurd that they placed limitations and additional charges on certain items. You can only order galbi once and dessert is 1 order per person or else they charge extra. Putting a limit on the galbi is understandable since it is an expensive cut of meat. However, 3 pieces of meat for a table is ridiculous. They could’ve at least set the limit to 1 per person or toss in a few more pieces to feed the whole table.

Sanitation: Store looked clean overall. We were seated at a clean table. All dishes we used were clean. Bathroom wasn’t too bad either.

Food quality: All items on the menu lacked flavor. The rice they used for rolls weren’t seasoned at all. No salt and no rice vinegar. Same goes for the fillings inside and outside of the rolls. Spicy tuna only had it’s spice flavor and kani toppings tasted like rubber mayo. Same applies to their side dishes and appetizers. Fried foods tasted like batter.

Customer Service: Servers are neutral when you interact with them. After they took my order, they never came back to check up on my table. I never had my drink refilled and the server never gave me extra papers to order more food. I had to constantly seek their attention and each time I did, they were busy doing their own thing. Took me several minutes to get their attention and ask for the check.

Location/parking: Decent location with handful of parking. No complaints other than it being in the middle of a...