IchiUmi

Its good, but not that really good, hence the 4 stars. Enjoyed the kalbi and uni. Had a great time.

I agree with the Unilocal reviewers’ average rating of between 3 and 4 stars.
TIP: Check out the IchiUmi prices on their website for the exact days and times you are going, because the prices do vary depending on when you are going. All drinks such as coffee, soda, and wine/​beer is extra. We paid $ 30 each for weekend lunch, including the tax and 9% fee. Apparently you can get lobster made for you if you want to pay more.
One small service disappointment: Our server did go out of her way to tell us that a tip is not included and is optional. But the signage on the table, and even the bill, and when we asked the host on the way in, all noted that we should not tip.
We had a selection of sushi (no sashimi), which was good but not really in the great category. But the selction of rolls and sushi is very high, from tuna to fluke to salmon, etc. So if you are not expecting it to be the highest grade possible, you will probably be okay with it.
The hot foods had a large assortment. One of the things I liked the most was the Kalbi Beef. Though when I went for more, that was already gone. But it was delicious. I believe this places changes its items very often so what you get one time may be replaced with something entirely different another.
They had oysters, clams, vegetables, fried crab, and an asortment of cooked fish (from salmon to skate). Enjoyed all of that.
Things we didn’t see at lunch… no smoked salmon, snow crab, or piles of cooked shrimp. Maybe they have some of these higher-​end items at dinner when the prices are higher. Not sure.
The deserts were a bit lacking but there is ice cream, fruit, basic cookies, and some very small desert slices/​squares. For our lunch, there were no higher-​end deserts such as crème brulle, chocolate, chocolate covered strawberries, or that sort of thing. The did have sliced strawberries. The dessert was adequate but did not blow us away. For dinner time, I see in other Unilocal reviews that they did have crème brulle, brownies, etc.
All in all, it WAS worth going to but is not a fine dining experience. It’s a busy buffet with some good food and some mediocre food.
They must use some MSG in the food, as I can taste that now, but it’s not as overbearing as many places that I have been in Chinatown. They should eliminate that if they do use it because the taste lingers and shouldn’t be necessary to make food taste good.
Our server did not bring hot towels at the end of our meal, as other viewers noted that they received. And they should not be asking us to tip on top of the mandatory 9% fee. There should be a limit.

The foods was ok. But, under the word «buffet» they should not stop serving food. At first, I feel so great with the waiter. They always clean the dishes, but at the end, he tried to ask for tips, even though he did say it directly. When he takes the receipt back (without asking any question) and places it back on the table again because there is no cash there yet. That’s so horrible.

If you like sushi and seafood/​meat and can eat a lot, this is a great place and value for the money, especially in NY. Quality of food seems pretty good although flavor of food wasn’t anything special. Quite blend in general but sushi is OK. If I were you, just stick to sushi/​rolls and have other dishes at nearby Koreantown restaurants. Then, you will get your money worth every penny.

Was in Manhattan for work, and being a Japanese food lover, decided to try this place, very disappointed. Tried a couple of the grilled chicken dishes, both were extremely dry and no flavor. The sushi/​sashimi, while there is a good selection, was passable. Honestly think I’ve had much better at local Duane Reade food counter.
Because it wasn’t bad enough yet, I tried a clam dish they had, could not even eat it. One small bite tasted extremely old, didn’t need to risk it.
For the price, expected much better than this, definitely won’t be back.

Came here for lunch. Only felt that the selection was okay. I felt that there was more cooked food items than sushi. All the sushi items kinda tasted and looked the same. The desserts were bland and dry. Only good thing to get was the green tea ice cream. But a pretty decent price for the amount of food you can get. $ 20 for lunch. Tip: ask the sushi guy to make you hand rolls. Those aren’t put out, must be requested.

Beware of the 9% administrative fee on top of the bill and tax which suppose to mean tipping is optional. However, waitess will still come over and fool you saying tips is not included. So i end up paying 8.875%tax, 9% admin fees and 15% of tips on top of the bill, When i complained to the manager, he said she just said tips is not included, she didnt really ask for a tip right. Well too bad, you just lost a loyal customer !

IchiUmi had the most reviews with the same amount of stars as many other AYCE sushi/​hot good buffets so it seemed like the best place to start my list here.
Sat/​Sun/​holiday lunch is $ 24.95, no tipping at this establishment but a 9% admin fee and tax are tacked onto your final bill.
As many other Unilocalers have described, the offerings go down a mile long. Get your steps in, baby, because your waistline will sure expand.
There were so many types of nigiri offered tried most of them: mackerel, Spanish mackerel, tuna, salmon, fluke, tilapia, uni, spicy oyster, salmon skin, red snapper, hamachi. Let’s just say they all tasted the same, like nothing. The salmon was slightly buttery, the uni (I lucked out and got two that looked fine, all the others looked discolored) was okay. The mackerels didn’t offer the salty yet sweet mouth feels and all the other nigiri just didn’t have anything going.
The rolls were all really weird, some contained pineapple, the tuna was bloody red (maybe it was the «spicy» sauce, there was a good amount of rice on every rolls, and there were also tuna rolls that were made of the canned tuna.
The cold foods like salads, baby bok choy with mushrooms, and small bowls of pickled goods and also seaweed salad were great.
I didn’t try the ramen bar but it looked mediocre. The yakitori/​fried goods all looked really greasy. The fried chicken yakitori and the breaded deep fried oysters all tasted like they needed to change the oil in their deep fryer.
The hot foods like noodles, pork belly, salmon/​flounder/​mushroom basa, fried chicken, sirloin, dungeness crab, kalbi, etc were pretty good.
The dessert selection included lots of fresh fruit, an assortment of cookies, ice cream (mango and red bean when I was there), and also an assortment of pretty, but still frozen cakes.
The restaurant was clean. I didn’t visit the bathroom. Dishes were removed promptly and when you get the bill the entire table gets a hot towel! That hot towel at the end really won me over in brownie points. No tipping but our plates are removed, drinks filled, and a hot towel individually handed to you.
I’ll admit the food was pretty mediocre, won’t come back because I’m more for the sushi and the sushi simply wasn’t any good, but the experience was good. Definitely go when its busy so the food gets replaced often.

Love this place!
Don’t you know that cats love sushi?
It is a great idea to get here on time. By on time I mean when the buffet begins. Don’t come in the last hour of the buffet because they will be reducing their output the closer to closing. You should note that food waste is a big deal to some people in the world. Try not to leave excess food on your plate, it is seen as disrespectful to not finish. The staff at Ichiumi will not make you feel uncomfortable or point this out to you. So just take it from me if you want to be courteous. If buffet is 12pm-​3pm the latest I will arrive is 1pm.
The sushi selection is great, my spouse is crazy about the selection. We love to have a few plates of food and also enjoy the many small desserts. I love having the opportunity to try all the cooked seafood. They also have soups and fresh lobster if you would like to put an end to the tank life for one of them!!!
I experience no cons in my many visits to the restaurant and have only come for buffet.
Some people have made complaints about tips. That’s a non-​issue for me. The prices are more than reasonable for the quality of food as well as the variety. The setting is comfortable, spacious, and calm.
Basically one of our favorite places to eat!
(=^･･^)y＝

My friend Lisa wanted to come here for sushi. We had a huge sushi, sashimi phase so of course it only makes sense to go to an AYCE! Both times we went for lunch cause dinner was just a tad pricey for practically the same types of food so we stuck with lunch.
First experience here was not bad, Awesome waiter. Very attentive to our drinks and dirty plates. Def a well deserved tip at the end.
Some foods do need to be stocked a little more. or have more pieces such as salmon sushi — such a popular demand and I can see why: D!
Not a fan of tempura… was super bland but whatever floats your boat I suppose. My friend tried the oysters (i was hesitant after hearing about food poisoning) but she survived. So I guess it’s safe?
I would come back for the dessert. The actual food didn’t impress me much & I’m not a picky person either.

Really bad experience.
This place has been around for a while a I think they have taken their success for granted. Went here recently with a few friends and was really disappointed. At first glance this is everything you could ask for in the city, huge hot food selection, decent sushi spread, fair prices and in the heart of Manhattan.
I found the hot food dishes although tasty to be consistently not hot enough they were barely above room temperature which pretty gross. The women that were supposed to be working the soup station seemed annoyed anytime i tried to get soup which was pretty frustrating.
The sushi selection is «large» but you won’t find many specialty rolls here they are all super basic which was a bit disappointing.
The reason this place gets a one star has less to do with the food temperature and lame sushi selection and more to do with the management.
The restaurant closes at 3 to change over to dinner. I won’t attempt to argue this. Although ridiculous, it’s there policy… fine. My problem is that at about 1:45 I noticed that they stopped refilling the hot foods and the deserts were running really low, I assumed they were just falling behind and would be refilled soon. Around 2 PM the server informed my group the restaurant closes at 3. We all looked at each other befuddle as to why he was telling us this, that’s an hour from now. So I got up to grab my last plate of desert of which there was basically nothing left so I went to our server and asked him when they would be refilling it. He stated «they stop refilling at 2:30» so I take out my phone, it was 2:10. What the heck? So I went to manage and his response was «well what do you want and I’ll go get it for you». I thought he was joking. I was honestly tempted not to sign my bill. I have not been this frustrated/​annoyed in a restaurant in a long time.
Spend the extra few dollars and check out some other buffet.
Don’t go here

The buffet that stops serving food!
My friends and I went to this buffet over the weekend to enjoy some quality food but was mistaken.
We made a reservation at 1:00pm and when we got there we were seated promptly and able to start eating. There was a large selection of hot food and cold food to choose from like sushi etc. Out the food that was good here was crab cakes, Rib tips, and fried oysters, and some of the sushi rolls but they were pretty basic. The problem was the hot food was not hot and at about 1:45 they stopped bringing out more hot food. When 2:00pm came around the waiter came to our table to let us know they are closing at 3pm which is 1hr away that is ridiculous to say that to us so early in advance. At 2:15 pm I went to get desert and it was empty there were no deserts in sight. When we asked about it they said at 2:30pm they stop brining out desert but it wasn’t 2:30pm haha this was ridiculous. They eventually brought out more desert after the request. In addition We never got our water refilled and the one time I asked the brought a pitched and slammed it on the table.
In short: The service here all around was terrible and the food was mediocre

Mussels were bad, i meant, really really bad; raw oysters were A-​Ok, sashimi and sushi options were lacking, nothing really had impressed me. I had enjoyed the grilled oysters, the chilled fish livers, abalone congee (porridge/​rice soup) and the desserts, and the honey dew melon was super duper sweet, which was all that I could remember out of this place. Prices were OK; $ 170 for four (4) adults. Table turnover was quick; we had waited only a couple of minutes to be seated on a busy Saturday night.

Ichiumi has been a well-​known establishment that serves you all-​you-​can-​eat Japanese food across all spectrums. Unfortunately, this place has gone downhill pretty hard. I remember once upon a time they had fresh sashimi, hand rolls upon your request, an server that scoops out ice cream for you, and a bigger selection of sushi. Sadly, this is all gone now. A girlfriend and I was really craving sushi one evening and wanted to see if ichiumi have improved since our last visit. Our consensus: It did not.
The place was pretty dead for dinner. However, even if the lack of patrons, there seem to be a lack of sushi as well. Almost half of the sushi plates on the buffet line was empty. The sashimi section? Don’t get me started on that. It was pretty sad to look at and frankly I just skipped it (even though the main reason I came here was to get some sashimi). The raw bar with the oysters was alright. The workers made sure there was always a few pieces available. The other sections (salad bar and cooked food) was pretty well-​stocked and wasn’t as bad as the raw section of the buffet.
The reviews talked about how inattentive the servers are. We actually did not see that during our time here. The waiters kept on refilling our tea and taking away empty plates promptly.
I understand that you pay for what you get and at an AYCE, you don’t get quality sushi. However, I wish I was able to eat a bit more sashimi (instead of none). Their main selling point is unlimited but you can’t have unlimited when there is barely any. This will probably be my last visit here because I do not see them resurrecting as the buffet that they once was before.

«There’s so much food, some of it has to be amazing, right?» It’s this thought that has caused me to push «mute» on my screaming internal foodie troll anytime I’ve entered an Asian food buffet. And Ichiumi is not just any Asian buffet, it’s a SUSHI buffet. More is not usually better, unless it’s Texas De Brazil. Fortunately, in the case of Ichiumi, the troll was only partly right. It took me many of plates of colorful unknown food items to find the gold. But, it was there.
The Ichiumi buffet is freakishly long. Like, New York long. You literally can’t see one end from the other. Maybe it’s a metaphor for New York. Well, no. Cuz, most of the food I tried here was almossstt good and nearrrllyy warm. I really don’t like wasting food. But, there was just no possible way to predict what some of this would taste like by looking at it. So, test plates stacked up on my table.
A chapter of this review should be titled «Dannnggg that fish is looking at me, and I didn’t have the balls to eat it!!» But, I did try lots of raw fish and fried unidentified. I lack the vocabulary to name it all. But, I generally enjoyed the hunt and the overall experience. Service was attentive and polite. and the desserts were good.
True sushi lovers will be disappointed by the quality of food here. But, if you don’t mind sacrificing some quality to enjoy quantity, come hungry. Prices are lowest during weekday lunches at $ 18.95 per person, and climb over $ 30 at dinnertime.

A sushi lovers dream, a restricted eaters nightmare. Ichiumi is a very expensive all you can eat buffet which is mostly sushi and food that gives me nightmares. There are more types of sushi than you could ever imagine. If you’re not a sushi fan, do NOT come here. The other food is a mix of strange Japanese food and random stuff thrown in a pot. The only thing I ate there was white rice. Their desserts are gross! The wait staff is very helpful and respectful. I believe the place breaks many health code violations as you can see how unsanitary it is from the serving bar. 2 stars for their wise variety of sushi.

The place is clean and big, food is pretty fresh, especially the seafood. A lot of options. Don’t miss the ice cream section! Many people don’t see it. Lol the green tea and red bean ice cream are really good.
We sit close to the door, the waiter Ken who served us is really rude! Throughout all our eating time, he never say a polite word. Bw 3−5pm is their closing time. So around 2:30, he came to our table and give us the bill said” u can eat till 3 but u HAVE TO pay in 10 mins!” with impolite grumpy tone. We ordered water twice from him, he’s response was WAIT. So had to order from another waiter, and get it immediately. While we were talking without noticing, this waiter Ken took away our plates that there are food we haven’t finished without asking.
I recommend go this place from Monday to Thursday for lunch. We went there on Sunday for lunch, the bill in the end will be almost 30 for each.

Made a 7:30PM reservation through Unilocal at 5PM yesterday. Came in to IchiUmi and got seated at exactly 7:25. I was pretty impressed because it was packed with people last night.
At first glance, it seemed like they served a decent variety of food. I was craving sushi so I tried several rolls as well as the sashimi. They were alright. The sushi rice didn’t taste too fresh. I was also looking forward to some eel rolls but they served no eel whatsoever. I was pretty bummed out but I went ahead and tried the other foods they had to offer.
Overall, the food was decent. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they served Lychee in the fruit section and even delicious green tea ice cream in the fridge. This ended my meal with a bang.
The only real issue that occurred was processing the payment for our bill took half an hour which was pretty ridiculous. Not sure what took so long but at least we were full and satisfied. I would come back once in a while just to splurge but it’s no joke that this place is expensive.

Decent selection, typical buffet quality.
Christmas Eve was not considered a holiday so we stopped by for lunch when in the neighborhood.
Mixture of Japanese and Korean, all Americanized. Standouts were the pork belly, mussels, kalbi, tuna and salmon grilled skewers, smoked fish, and the small tofu side dish. Sushi selection/​quality wasn’t great at all and most weren’t even chilled.
No terribly surprising considering the mass number of people they serve and how most food would be gone minutes after a fresh plate is loaded… The waiters were also too rushed and overwhelmed to really pay attention to their tables. Be prepared to really wait a while before you get your check and then even longer to pay. Tip: ask for the check ¾ through your meal and just keep eating after you’ve paid. Seriously.

Officially one of my favorite buffets in NY! Ichi Umi has existed in midtown Manhattan for quite a bit of time, but I had never gotten around to coming here. In all of the years I missed out on Ichi Umi, I had the chance to try out other buffets in NYC, most of them in Queens/​Long Island and Ichi Umi ranks right up there with my favorites.
We came here for a Friday night dinner buffet at 7:30pm and the restaurant was crowded, as expected. Anyone thinking about coming for dinner from 6−8pm should absolutely make reservations. Without reservations during the prime time dinner hours, the wait might be long, however the crowd did disperse around 8:30−9pm when a majority of customers were done. We arrived a bit earlier than our reservation and I noticed the large group of people waiting to be seated. It was like everyone was waiting for their turn to be on The Price is Right. Who were the next lucky ones to come on down!!!
Anyhow, since we were only a party of 2, they sat us down shortly after we arrived. While this mass of people waited for their turn to be called, I felt we were being led to this ‘promise land’. Once inside, I immediately noticed the much-​hyped ridiculously long buffet bar! The buffet was every inch as long I read about at about a city block long! It was a great sight for my hungry stomach!
As with all buffets, the concept was simple here —– There were no rules, no restrictions and eat as much food as you can from the buffet! On the night we went there was a lobster special for an additional $ 9.95, but with the buffet already being pricey at $ 34.95/person, we passed on the lobster. We were asked for our beverage of choice by the waitress and began our adventure down the buffet.
The cold foods were kept towards the end of the buffet, while the hot foods were at the beginning. The sashimi, sushi and sushi rolls selection was excellent! Definitely some of the best variety I had ever seen! They had a lot of different types of fish to choose from and they all looked fresh. In addition to the sushi, there were also salads, shrimp, oysters, clams and misc seafood in the cold foods section. The one disappointment we had was that there were no snow crabs. For a buffet this pricey we thought it would have been a lock for them to serve that here, but no luck.
The hot foods were good and there was plenty to choose from as well. I saw blue crabs, fried fish, kalbi, fried oysters, mussels, chicken wings, fried pancakes, kababs, etc, etc, etc. Although there was quite a lot of food, I felt I was almost eating the same things over again. Somehow, the hot foods weren’t as satisfying as I would have liked still.
The dessert was not bad and I also felt the variety was better than average. There were cups of ice cream (green tea, red bean, mango) and plenty of sweets to choose from, such as, tiramisu, cheesecake, brownies, crème brulee and many more pastries.
Like I said, the food is good and there’s plenty to choose from. The buffet is a bit pricey, since it’s in the city, but I think it should be expected by all customers based on the location. I’m not sure what they serve for lunch, but it’s significantly cheaper at half of the price so I think that would be a great starting point for first timers to gauge whether they would like it. To sum it up, would I come here again? Hell yes!

This buffet isn’t bad at all. It was clean and bright and had a lot of choices! Let me just say, OYSTERS. Oysters. Oysters. Oysters. I would seriously come here just for unlimited oysters.
They have tons of options (besides oysters haha) and never had to wait for them to restock. Mind you, this place was pretty busy, yet nothing was empty.
I wished they had a better dessert buffet, but this place still had good options. I would definitely come back again.

Something between a 2 and a 3. 18.95 for a lunch buffet is a bit pricey but for what there is, it isn’t that bad.
Drinks range from 2 bucks to a lot more (for alcohol obv.)
What I Don’t Recommend
Uni: Squishy, texture/​flavor is a bit off
Kalbi: Very fatty
What I semi-​recommend
Tuna: tastes a bit frozen but not bad
The banchan isn’t bad either
Green tea ice cream: While the flavor is quite good (nice and bitter,) it was heavily freezer burned and super hard and I was there quite early.
What is OK:
Ankimo/​monkfish live: A bit fishier than normal but not bad
Salmon: not bad
What I Recommend
Not much, maybe the tuna/​salmon kebobs and the bbq eel isn’t bad either.
The skewer station in other words has the best food and if you want to make a meal out of this stuff, the deal is OK. As the majority of stuff isn’t amazing, I guess I’ll go with a mid 2. 2.4.

Came here and there was only a 10 minute wait on a Saturday night. The seating area is huge here so they can definitely accommodate a lot of people. The waitress and the service here was good. They always cleaned the table. And came to ask if we wanted drinks. And checked on us.
The food was just mediocre. The cooked food is a lot better than the raw sushi. The sushi here is not that good. There was a ton of rice and he fish is not fresh. The tuna sashimi was definitely not a dark red color and was starting to look pale. It was depressing the quality of the food. However the cooked food made up for it. With varieties of kalbi. Chicken teriyaki. Crab cakes and mussels and even crepes.

At first glance when you see the preview of the food, you’ll think, «What a grand selection.» Sushi, sashimi, uni, snow crab legs. The works. But once you eat it, the story completely changes.
The only thing great about this place is the unlimited uni you eat. The snow crab legs are in abundance. The watermelon is sweet and plentiful.
The bad thing is everything else. The salmon sashimi was served frozen. The rice was inedible. Now I know why sushi chefs believe the main star is the rice and not the fish. As good as the uni was, the dense, disgusting sticky rice ruined it. Same goes for the other sushi.
The hot food was bland and the kalbi was over cooked leaving it dry. Everything else we grabbed ended up being stuck underneath tissue and oyster shells. Which wasn’t shucked well either. Eh. Never again.

We are regulars at this location and it is our favorite buffet-​style restaurant in the city! We are always treated good and with respect here (especially the hosts and hostesses who always greet us).
They have a large assortment of food; our go-​to dishes are always the sushi, uni, sashimi, soups, fruits, dessert and ice cream. We sometimes order lobster, wine or other alcoholic beverages. The price is good, especially for all-​you-​can-​eat.
I only have a couple critiques: 1) sometimes our waiter is MIA when we need our water refilled, 2) the uni is always gone as soon as it is replenished; we have to keep a close eye on it and we feel like hunters, 3) when we want to get ice cream, the server is often MIA and then we have to serve ourselves although technically we are not allowed. However, I noticed recently that they have ice cream already scooped and placed in the freezer for customers to pick up.
Overall, we will be back here again eventually!

Attention, Le prix du buffet passé de 18 à 31 $, hors boisson, taxe et … Service le soir. Ce n’est plus du tout le même rapport qualité/​prix et … Rien n’est indiqué. Passez votre chemin ou allez y a midi.

Fresh food, original, not too crowded, and not too expensive

Japanisches (??) oder asiatisches Buffet mit viel Sushi und ausgefallenem Zeug.
Das Sushi fanden wir mittelmäßig, den Rest so naja. Insgesamt ist das ganze nicht billig und ich würde empfehlen für den Preis lieber woanders a la carte zu bestellen.
Zudem kommen lange lange Wartezeiten bevor man rein darf und ein ziemlich unfreundlicher Service.