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| - Reviews for this joint have been all over the map. Most people seem to love it, but there are a couple of severe haters. After my mental compilation of all those Yelpers, I came away with a joint that is the (former) Oysy 2.0.
Journey is everything I want from an Asian buffet; well maintained buffet and dining area, friendly & efficient service, massive variety of seafood, fresh sushi, traditional Chinese buffet favorites, a flat top grill, soft serve, Gremlin feet [ see photo for proof (or steroid-aided chickens that were seriously juicing)] and so much more.
The 1st thing that nails your noggin in its size. The place is massive. There are so many buffet stations that it's a bit overwhelming. You cannot take in everything at once -- if you try, you'll get an internal system error message (like I did).
As soon as I rebooted, I noticed there were two sushi chefs preparing it fresh at the buffet. I decided to survey the landscape because there are so many options there is NO way to get through everything. I passed many rows of sushi, sushi appropriate salads, a fresh salad bar, Chinese bakery, cream puffs, soft serve (and ice cream cups) many rows of Chinese dishes with a variety of crab, faux scallops and some imitation crab dishes, a "mostly" fried American buffet area, mediocre looking pizza and a flat top grill with an attending chef. This place is massive! Googly moogly.
I sampled pretty much everything I could have wanted except I had no room at all for ordering a dish from the flat top grill section.
The sushi... is very good. There are is a great selection of of sushi. I had about eight varieties myself including versions of uramaki, nigiri and western style. Although the pieces were smallish, they were cut adroitly, formed well and tasty. Of course it's not the primo quality you'll get at 1st rate sushi bars because it's an effin' cheap buffet.
The entries and salads, for the most part, featured good ingredients, were well-prepared and never sat too long. At many other Asian buffets in the area, dishes like General Tso's chicken become sticky without the fried crunch that fresh versions have. Not only did their chicken have the perfect texture, all of my pieces were white meat.
A couple entrees and seafood items were a little under-seasoned like the lo-mein and crayfish. No worries, folks. Journey includes any kind of sauce you could ever want at this type buffet (at least 20, I believe) and the several I had were exactly what I use at home or prepared perfectly (e.g. the dumpling sauce).
I was so ticked I had no room for the flat top grill station, but I couldn't trust my suddenly balloonish belly with another full plate. Next time.
Soft serve and the mini Chinese buffet cake squares were the perfect closer to my fattening feast. My family, a crew of devil's advocates, were all super duper happy with the meal and agreed that it is unquestionably the best buffet in the Madison area. We will be going back once every few months.
Service was perfect. We were seated immediately. The pleasant server nearly met us at our table. She came by and stopped several times for immediate dish clearing and beverage refills without any of us even having to ask.
I went to Oysy at least six times when it was open. It is better than Oysy ever was in every conceivable respect and measure (including the price, strangely enough).
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Journey except for their price points. I have no idea how they can make money charging south of $13 for dinner. It would be a value at $19.95 per person.
Tips:
When you are at an Asian buffet and see scallops uniformed size and batter-fried, rest assured they are not real scallops.
Do not expect the crab to be "real" crab meat when it is mixed with cheese and put in a crab shell or in anything that it can be concealed. It's a "trick" performed at almost every Chinese buffet.
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