Review: Minado - 3 1/2 Oinks

Restaurant: Minado
Location: Morris Plains, NJ; Little Ferry, NJ; NYC
Cuisine: Japanese
Cost: Moderate ($16.50 lunch/$27 dinner buffet - weekend prices)
Website: www.minado.com

Items Ordered: eat-all-you-can buffet

Comments: Struggling to load a barely used treadmill into a U-Haul truck on a Saturday morning was not my idea of fun. However, once we had finished loading the remaining pieces of furniture, one of the hungry guys suggested having a big lunch at Minado (Morris Plains), a much-talked about chain of Japanese buffet restaurants.

Had heard of Minado from different sets of friends who've tried the branches in Little Ferry (always mobbed) and NYC, and feedback had generally been positive. The branch at Morris Plains was huge and packed with mostly Asian clientele who came not only for the sushi, but also a wide range of hot Japanese dishes. Also counted ten different types of salad, of which I tried and liked two: soba salad and ceviche salad (very spicy!). Sushi wise, among the highlights of the varieties I sampled were the inari roll (sweet tofu with rice filling), salmon skill roll, volcano roll (hard to decipher what's inside but delicious), and crispy salmon roll (ate 6 pieces). One of the special rolls, seafood volcano, was liked by several members of our group but the taste wasn't to my liking.

After we stuffed our faces, it was tempting to take a nap but we remembered we had a truck to drive to the new house and unload stuff from.

Overall Rating: 3 1/2 Oinks (out of 5). A good choice for indulging your Japanese food craving. Quality of sushi is good, nothing great. Do not eat for 24 hours prior to your visit (jk).