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Todai's buffet line offers all you can eat; it's what you can eat that offers a twist in its menu.
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 2002
TAMPA -- By now the word is out among buffet hounds: There's a new groaning board in town, and this one's different. It's not inexpensive, but it's Japanese and boasts lots of seafood and even sushi.
Todai is an all-you-can-eat affair -- one couple had plates spilling over settings for six when I left at closing time the other night -- but it aims for more.
Todai, tucked away on the ground floor of the mall near Nordstrom's, is not a boorish Middle American perversion of a noble Asian tradition. No, Todai comes out of thoroughly modern, postgeisha Pacific pop culture in which America and Asia are equally complicit.
Our Todai is 20th in a chain heavily anchored in Asian-American suburbs of Los Angeles. Todai Boy, a yellow anthropomorphic lighthouse available as a plush toy or a sport water bottle, was commissioned from the same artist who came up with Hello Kitty for Sanrio (which has its own store at International Plaza).
The result is an American institution modified for a new world order, where restaurants are theme parks, kids eat raw fish, and prices have topped $20 a person.
Todai takes smart innovations from the latest Chinese buffets, serving a big variety in frequent small batches. It will be most closely compared to the slightly less expensive Krazy Buffet, but Todai's space is more open and the offerings a touch more upscale.
Yet you're still in a room of lunchroom tables facing a heaping display of fresh shrimp, crab legs and fresh fruit in front and 150-foot counters lined with seafood in the distance.
Don't worry about where to start. I asked each time, and servers just waved their hands generously. Wherever.
So let me steer you to the good stuff. Head to the far end of the room. Two of the best items in the place are right here on the left, roast chicken with crispy skin and juicy flesh and spicy shell-on shrimp.
You'll also find pretty good tempura vegetables and the day's hot specials, which can include great choices like boiled crawfish, brilliantly fresh baby bok choy, conch with broccoli and mushrooms or so-so noodles and fried rice. Filet mignon with Asian vegetables may be overstated, but the beef beat most pepper steak.
Next you'll find more elaborate confections, including one that doesn't work: the signature stuffed broiled lobster in split shells. I liked the buttery herb stuffing, hated the tough, stringy meat.
Last is the noodle corner, my most disappointing station, because a noodle shop with this loveliest of fast foods is the one thing I most wish Los Angeles would export here.
Todai ruins it for me by putting tempura shrimp and garnish on the noodles and then pouring broth on top, turning the tempura shrimp into a soft mash. I like it with the shrimp added last for a contrast in textures; this made me want to eat the display bowl of plastic food instead. Nearby creamy lobster soup with a hint of sherry was quite a treat.
Go back to the rear and start on the right and you'll be at the cold, traditional starters: salads, shellfish and sushi. Best of the salads is bright seaweed and sesame seeds and vinegary crab salads. Cold mussels and clams were best; oysters were dull, not bad but just lifeless. (I'd like them better ice-cold.) I found the crab legs back at the first station, surprisingly meaty, not mushy, and better than the cocktail shrimp.
The sushi selection is large, varied and surprisingly handsome, more than three dozen choices of rolls, ngiri and gunkan and even a bit of the most expensive sashimi. The timid can have California rolls, but the adventurous can have jellyfish, sea clam or my favorite, preciously slippery uni (sea urchin roe). If it's not first-rate firm, it's darn good.
The failure on this side is the hand roll station, another missed opportunity for razzle dazzle. During my visit, the hand roll guy couldn't figure out how to make the nori cone stick together, let alone shine.
Yet right next to that, Todai cooks turned out flawless crepes to order in a dessert section that looks like a patisserie lineup. There are cute (and good) little creme brulees, cream puffs, strudels and endless cakes and mousses the size of petits fours, the most stylish and unexpected treats on the line.
You can wash this down with beer, wine, sake or tea, but skip the iced green tea. The taste is so pure it's absent.
If you prefer to be waited on, treasure tranquility and believe Japanese food should be eaten in a Zen garden, the food here is not good enough to win you over. Walking through a field of occupied or leftover-littered tables will be too much like a cocktail party in a school lunchroom.
If the hubbub doesn't bother you, Todai's a fair deal, if not a gourmet steal. Beside, buffets do have advantages: Kids like the fun and quickness, the finicky can pick and choose exactly what goes on the plate, no servers intimidate or mislead you, and you can eat an endless assortment -- and an endless amount. While Todai's price is high, a $20 bill disappears quickly at a traditional sushi bar too.
But with Todai, you get a taste of tomorrow.
International Plaza, 2223 N West Shore Blvd., Tampa
Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 11:45 to 2:45 weekends. Dinner, 5:30 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 5:30 to 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday; 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Reservations: Accepted. Credit cards: Most major.
Details: No smoking; beer, wine, sake served.
Prices: Lunch, $12.95 to $14.95; dinner, $22.95 to $23.95. Prices lower on weekdays; discounts for children and seniors.