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| - Obviously trying to judge a restaurant is a very subjective thing to do. What I think is good, or great for that matter, you may think is terrible! In my 50+ years of life I've had the opportunity to eat at many so called 'Chinese buffets' from the left coast to the right coast and even one in Pittsburgh.
I was very excited when Tokyo Grill opened in the University City area and the first couple of times I ate there I was very pleased, especially with the sushi bar - and I'm picky about my sushi.
On a scale from 1 to 10 as restaurants go, in my mind most Chinese buffets fall somewhere between a 4, 5, or 6, and basically have the same menu items - give or take a few oddball items. Maybe only one or two I can remember in the past would I rate higher, Chen's Bistro when they first opened up was excellent, and Ding Hall back in the 70's (any native Charlotteans left out there remember that one?).
Because of the sushi bar this one always rated a solid 6 or 6.5 in my opinion. Today, after stopping by Tokyo at about 12:45 to eat lunch, I would have to say it has slipped back to a 4. I didn't have the sushi today, but if the overall cleanliness of the restaurant is any indication of the sushi bar I'm glad I passed. And whatever possessed the owners to put carpet in a high traffic flow/high turnover restaurant like this I'll never know. It looks like they haven't bothered to clean it since they opened - yuck!
This restaurant in my mind is now nothing more than a 'stuff-n-puke', a good place to stuff your pumpkin with mediocre food and leave miserable!
I'm not here to recommend another Chinese buffet, but without mentioning a name there's another one right up the road across the street from the Hilton that is much better, at least for now. But who knows, a year from now it'll probably suck too!
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