Koo Seafood Buffet

Avoid this place, poor quality food. Way over priced. The health department should make a visit.

Went for the crab legs which were plentiful, but the melted butter tasted rancid! I complained about this and they brought out some fresh, but this tasted just as bad. I tried to explain to them that they need to use real butter and clarify it to go with the crab legs (not microwaved margarine), but they didn’t seem to care or understand. The rest of the food was not good at all.

Overpriced ! The seafood was sitting out so long that it was tasteless. Sushi was not fresh either. It was on Saturday (suppose to be a big turnover) but the place was empty and now I see why !

Absolutely horrendous experience, called to verify closing time, wanted to make sure it was still ok to come. Yes, they said. Upon arrival, there is a sign on a door inside the hotel that says Koo Seafood Buffet. That opens up to a little outdoor patio area, where you can see the restaurant up ahead. Those doors were locked. Tried to go back the way we came from, locked also. Back to restaurant, knock, they motion us to go around which naturally we cannot. Finally a customer opened the door, then a hostess sat us. This is where it gets crazy… Manager comes over and says why are you sitting here, we need to clean up this area, we are closing soon, after hostess sat us there, restaurant full of people, a good half hour before closing. The guy proceeded to yell at us, security guard comes over (who oddly enough I know, great guy), was a whole scene. Husband is getting very irritated at little man with no management or people skills, we decide this nice chat is over, gonna cancel Groupon, guy still talking, being incredibly rude, reiterating over and over that he has no idea where we came from or why we thought we could sit there, completely oblivious to the explanation that his hostess sat us there, and we had no choice but to come in the way we did considering we were locked out in the patio area.
Husband probably should not have given a finger on way out, but wow the little man about lost it & wanted to «take it outside» lol. Husband tried to explain that this is America bud, that happened to be an expression of displeasure, and though I could easily break you in half over my knee, we’re still hungry and going elsewhere. Naturally that’s gonna be a Groupon refund. Ownership may want to do something about the management there, definitely more polished persons available for the job at any fast food drive thru window, any truck stop, absolutely anywhere. Or alternatively, a little Prozac with your employee meals. As we were walking out someone said «you didn’t miss out, it wasn’t even good».
So there you have it, mediocre offerings with awful customer service means having to continually offer Groupons to get people through the door, and once they do, the manager who refers to himself as «my name is not important» gets people to leave. I should have known better, and now you do!

This buffet was pretty good today when we stopped for lunch. I was expecting the price to be higher, based on the «two dollar sign» thing here on Unilocal,but just $ 9.99 is normal for a buffet. Maybe dinner is higher. The food variety was nice with the sushi, some semi authentic Chinese food, and the standard Americanized stuff. Flavor was bland on some dishes, good on others, and my wife said the shrimp was amazing (i didn’t have any). Food was all pretty fresh and stocked sufficiently. I think they actually cooked smaller portions than most buffets, keeping new food rotating in sooner. Service was fantastic, plates and drinks were handled almost immediately. After we were full, we saw what looked to be a build your own stir fry station, with a variety of raw foods to be cooked. Definitely check that out for some extra value, if it’s included in your meal.

My husband and I stayed at Fort Rapids on July 25, 2015 and paid $ 228.58 for the «Wild Bill Hickok– King Room with Jacuzzi». The room was filthy and in very ill repair. Wall paper was peeling off the walls, dirt and filth was everywhere, unknown substances were on the bed skirt, and the air conditioner was broken and filthy. The electrical wiring was knotted and coiled in a big pile on the floor which could easily start a fire and black mold was in the bathroom and jacuzzi area. The lamp shades were rusted and the furniture was in terrible condition, chipped and broken. We have taken photos for proof. We ate at the Koo Seafood Buffet at Fort Rapids and my wife and I contracted food poisoning within 15 minutes of eating. It became so bad that we had to check out and leave by a few minutes after 10:00pm to go home. We have contacted Skyler Young (the guest relations manager) on several occasions and only got the run-​around about having to wait on headquarters to reply through a week and a half. The manager was rude in one of her emails as well because I had re-​contacted her because we have had no response. We only asked for the refund for the night that we didn’t stay because of the filth and the food poisoning and didn’t feel that we should have to pay for that anywhere. We were done wrong to say the least and we have found out that the company HQ can not be contacted because it is ran through many shell corporations and we were unable to find a name and phone number of the owner (s) of this establishment.

I try most of the food from their buffet. I would say their sushi selection and taste are decent. Their seafood stir fry doesn’t taste as good. Feels like eating left over food from last night. Crab legs are not bad, a bit salty. Fresh oysters are good. The best seafood over there is crayfish. Other than that nothing much I will go for second time. Their dim sum section I could careless. Looks like all frozen food. I don’t think I will go back again. We use groupon and actually they charge slightly lower than groupon. At least on the day we went.

This place was horrible. We had a groupon and it was still expensive. The food had been out for a while and dry. The crab legs were water logged and nasty. Shrimp was good. No California rolls on the sushi bar wtf! It was just a plain buffet. The dishes with crab were imitation crab.
A fight broke out in the kitchen with yelling, screaming and banging as soon as we say down with out first plate. Great place to bring your kids get ring side seats. Total disappointment. We were ready to walk out as this isn’t the best neighborhood. and were told we still have to pay full price for dinner. It wasn’t worth it. We will never be back.

My wife and I just love this place. We have the VIP card… The price is always right… Great service… better food.

This place is amazing!!! I came on a Tuesday and all the food was like other buffets on a Friday night. It was a little confusing to find. it’s attached to a hotel. The food is great tho

Stay away. Overpriced and not good food. It’s not worth the money honestly. With all honesty, stay away from this place. Take your money somewhere else.

Oh Lawdy.
This place is not worth anyone stopping at.
My husband got suckered right in on this place from their late night commercials, which should have been a sign right there not to expect a lot.
First off, I’ll always be puzzled why Fort Rapids chose Hamilton Rd to create their resort. This side of town is worn down and inconvenient to get to with no signage. Thank God, for fellow Unilocalers. I expected a place like this either at the next exit at Brice Rd, or even up towards Easton, but Hamilton Rd? Wow.
The place was dead when we got here around 12:30… Not a good sign. It’s also lunch time, and there’s really no Seafood in sight.
The food is scraps and gibblets and down right disappointing. I know people shouldn’t expect much from a buffet. HELL, I even lowered my expectations coming here, but the food was just God Awful. The sushi is rolled extremely tiny, and the fish and other ingredients they did use were nothing amazing, and meant to be able to sit on a plate for long periods of time… if you catch my drift.
The hot food items looked like something from the frozen food aisle at your local grocery store. Presentation was just not happening at all here, and a lot of it just really looked unappetizing.
We were done after one plate.
That’s another thing… The whole «We charge you $ 8 for not finishing your food» I mean, what if I HATE the food? What if it’s making me violently ill? Are you still going to charge me 8 bucks, or am I forced to shove this disappointing dog scrap-​esque food down my throat?
This place is really pathetic. If you’re nowhere near this place, then seriously, don’t make an exception to come here. You’ll end up walking out pretty disappointed. Support the little Chinese Mom and Pop/​hole in the walls on the east side. At least you won’t regret your meal.
Ain’t no love here.

I really do not understand the bad reviews for this place.
My husband LOVES seafood & chinese food so I surprised him by taking him here.
We arrived around 6pm (yes, it is hard to find so mapquest or google directions BEFORE coming) & got seat immediately.
The waitress was very accommodating. Refilling our drinks before they were even gone. She also cleared dishes quickly!
The food was delicious. I am a self proclaimed crab ragoon connoisseur, and let me tell you, their’s is FABULOUS. I loved it. Could have eaten 100 of them but for the sake of publicly embarrassing myself, I showed some self restraint.
The lo mein noodles were tasty. The mozzarella cheese sticks were very good (I know it’s a weird thing to put on a buffet like this but I had to try them. I heart cheese!!). The chicken & broccoli was the best I have had in a very long time. The rolls were nice & soft.
I did try the honey chicken, and it just wasn’t my thing. It was kind of a play on sweet & sour. I hate sweet & sour. yuk! My husband had the sprite beef and just raved about it. He did say the crab legs were good but not right out of the steamer (he’s picky that way – likes his stuff so hot it’ll burn your tongue).
Overall, it was a great experience.
Their dessert is a little lacking… but in my opinion that is to be expected from a chinese buffet. I have never been to one that had exceptionally wonderful dessert.
**Groupon has a «deal» on this place. Just FYI, it is not 33% off as stated. It only ended up saving me a couple dollars. I didn’t tell them I had a Groupon until they had already given me the bill and it was only $ 4 less.

This is one of the best places I’ve been too in a while. We went at 7pm on a Sunday and the buffet was full. They keep loading it with fresh sea food. no one can beat this price
The service was fine. Not as good as Amercan restaurant. The waitress barely spoke english but she tried her best to communicate. This was the worst part as this place and I understand that! it is a japanese restaurant.
The restaurant is inside a hotel, it was kinda hard to find it at first but we got it.
I’ve tried many places in Columbus that serves sea food, «Not buffet». and this one is still much much better.

I don’t usually write many reviews. but I had to write this for the sake of anyone that would consider eating here. The food is not terrible, but definitely not very good. It’s similar to many other chinese/​japanese buffets around. The difference is that their cost for dinner is like $ 15 at max and here it’s $ 30.
I bought a groupon to use for the buffet. When I got the original check, they printed my tax at about the right rate of 7.5%. When I presented my groupon they brought back a check of nearly $ 5 which would equate to about 12.5−13% tax, saying that thats the real tax rate. I didn’t want to argue because the manager was already mad after an altercation with a family that ate there. They basically made up a number and said I had to pay that because obviously I was somehow not paying full price since I used a groupon.
Servers are nice but the management is a mess. The cleaning of dishes are so loud and the atmosphere is just. not a place to be for a nice quiet buffet dinner. If you’re looking for a regular japanese buffet, save yourself $ 15 + made up tax and go to other chinese/​japanese buffets around columbus.

First, let me give you direction… literally. To get to this place you must take the eastbound ramp to I-​70 from Hamilton Rd., and make an immediate right. Its easy to miss, so be astute.
The Fort Rapids/​hotel portion is cool. Its got a western theme with large lobby and high ceilings decorated accordingly. They have a large «saloon» style bar and a gift shop. While the water park portion was not open, we did manage to get a look… very cool. Everything seemed very cleaned, including the restrooms.
On to the food…
We usually try avoid buffets as they tend to be dry, stale, and cold so we planned our visit to arrive right after they opened (they advertise 11:00a) and we did so, arriving at 11:15.
We were seated promptly and immediately headed to the buffet. To our surprise, there was only about 20% of the food out. No sushi, so baked/​fried goods… just some rice and your regular staple of Generals Tso’s chicken and the like… which was strangely, luke warm to cold already.
As time rolled on, more things came out but very slowly. We noticed chefs eating their own lunch, but the bake/​fry station for example, just had one chef working it, and had about 2 dishes ready out of 12. I would think the other chefs would help out until the buffet was running at full, but no.
About 20 minutes in, some spring roll and crab Rangoon appeared. The bake/​fry station now had about 5 items out while the salad, stir fry, sushi, and dessert stations were nonexistent. We began to think only certain stations are open for lunch.
We continued to munch on what we could find and after getting our fill the waitress brought our check. BTW, this waitress literally stood at attention directly next to our booth hovering at our every move. Dont get me wrong… Im all about good service, but standing there watching me eat?
Its now 11:55 and I have paid the check. Sushi bar finally has some stuff out, but the bake/​fry station is still incomplete. Egg rolls were never offered, but there was a spot for them. The salad and cold bar bar were now being stocked, and the dessert station was just opening, but nothing put out yet. We also saw the stir fry chef finnaly taking orders. We also observed more chefs/​cooks eating their lunch during this time as well.
We left seeing lots of things we would have liked to try. Now I know it takes some time to «gear up» a buffet, but if you advertise your hours as serving at 11a, then you should at least be well on your way towards reaching full service. And if some stations are behind, postpone your workers lunch to pitch in to get you up to service.
A great value @ $ 9.99 per person, but we are very disappointed the whole menu was not offered until an hour after opening.
What we did have was good… but for the above reasons, I cant recommend and probably would not return.

The dead wasps and ants all over the front door was a bad first impression.
Service was eh, the food wasn’t really good but what so you expect from a buffet? Then again this was $ 20 and I felt like it was definitely not worth this price.
The only decent thing was the tuna on rice sushi, Peking duck, and the fruits. That’s about it.

After seeing all the caution flags about getting lost, I made sure I didn’t! ;) So it was an uneventful trip, albeit a long one. I got there about 11;30 and pretty much had my choice of seats. But that was when it started to fill up, and did it ever!
But I’ll say this right off the bat. That will be the first and last time for me. From now on when I get a sushi craving, it will wait till Monday or Tuesday and I’ll feed it at a GOOD sushi place where the rolls are half off. This was no better than your average Chinese buffet and the sushi wasn’t very good, IMO.

My friends were joking that they saw another Unilocal reviewer list that the place is difficult to find as a con. Don’t underestimate this and watch out for the signs — our group missed the freeway exit twice and you have to loop around 1+ miles to exit again.
Aside from being difficult to find, everything else about Koo is lovely. The sashimi alone already makes this my favorite Asian buffet in Columbus. They also have things like fried frog legs, tasty ice cream (instead of stupid soft serve), and the best fried chicken wings.
Biggest con might be that they should replenish the lobster more — we kept eyeing it, waiting for them to bring out more to no avail. Supreme is better in that regard, but I don’t feel as much self-​loathing after eating at Koo’s versus after eating at Supreme, since I load up on the sashimi here which makes me feel good about myself.

Aight. First things first: we only had lunch here because it’s half price at lunch. So we didn’t get to experience the full dinner menu (which is fine with me, since I don’t eat seafood anyway). That having been said, this is one of the best Asian buffets we’ve been to in Columbus.
I’m sure we all know what Asian buffets are like by now, so I’m just gonna break this down pro/​con style:
Pros:
+ The selection. It isn’t overwhelmingly huge, but what they do put out is pretty good (for Asian buffet). They don’t have as many weird Americanized foods (ie, cheese on top of things that have no business being eaten with cheese) as other buffets do, which I liked. Highlights for me, the non-​seafood-​eater, included gyoza, Sprite (?) steak, vegetable tempura, chicken wings (that were actually good and not dried out). Hubs loved the all-​you-​can-​eat sushi, which isn’t like, GREAT AMAZING SUSHI but it was apparently pretty good for buffet sushi; there is a range of rolls, nigiri, and even sashimi.
Even the dessert was slightly better than other buffets, featuring banana pudding and cream puffs alongside the usual tiny cake squares. Also, there’s a chocolate fountain. I didn’t test this out, but it certainly looked impressive for a buffet to have.
+ Everything was labeled, and mostly correctly. There was something labeled «cheese stick» that turned out to be a fried apple pie thingy, but I can’t even be mad about that. I was happy about the lack of mystery foods that might have seafood lurking in them.
+ Service was attentive. Dirty plates were cleared promptly and refills were brought out when needed.
+ If you have kids, you will be able to get food for them. And there are discounts for kids.
+ Lunch price is $ 10, which is not bad at all, especially if you eat sushi. Dinner is $ 20, which – I’ve seen photos where they had whole crabs out, and occasionally lobster… if you eat seafood, you could get your money’s worth at $ 20.
+ Buffet is clean and attractive, which is nice. Food is served on large white plates instead of in hotel pans; it seemed to get less dried out this way, and definitely looked nicer. The buffet is laid out around the edges of the room and was easy enough to get to and from, traffic-​wise.
Cons:
— Location. If you’re not familiar with the area, odds are not good that you’re not going to get lost. The turn to get to the resort that the restaurant is in is also a freeway on-​ramp (the entrance to I-​70E from Hamilton Rd) and it’s not that clearly-​labeled.
— Even if it’s a pretty good Asian buffet, it’s still an Asian buffet. I mean, there’s an upper limit to how good Asian buffet is; it’s a four-​star Asian buffet, but probably like a 3-​star meal overall.
— There’s a sign on the table admonishing you not to take more than you can eat, which is a tad unwelcoming on its own; if you keep reading, you see that they also reserve the right to charge you $ 8 if you take more than you can eat. Not sure what the parameters are on wasting food vs. trying something and not liking it, but I guess serve yourself sparingly to avoid a surcharge.
This will be our Asian buffet go-​to when we’re in the mood for Asian buffet. For us, that’s only a few times a year, if that. .. but if Asian buffet is your thing, check this place out.