Umi Hotpot Sushi & Seafood Buffet — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

when thus restaurant first opened the food quality was good and menu options were amazing even for the lunch menu. we recently visited Friday for lunch. now it's turning into a typical Chinese buffet with low quality food that does not taste good. the sushi was yuck made fresh but it tasted off, they removed all the steak option, snow crabs, individual baked salmon, lamb ribs, crayfish, osters(clams) and prob a much more stuff. the seafood options was so limited now and what they did have smelled like fishy and old like walking into a sea food market, it definitely was not like that our first few visits. we were told the snow crabs and steak is dinner menu now and limited to 1 piece oer person. why start off with everything and then just take the actual good food away. the salmon now is typical Chinese baked slab that's the farm raised with a nasty sauce on it. rather spend $18 at wasabi for lunch and get fresh quality food that doesn't make you feel sick than go back to umi. for the owners you should research restaurants in the area charging similar price but giving better quality tasting food such as volcano(especially for you broth, we dont eat your hotpots because the broths are bad), wasabi(check out for their sushi quality and taste the flavor is actually good), and Texas de Brazil all buffets similar prices but top quality food. sucks this quality in food drastically decreased had high hopes for this place. the staff are getting replaced with people who do not speak English and the food quality and taste just dropped. better to do less items with better taste and quality than 100 items with mediocre taste. very sorry but because of the removal in options of the actual good tasting quality food and the taste and bad quality of the remaining food that's there we will not be dining with your restaurant again. For the price you charge there's restaurant with better standards in food quality in the area that will continue to get our business.

** we are a group of 6 that eats out constantly. you took off all the good tasting menu items because they were expensive..., your prices are high to begin with and are similar to nearby resturants in the area that offer top quality food for same or less. why offer them to even start and then replace them with cheap quality and bad tasting typical Chinese food that makes people sick. Chinese buffet charge $12 for lunch and $20 for dinner. your charging $22 for lunch and $35 for dinner and then reduced the quality in the food and put limitations on the food items that are available.

moshu,volcano,wasabi,Texas de Brazil all around your price and give top quality food without limits. wish you the best the changes are making you loose customers.... again better to do quality items that taste good than 100 items that taste bad. for typical Chinese food, can go up the road to wolf road to the all you can eat buffet for cheaper. your test menu was great but because of wanting to be cheap and cutting cost you took all the top quality food away and left garbage. 😒 people will pay money for good tasting and quality food rather than crappy food. we spend $150 on 3 people at any of those above restaurants because their food is amazing quality and taste and return to them mutiple times in the month. 🤷‍♀️...

We are glad that Umi finally opened its Albany location. My husband and I went a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday night.

Atmosphere: We were greeted by an employee at the door and we were promptly seated on the left side of the restaurant. The left side was VERY crowded, seats were very close together and we were seated in literally a cubby hole by the back wall. The right side of the restaurant was much nicer, with more room in between tables so you didn't have to be part of your neighbor's conversation. Also, the right side was empty, so I don't know why we were all jammed into the left side. We will ask to sit on the right side next time or it's a deal breaker, it's that bad on the left. The music was extremely loud, a strange mix of 80s/90s clubbish music. The lighting was weird, like I was walking around in Times Square or Beijing or Tokyo, complete with bright, annoying neon lights, probably attractive to teenagers. Not relaxing at all.

Service: Service was good, young lady came by to take our drink order (hot tea) promptly.

Food: Food was good, some items were a little bland. I didn't have the sushi because I didn't want to fill up on the sushi rice and really wasn't in the mood for sushi that night. The items I had from the buffet were good for the most part. The crawfish could have been more flavorful, I found them bland and not of very good quality, there was very little "meat" . The steamed clams were good. The crab legs were nice, but I wish they had drawn butter to go with the crab legs. The fried rice was surprisingly flavorful, they're usually bland at buffets- good job! The specialty beverages and juices, including boba, are included with the buffet, which is a nice touch. The desserts ran out fairly early in the night, so I didn't get to try any- not sure if they refilled later, but the trays were empty when we went up for dessert.

Overall: We will give it another try, but I really hope the management takes a look at the music situation and table set up, especially on the crowded left side. Next time, we will have to sit on the right and have more room or it's a no-go. Also, please change the music if possible- if not, at least turn the volume down. No one wants to scream at the people they're having dinner with at...

In the words of Cher: "If I could turn back time, if I could find a way" to never have visited this place I would have saved myself a lot of money, time and disappointment.

We went in feeling hopeful for a decent meal and left sad and disappointed to say the least. The entrance to the restaurant should have warned us of the quality of food that lied in wait within. Fake "cherry blossom" and a gold spray painted "tree" adorns the walkway outside.

Upon entering, we were excited to explore all of the different sections of the buffet. Everything looked plentiful from the sushi section to the hotpot section. There are several drinks you can choose from that come with the meal, as well as a variety of desserts and ice cream bars from a freezer. The restaurant overall looked very clean and organized.

We started with trying things from the buffet. The sushi and sushi rolls were passable/okay quality. The sashimi was fine as well but definitely not worth the $38.00/person (this is the price you pay to dine in; hotpot, ramen and buffet items are all included). The Chinese American food was absolutely awful. It had no flavor and was dripping in grease. I tried a mussel covered in cream cheese and shredded cheese that was so salty I almost got sick from eating it. The crab legs were also too salty to eat.

We ordered the hot pot and while eating, one of our napkins caught fire from the burner inside the hotpot bowl stand. Everything was ok and one might say this made the meal more exciting. Because the restaurant used a real flame burner, the smell of gas was very overpowering and made the meal unpleasant. The Sukiyaki broth did taste decent, but it was much too salty. The buffet did offer a station to make your own dipping sauce, which was great. Many of the hotpot items were low quality and we were not able to finish most of them.

The desserts were absolutely awful as well. I got a fruit cheesecake slice that was sitting in a pool of water and was so mushy I had to spit it out. The safest bet would be to get an ice cream out of their freezer.

Overall, please save your money and don't go here unless you really appreciate an expensive low quality meal. This place was definitely over-hyped on social media. It was not worth our...