Onami Restaurant

I’m so sorry to see that this place has closed it’s doors after so many faithful years of being in service. Although the sushi wasn’t grade A top of the line dining it still offered a wide selection of all you can eat goodness — and for a great price I must say.

Too bad I heard this place is closed, so I called the number but has been disconnected and the website is no longer in service.
Does anyone know if they plan to reopen?
This place was by far the best seafood buffet around, including those in LV

Received an email from another Unilocaler that this location has been shut down. Too bad, it was great, just a bad location in a mall that is being killed off slowly by Irvine Spectrum and Aliso Viejo Mall.

Went to dinner alone at Onami in Laguna Hills on Monday, March 1 at around 6:30/7pm-ish. Very few tables were occupied but I guess Monday night is not a big eating out night anyway. I haven’t been to this place for about 1−½ yrs. and after Monday night I remembered why.
All the staff was very nice, and the service was good, however, the quality of the food is just awful, especially the cooked meats. I don’t eat sushi/​raw fish, so can’t comment on that (and maybe it’s good & that’s why people go there) but I’ve tasted just about everything on the hot buffet table and some on the cold salads table.
Teriyaki chicken, Salmon, clams, mussels, beef, Onami house chicken, Almond chicken, Tempura, noodles, rice, etc. The meats are of the lowest quality and are SO extremely drenched in STRONG overly salty & sweet sauces, it’s hard to tell at first until you start chewing, and chewing and chewing and all the flavor has gone. It has taken me two days to recover from the salt bloat!
The prices are very reasonable for a buffet, but you get what you pay for. Just like «beauty» is in the eye of the beholder, I guess food is kind of the same way. Everyone has a different idea on how things should taste. After I left I realized I would rather go to a decent non-​buffet restaurant and get a quality single entrée rather than a multitude of bad ones.

Sushi Buffet? Can it be?
Why yes! I’ve been to Onami several times during my lunch break. Very much worth it during the lunch time price especially if you keep the 20% off entire bill coupon they give you! I don’t know why people are saying it’s pricey at about $ 15 a person during lunch pre-​coupon. Maybe dinner gets a little more hefty.
If your here for sushi and usually go to sushi bars for your fish fix, then Onami should be a good cheap, quick, get up and serve yourself kind of place to go. The quality is better then most buffets that serve sushi. Better rice, better & fresher fish, and better sushi accompaniments (wasabi, ginger, edamame, side salads, etc). They have four sections: Hot food, sushi, fresh appetizers, & dessert.
Hot food is okay. It’s not the main attraction & it shows. Has soups, Chinese food, & fried/​loaded things to that nature. I usually don’t fill up there. The sushi section is what everyone goes there for! They have hand rolls, cuts, sashimi salads, and I believe you can also request a few easy things to the on-​hand chefs if you so please. Never done it, so I’m not entirely sure. The appetizer section is my second most frequented area. Tofu salads, greens, sauteed goodness– just different salads and fresh veggie appetizers! My personal favorite is the eggplant. Dessert really isn’t all that’s its cracked up to be. The cakes seems like they were prepackaged, thawed, & placed on dishes. The fondue isn’t really good. The chocolate has a cheap taste if you can imagine that. Kind of like the cheap holiday chocolate you get, but liquefied & pawned off as gourmet fondue cocoa. The only good thing about this section is the fresh fruit (you can’t really go wrong there) & the green tea ice cream. It’s a shame I don’t like green tea ice cream. whomp whomppp!
Highlights and Low-​lights:
*Get in & start feasting
*Decent selection from 4 different sections
*Sushi quality is better then other buffets that serve sushi (by all means not «top notch»)
*Rather tasty
*Drinks served at an additional charge
*Serves beer & sake (might serve wine)
*Not a place to celebrate a «birthday.» They won’t do anything special unless there’s 4 or more people in your party– LAME! They just make themselves look cheap!
*Service is okay, nobody seems to want to go «above and beyond»
It’s a buffet & you can’t really complain THAT much for the price you pay! I’d say it’s better then going to hometown buffet but with a different theme. I personally like it… I like it a lot!

I looooovvveeee their FONDUE dessert!!! All that yummy chocolate with fresh fruit right next to it for me to just dip! yum!
Onami is a bit pricey but hey, if I can stuff myself with better quality sushi than most sushi buffet’s and have my dessert, I’m there! The amount of sushi they have, the fact that a buffet even has sashimi and better yet actually have edible dessert section unlike many buffets makes this place a 5 star, really. But, I’d have to say, their hot food isn’t too great. And yeah, the price.
I only really go once in a while. I mean, how often can a person go to these buffets and expect to not gain any weight? So $ 25 splurge on all you can eat sushi once a month, not bad at all! I’d rather do that then go to a cheaper sushi buffet that end up making me try to find another cheap sushi buffet just to satisfy my yearning for some good sushi. In the end, I find myself spending more on cheap sushi buffets that shouldn’t even exist.

Did Todai remodel?
This place is very close, if not almost identical in what Todai Serves. However the quality seems just a tad-​bit better since its not a super-​franchise place as is Todai.
The Cooked food is decent when fresh, so when you go here when they first open, the food is great. After a while, the food that doesn’t get picked at, starts to dry under the heat lamps (as is all buffets) and they should replace these more often.
Sushi rolls/​nigiri are on par with japanese buffet-​style sushi. Not the freshest, but not the worst. Rice portions are bearable on the nigiri AND handrolls, so that is a definite plus.
Ramen/​Udon tastes identical to Todai, a good starter!
Green tea Ice cream would be great if it weren’t always so frozen solid! People usually quit after half a scoop because its so rock hard. What makes up for this though is the installment of a new Chocolate fountain… where you can dip a variety of things «fonude» style! I usually take their non-​fondu items (like their cheese cakes desserts) and i Dip those! Delicious!
Overall, for around $ 21.95 for dinner, and i believe $ 15.95 for lunch, its a pretty decent selection for a Japanese buffet.

I am married to a buffet enthusiast. Like most things in life, it’s all about your approach (i.e. I can always seek out something to like anywhere — even in at a buffet.)
The sashimi and sushi standards at Onami exceed those of any Vegas or sushi buffets. A friend of mine once lamented that the Onami fish is frozen and not fresh. But I’m not dining by a dock of fishing boats so any fish we’d get I would hope were flash frozen.
Onami’s food stations can be classed as followed:
— Raw (rolls, sushi, sashimi). I have no complaints on the sashimi, especially yellowtail, salmon, and tuna poke.
— Cooked (tempura, wokked, and the house special — broiled lobster). Pairing a few pieces of tempura with udon — and you have a great lunch just with that.
— Salad (ocean/​seaweed, noodles, greens). I don’t bother with the snow crab legs or the cocktail shrimp; but the seaweed salad I like.
— Soup (soba, udon). I know my broth and I like their soup bar — made to order.
— Dessert (bite sized cakes, tarts, fruits, and another house special — green tea ice cream). Recently, they’ve added a crêpe pan, but I think I make better ones at home.
Like many sushi establishments, it is Korean owned and the condiments represent (i.e. kimchi and cured radishes). While not a high-​end sushi experience by any stretch (sea urchin will be as unique as you’ll get and don’t even think of toro), Onami does offer one of the better sushi buffets in Southern California.

I haven’t been here for a couple of years and now I remember why. Over $ 25 bucks per person for dinner for sub-​par food. The hot foods are ok, but you know the sushi is really terrible.
I thought I scored on the lobster but it only looked like a lobster. In reality they took all the meat out and replaced it with pure mayo.
You can spend much less almost anywhere else and do much better.

I can’t complain too much about Onami, other than the price. After eating dinner here with my cousins, I was shocked to learn that it’s basically $ 25 per person, which is a lot of money considering that for the three of us, the bill came to more than $ 75. For that kind of money, the three of us could have ordered around 7 rolls at a regular sushi place.
Still, Onami features tons of options, ranging from cooked seafood, sushi, beef, vegetables, and desserts. I was very skeptical at first, but after seeing how crowded it got around dinner time, my fears were allayed and with an open mind, I began to chomp down.
An hour later, realizing I was still alive and well, I granted Onami the credit it deserved as a buffet, but I am still in shock over just how expensive the whole thing was. Like others have said, it may be worth it to try other places if you eat regular portions. If, however, you can down lots of sushi and enjoy it all to the point of buffet-​size portions, then Onami is probably for you!

Things to know before you step into a buffet: you’re paying for quantity and nothing is going to be as fresh as a made to order sit down restaurant, unless you’re at a $ 40 Vegas buffet. If you can comprehend these two rules, then Onami is hands down one of the best Asian buffets in Orange County (Yeah, better than you, Todai).
They have some of the best sushi that I’ve seen in a buffet and it is on par with many of the fast food type sushi restaurants, although you won’t mistake the sushi for something you’d eat at the eateries that surround the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. The cooked selections, tenderloin, terriyaki chicken, salmon, and gyoza are quality, as are the salads, fruit, and desert. The buffet area is generally clean, especially compared to other asian buffets.
The layout is spacious and I’ve never had to wait for a table, even with parties of 8 people. The servers are on point with the drink refills.
The price is on the steep side, but if I’m going to drop $ 20 on any sort of Asian buffet, this is the first one that comes to mind when I’m in the south OC.

This is where my brother or sister, maybe even my mother would elect to go to celebrate their birthdays. I think I got conned by my father to go here as well for his. I never would. I’m always out of town when I celebrate mine.
Pros:
1) The Variety: There is a ginormous variety of food at this place. Rolls, hand rolls, Chinese food, soups, salads, tempura, kimchee and other stuff. This list is not complete and this list does not even mention dessert. That’s next.
2) The Dessert: Oh my gods, the green tea ice cream. So rich, so luscious, so… green! Serve it on a cone. Serve it in a bowl. Serve it on a dish. Oh, they also have bite size and semi-​bite size versions of western desserts like tiramisu and lemon tarts. They also have fruits and jello. Yes, jello! Different coloured jello!
3) The Staff: Very friendly. Very helpful. All smiles from the moment you open the door. Don’t believe me? Just ask my father.
The Cons:
1) The Quality: It’s OK. The food, I mean. It’s just OK. I won’t write others about it. I doubt you would too.
2) The Price for the Quality: Kinda pricey. For my father’s b-​day, my sister and I split the bill. It was a wow. Just glad we ate our weight in lobster to offset the bill.
3) Other things: There are other things I want to mention about this place, but I would rather direct you to the other reviews. Let’s just say that I have objections to certain … modalities on how the food is made. ‘Nuff said.
All in all, the pros still outweigh the cons. So check this place out. Great for celebrating people’s birthdays. They give you a coupon for a free meal the next time you go there. That alone would drive some people here.

I have been here twice and both experiences have been a good one.
The first time…
i was there for my cousins graduation party. It was really crowded so you didn’t have to wait in a line to get the food. They have a good variety of sushi and Japanese-​ish foods to chow down. I took about 3 Tako, 3 eel, and 4 california rolls. Then i just took some ones that i forgot the name of, but i really just wanted to try them. They have yummy udon noodles and a bunch of desserts. They have the classic green tea ice cream. Or if you want they have fruit and a chocolate fondue fountain and you know what to do with that. They also have little cakes and what nots for yah too.
The second time…
A little more crowded. This time i went for my second uncle’s birthday. There were more people in the party and other guests. So this time there was a little wait for the food. Also i noticed that everyone likes the tempura shrimp and people would be waiting just for that. When i got to it they had a fresh one out and this Japanese lady cut in front of me and started grabbing some tempura. She sort of came from no where and in my mind i was like WTF. Get back in line bitch. whatevers… For some reason i was really enjoying this redish colored chicken that they had and that is pretty much what i ate. Everything else was eh.
Also since my aunt was working at her little junk cart in the mall, she would take a plate outside the back restaurant and eat it at her cart. It was funny because we would jokingly say out loud «That lady is stealing food.» But she wasn’t since she was paid for. But one of the employees saw it and locked her out. It was so funny and no one wanted to let her in so i think she went all the way around to the front to get back in.

I came here with my brother because he wanted to go to one of those sushi All You Can Eat (AYCE) places. I read Teresa N., Shannon L., and Angela C.‘s reviews, and they weren’t way too bad, so I decided to take a chance and come here. I actually can’t agree with them that this place is better than Todai. It wasn’t even better than the lunch one at Orange, and definitely far worse than the ones in Santa Anita Mall and Huntington Beach. We came here with no wait, it’s relatively clean. Dinner is like $ 26. It’s a bit expensive compared to what’s offered at Vegas buffets. Has you standard «sushi buffet»: shrimp, oysters, snow crab legs, baked lobster, and a wide variety of sushi. I didn’t want to even try the oysters or crab legs. The food was pretty good, had about 3 plates of the fresh-​type kimchi. Now the sushi. The entire time I was eating it, I was thinking to myself, «I HOPE I DON’T GET SICK, I HOPE I DON’T GET SICK!» Well I had the Nike+ human race the next day, so I really hoped I didn’t get sick. Needless to say, I only had 1 trip of the sushi because it was so awful, but I didn’t get sick. The nigiri is obviously frozen before, it’s really cold. The way they cut it is really, really careless and thick! The only two that were decently good was the hawaiian poke, and the cilantro tuna (which was actually really good!). They do have a chocolate fountain that almost pushed it to a 3 star place, but the sushi was awful!
I think I like those «made to order» AYCE sushi places now.

No! No! No! First of all before I even get to rating the actual food, let’s start with the fact that this is an All You Can Eat Buffet… they stare and calculate every piece of fish or anything else you eat. I have never experienced this type of «stalking» at a place. All you can eat means let Me have My peace and eat what I desire and as many pieces of it as I desire. Gosh, that intense scrutiny while I am trying to eat and talk with a friend is just TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! If they are not ok with people eating to their hearts’ content, they should not have an all you can eat buffet, lol. Now, that I have covered that… on to the actual food.
The seaweed salad did not taste right… not fresh enough or something. The sashimi (which is actually only available for dinner) was not at all impressive or varied enough. There were prepared rolls and stuff, I am not into those… all that white rice? thanks, but no thanks. The lobster, which is available for dinner only, is very little lobster and lots of whatever that weird mixture substance is. They have some prepared foods that seem to greasy and not super fresh to Me, so I avoided it, lol. I know there was tempura and some beef and veggies I think. Nothing impressive and way not enough seafood. Oh, and back to those «lobster»…it’s like a big deal to get one, so you have to nag them for it and pay attention to times and whatever… hahaha…
There was some fresh fruit and different desserts (no great desserts here, lol, were you thinking there might be? lol) One thing that was kind of cool in a way is that they had green tea ice cream. I much prefer hard serve ice cream and buffets unfortunately tend to go for soft serve :(This place did have the hard serve green tea ice cream, so they get a half a point for that, lol.
Not the place to go. Even if the food was of a much better quality, any place where they watch every piece of food that goes into My mouth and how many times I go up and anything else is not a place I would enjoy eating. Boooooooooo! Plus the quality is not that great, even for a sushi buffet place. So, I recommend skipping… unless of course you have one of those 3 dollar deals like Angela has and don’t mind someone begrudging you food at a restaurant, lol… then at least the price is right, lol. Overall… just say No, lol.
…XooX SuperGirl

Easter is on my birthday this year and I feel like I never turned 25. Everything about the gloriousness of reaching my quarter-​centennial has been overshadowed by this corpulent holiday.
But spending this hybrid at an all-​you-​can-​eat Japanese seafood buffet has made going to extravagant places farther than a restaurant connected to a large closed mall unnecessary. My non-​birthday was alright. Extra points for no Easter decorum.
I don’t understand why people come to buffets if they already have a notion that they’ll hate them. Haters leave the same comments about food not being so good, but the food will always be consistently fine if the fried food section isn’t where they head first. Fried food is supposed to taste crappy. Duh.
The cold food is fresher here than Sumo in Irvine. The sushi is fresher, as my parents reported. There are three types of seaweed. Hijiki is one of them. Their Kimchi is crispy. The vegetable rolls are soft and filled with lots of different vegetables including beets. The rice is soft and the miso soup isn’t cold, but hot.
The hot tea is Genmai Cha and really good. I recommend.

Don’t hang me, but I acutally like O-​nami. It’s really decent for what it used to be. I haven’t been in some time, but the times I did frequent, I loved it.
The sushi/​sashimi seemed a lot fresher to me than what Todai offered and the heated foods were of better quality to me as well. The numerous soups, different salads, and green tea ice cream (once again, this was a while back, and they were the only buffet serving it) is what sealed the deal for me.
The service was always attentive and precise. This place used to be packed especially during lunch. Maybe I should go back just to re-​evaluate the place.

It’s decent/​edible for a sushi buffet. I’ve never been to a greeat sushi buffet. They have various selections of rolls, nigiri pieces, and sashimi. Not the freshest but what do you expect from a buffet? I’ll choose this place over Todai any day!
They also have soba noodles, tempura, and some other cooked concoctions. They have king crab legs and shrimp cocktails too.
My BF and I came using a
coupon that cost us only $ 3 but worth $ 25! Our total bill came out to about $ 30 (we ordered drinks) for 2 people… not bad for a buffet!

I hate buffets. For obvious reasons of course and I just can’t comprehend paying that high of an amount for a lot of low quality food. I just can’t!
My friend & I went here on a rainy day and turns out there was a 20% off your meal deal. That made it semi worth it. I guess if you’re having an intense sushi craving, this can be a quick, short lived fix.

Whoa!!! This place is expensive for what you get. At $ 25 a pop for dinner and $ 15 a pop for lunch, I’m expecting something a little more than thin slices of sashimi and sushi (sitting there for god knows how long), plenty of cooked and fried foods and a whole lot of stuff I don’t usually eat.
I really wanted to eat Asian. We walked in and I said I wanted to look around first before sitting down. I walked around twice making sure I knew what I was getting myself into, but then, flashbacks of Todai kept coming back to me and in the end, I decided that there was no way I could subject myself to eating here and we walked out.
They offer lobster apparently, but I noticed a sign with the exact times when lobster would be served and then diners were limited to ‘one piece only’. What’s up with that? I thought it was a buffet? For the same price at Kaisen Kaiten, you could probably be quite full for the same price, although it’s not a buffet, but then again, the cuts of fish aren’t unappetisingly «sweaty’ looking as the ones at Onami. That’s a dead give-​away that it’s been sitting out a while. The ‘Hawaiian salmon sashimi’ (which I think they mean ‘poki’) did not have that bright orangey fresh salmon coloring, but it had a little of that grayish hue to it. I think that was what completely turned me off to sitting down and actually putting that fish into my mouth.
Sorry, I did not eat here. But I did give it a good twice-​around and just couldn’t bring myself to consume anything, let alone spend THAT much money on it. It’s pretty sad when you look at something and feel you’re not able to eat it, and I was pretty hungry too.