I go there very often, BUT! I must say, they have good and bad days.
I recommend not going around 4 430 because the sushi guys go on lunch ALL TOGETHER which is dumb, at leat one should stay behind.
Seafood is not all that great, I would call ahead of time to make sure they have what you like but I feel like I have to run and fight for my food
Best sushi I know but not many food choices
For a buffet its OK. The customer service is good. But when I went to my friend's birthday last year this place was jam packed. I enjoy the sushi portion of the buffet, its good enough. I also took my mom here and she seems to enjoy it. I like it here but I try to come here when its not so busy.
Review Source:I'm pretty surprised to see only three stars on this place. I had lunch here a few weeks ago with a co-worker and we both though it was pretty solid, at least for a Chinese buffet.
If you ask me, the food at every Americanized Chinese Buffet is pretty much the same and most of the food seems to come from the same supplier. The variable seems to be the size of the buffet and the qualifier is the temperature of the food. With that in mind, I thought this place was pretty good.
I didn't have any of the sushi during my visit, but it looked pretty good and above average for a CB to be serving. My father-in-law also claims the sushi is pretty good.
Price is typical CB pricing. I'd go back here if I was in the area.
Every time we come here there's some new rule to nickle and dime you to death. You have to battle for the lunch pricing if you arrive anywhere near the cutoff, they charge dinner prices all weekend but don't serve dinner items of fully stock the sushi, and now they won't punch cards on weekends. I pay MORE for the same slim buffet but get LESS? If I have a punch card that means I am a repeat customer and I should be VALUED, not rejected. No one can even use those cards anyway because the hours they are accepted are incredibly restricting. TERRIBLE business model, 98 Lbs. Get a clue, when I cash in a card I bring more paying customers. The sushi trays are perpetually barren it takes ten minutes to get a glass of water, the main hostess is a grade A #%@!, and when they do make sushi it is rarely actual fish and rice, instead they serve up slab after slab of the same old boring rolls for you Round Eyes to gobble up and the only thing I like is the one male waiter who is working very hard on his English and is a diligent, attentive and an awesome server. Â Okay, I like two things, because Sunday after church it is full of really hot young Russian girls. This place is convenient for me but I'm not coming back. (8 Lbs., I've had enough of your abuse. It's honestly a bit of a rip off and the owner clearly disdains his customers.
Review Source:This is a really expensive buffet. I tried it couple times because I came along with bunch of friends. It doesn't seem the foods have any improve or special. The sushi might be worth in the buffet but lately, they in purpose cutting down serving the sushi, so the customers will moved to eat other dishes.
The negative side that stopped me returning to this buffet is : price and services. I found there were other cheaper buffet which almost served the same amount of foods. About the services, it is really slow. When I saw them refilling the foods, they were "throwing" the new foods into the old foods and mixed it together, like how you throwing foods to the pigs. It looks like they were serving pigs instead of human being. Â We paid for that, and they don't even serve the foods properly.
I use to love going there, then the price went up , but heck it was still really good..... then there was the lack of foods... Â these days if you're going for the shu shi, get there early otherwise it'll run out and instead of 4 guys doing it , it might be just 2 so, they're slow and can't keep up with the amount of people there .
this use to be a great buffet place for shu shi, but ever since they raise the price and lower their standards , it's just not the same place.. so i rather go to other place instead of forking over big money and having to wait ... and wait....
This is my go-to chinese buffet. For an all you-can-eat deal, the sushi is surprisingly serviceable. You can pretty much skip all the chinese food except the seafood specials (crab legs, lobster or crawfish, depending on the night). I usually just camp out by the sushi station most of the time I'm here.
Pro tip? Go during dinner rush. The buffet starts looking a little sad toward the end of the night.
The place was over crowded for Sunday night dinner. The buffet was a mess with food everywhere, cross contaminating each other. The sushi was slow in coming out, with people waiting in line for subpar fish. I was the only person in my group to eat the crawfish. And unfortunately got sick as well, was vomiting all night! There are better and cleaner Chinese buffets. Will not go back to this place.
Review Source:Ok, so this place is just that, ok.
I will need to try it again at some point, but here's my initial review.
I went for the lunch buffet (to go). As soon as I opened the door my olfactory senses were blasted with the funk of old seafood. Now, I love seafood but this was a bad smell. I proceeded to obtain my buffet to-go box and head to the back. I pass the sushi cause I just don't trust it given that smell. I move on to the buffet where you have your choice of this chicken dish or that chicken dish or this other chicken dish. OR this seafood dish. No beef to be seen.
I filled my box to the brim with random things and leave. Good part - only 7.50!!
The food itself was pallatable, save the cream cheese puffs. They were just weird. Odd flavoring in thecream cheese and the shell was too thick. Just weird.
I give it 2 stars cause it was just meh. I'll give it one more try on another day. Perhaps I'll be brave and try the sushi. Perhaps they'll be brave and get an odor filtration system.
Perhaps
The "Meh" in the 2 star description just about sums it up. I don't remember anything here being particularly good. It wasn't terrible, just not memorable. The sushi looked a little scary and the other buffet food was just forgettable. There is nothing here that makes me want to go back. There are plenty of other Chinese buffets that I actually crave things from, I'll stick with those.
Review Source:Wow! Â I don't understand seeing reviews that say this place is expensive. Â Really. Â $15 for dinner, includes all you can eat crab legs, crawfish, mussels, octopus, sushi and much more. Â If you are a seafood lover (more importantly a shellfish lover), you WILL get your money's worth. Â Buffet price includes choice of drink, I had the hot tea and it went well with my massive meal. Â I cannot wait to come back on a night that is not so busy. Â They were out of crab legs most of the night that I visited, so I plan on visiting on a weeknight/non holiday next time. Â I will be back!
Review Source:This is actually a nice buffet. It is a bit more expensive than most, but there is a nice variety. I am not a fan of Chinese buffets in general because I typically can't identify what the meat is in my stir-fry's and often experience an afternoon of running to the bathroom! I have visited this place twice and both times I felt I got my money's worth and liked everything I had, especially the sushi. I don't think they use much fish, probably because of the expense, but the sushi is fresh, beautifully presented with lots of variety. If you are just looking for a place where you can try a bit of everything, it's a good choice. The service is great, as they keep your dishes picked up and are very sweet. We don't always tip at buffets, but we felt our server deserved it! Btw, don't let the exterior deceive you. Looks like a dump on the outside, but very nicely appointed on the inside!
Review Source:I come from a large Chinese family, and so it's often less of a headache (both in terms of the time it takes to make ordering decisions and the actual cost of the meal) to go to a Chinese buffet than to go to a traditional sit-down Chinese restaurant. Â That being said, this review is given in context of knowing what to expect from a Chinese buffet, having visited a large number of them in the past few years.
98 Pounds is one of the nicest looking Chinese buffets in the Twin Cities area...but that means it doesn't come without a cost. Â Although the food here is fairly good (particularly the sushi selection), the price for a meal is extremely expensive for a Chinese buffet, and it's not really worth breaking the bank to eat here when there are plenty of other restaurants that are comparable, if not better (I suggest Teppanyaki Grill in Minneapolis and Grand City Buffet in St. Louis Park). Â
Two things that 98 Pounds boasts:
(1) Â Punch-card for free meals...but I must warn you that the management is really strict about the "proper" use of the punch-card (i.e. not sharing the same punch-card among people) Â
(2) Â Dim sum buffet on Saturday afternoons. Â This is the secret gem of this place, though, beware that it doesn't seem to be that much of a secret to the hoards of regulars who are very aggressive when it comes to getting what they want, when they want it.
I would not particularly recommend this place, though, I wouldn't discourage a visit either.
Disgusting...that is, if you have any taste buds or discriminating bones in your body! Do NOT go there expecting anything that resembles either true sushi (even buffet quality) or even mediocre Americanized Chinese food! For reals...
My hubby and I made the long trek down to Bloomington to check this place out, but soon regretted even the gas money it took us to get there. The sushi is unidentifiable, as most of the items are odd mixtures of random seafood and sauce (be it Sriracha, mayo, or cream cheese). They will put out an occasional platter of nigiri or sashimi (ours happened to be frozen), but the vultures will quickly grab that low quality stuff right up!
The cooked items were disappointing for being food that you would normally feel guilty eating because it is so unhealthy for you, but the caveat is -- it just doesn't taste good, so isn't even worth the calories! Save your money for real sushi or even take out from your local mom and pop Chinese restaurant.
P.S. The Saturday night buffet cost was $17 per adult.
I don't know if I have ever been to an "amazing" buffet. I lower my expectation for Chinese buffets.
I have been to 98 Pounds three times now, the past two times thanks to a Groupon-like deal. It is more expensive than your typical Chinese lunch buffet, but it does hav a nice variety and overall higher quality than I usually find.
Each time I visited was for lunch on a weekday, and each time the restaurant has been busy. I was surprised by how busy it was at 1 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon.
The food is better than your typical Chinese buffet. There was a variety of sushi, and it was delicious. There's a decent variety of other entrees, and most of it is fresh and tasty.
Four stars is as high as I would ever rate a Chinese buffet, and this one comes close to that. I'd rate many Chinese buffets as 2 stars.
I won't be going back any time soon, however, as I swore off Chinese buffets, among other things, as part of my 2012 resolution. If I was to choose any Chinese buffet, regardless of price or location, I can't think of one I'm immediately choose over 98 pounds.
All-you-can eat buffet that features lots of typical chinese food fare. Â The sushi is constantly being made and kept very fresh. Â Everything is delicious. Â There are a number of servers who walk the floor to be sure that your drink is always filled and the used plates are removed by the time you come back to your table with your second plate. Â There is plenty of available seating even during the busy lunch hours.
Review Source:Despite reading a lot of negative reviews, I stand firm that this is one of the most authentic Chinese buffets around. It has food I'd never even HEARD of before! It definitely opened my eyes. I must admit that when we visit 98 pounds, I tend to make a b-line over to the Butter Shrimp, Sushi and Green Tea Ice cream. I don't eat much else, due to my genearl food wussyness. The heads of fish still attached to the body? I can't yet muster up the courage. One thing that is a bit off-putting about this place is the price... I understand they have a huge variety of Sushi. . But paying over $30 for two people here seems a little ridiculous. If you're looking for a Chinese buffet that has delicious Chinese food 'staples,' I'd simply hit Hunan...
Review Source:Meh, it is a typical (Americanized) Chinese buffet. Huge pan of red sweet and sour sauce and plenty of fried things to smother with it. Yes, it has sushi, but there are no signs telling you the different types. The mystery sushi consisted of various rolls filled with a mystery filling, some had roe on top, some had drizzles of some kind of sweet sauce. One roll had pieces of salmon on top, and another mystery roll was dipped in tempura batter. Tasty for what it was, or rather what you guess it might be. I did try to ask a server who was standing near the line but she didn't speak English.
Back to the "hot" line, as I had mentioned before there are many fried things to smother in sweet/sour sauce, and your other typical stir fried dishes, some baked salmon, mussels, etc... I did try a mussel, it was cold. I tried a bite of a few desserts including a cream stuffed pastry, and some green tea ice cream. I usually love green tea ice cream, but this stuff was soft serve and tasted like some sort of green chemical, not tea. The pastry was just puff pastry filled with imitation whip cream, blah.
I read some of the other reviews before dining here and took into consideration that many people said that you MUST go when they open if you want to see any sushi. This is true. I went for lunch on a Thursday at 11:30 and by 12 half of the sushi trays were empty and were not being replenished. I am glad that I went when I did because out of all the food here the most edible stuff was the sushi. They make you pay first, so you may want to take a look to see what the buffet looks like before you pay. Also, they have a sign on the sneeze guard next to the sushi threatening a fine if they see that you are not eating everything you take. :) I spent 11 dollars for lunch, it is expensive for what you get. Kowalski's sushi is better and you know what's in it, a much better deal, unless you eat like a pig. Ooooooo but I do suggest following your meal with some schnaps or a beer or you will be tasting your lunch for the rest of the day. I also felt like the food had quite a bit of MSG... after eating there I kinda felt funny and now I am drinking a TON of water! (Soon to be followed by that schnaps I had previously mentioned).
Overall I had expected something better. I would liken this place to the cheap Asian version of Old Country Buffet, complete with soft serve machine. Only this soft serve is Vanilla and Green "Tea".
Can we say sushi, seafood and Chinese buffet!
I had mussels there and they were fabulous. I also had some rolls from the sushi area. The food was very fresh and tasted very good.
I hear the best time to go in Saturday during the day, thats when the food is fresh and the chefs are out and about.
the husband and i went here for lunch on a Saturday. we were both impressed at how clean and nice the place looked, not at all what we were expecting from the outside ( i had gone here once before, before it changed into the 98lb buffet and was NOT impressed even a little bit). my husband was very happy with the "Chinese" food and i partook in the "sushi", it was nothing like a real sushi place but better than any other buffet sushi I've ever seen. we are both interested in going back again and i was also super impressed and all their steamed buns with fun things inside, i LOVE those little things!
all in all, good buffet, better then most and that makes it worth the extra money
Great buffet with enough variety to keep me coming back for lunch. There's the usual range of Chinese dishes such as sweet and sour chicken and General Tso. My favorites are the stir fried dishes such as Mongolian beef and Broccoli beef since they seem to be the freshest and are replaced regularly.
There's also a wide range of sushi which while they don't use many expensive ingredients is tasty enough and is always superbly presented. Also try the hot and sour soup it's highly addictive.
Service has always been excellent, the drinks are quickly refilled though the cynic in me thinks this is done to make you feel full and you don't eat as much.
Finally leave room for dessert there's a huge selection available including a rather nice mini creme brulee.
I came back here on a weekend and it was really expensive!!! Â It worked out to be over $15 per person - came for lunch, but they must start dinner prices at 1 p.m. or maybe they didn't have a lunch menu that day. Â Anyway, there's no way that I ate $15 worth of food. Â The second visit was quite a let down. Â The sushi bar was not stocked well at all. Â In fact, most of the time, the sushi bar was mostly empty, which made me so sad because that was what I was looking forward to about this visit. Â As a result, I was stuck eating their Americanized Chinese food. Â I don't mind eating Americanized Chinese food sometimes, but that's not why I came to this place ... I could have gone to one of the other, cheaper buffets for that sort of food. Â The place was busy, but not too full so they should have been able to easily keep up with demand, IMO.
The service was still pretty good. Â They filled our water/pop glasses and removed dirty plates quickly. Â Sorry, but I don't think I'll be back any time soon. Â The price of the buffet is only worth if it you can get the sushi.
My husband, 9 year old daughter, and myself have been here several times. We LOVE it.
My husband is a big Sushi fan - and they were always prepping fresh rolls each time we have been there. We usually go on Saturdays or Sundays and right around the change from lunch into dinner. Sometimes they have trouble keeping up with demand, but the trick is to get there before the crowd does! :)
Note: Their Sushi offerings are fresh and DELICIOUS. Once, my husband politely asked if they had Eel roll, and the staff there made him an entire Eel roll FRESH. Of course, we left a nice tip in the jar!
Their Buffet is the standard and decent fare that most Asian/American Buffets are with classic standbys- mac 'n cheese, green beans, fresh fruit, jello, etc. However, you may find an unexpectedly fantastic new flavor now and then.... crab ("crabby claws" as my daughter calls them), frog legs, ... you never know.
IMHO: Good for family feasting. Great classic favorites AND GOOD FRESH SUSHI.
This is a clean and beautiful restaurant. Â They have very good food, however they don't ever keep their buffet stocked. Â We were there from 4:30 to 6:30 on a Saturday night and the entire sushi bar was empty and remained empty. Â Most of their trays stayed empty even on the hot buffet. Â At one point I counted 15 empty dishes. Â You could see people milling about not able to find anything to put on their plate and then they would pounce on a dish when it came out. Â Very unpleasant. Â
We mentioned it to the staff but it didn't help. Â We left feeling stressed and ripped off.
The photos on yelp suggest a healthy buffet with creative food and that's not what you will find here.
I am not going to go into every detail what the buffet has to offer because it is pretty typical...But I will tell you the main positive about this place:
* It is the cleanest buffet I have ever seen anywhere(I have lived a lot of places).
* It has logan, mangoes for desert - you hardly ever hear that.
* It has a lot of seafood choices during dinner: i.e. steam fish, clams, etc...
Yes, it is very popular among the Asian communities in Bloomington - that is a good thing.
And yes, it is packed and a little bit on the expensive side for a buffet.
Yes, it is all worth it.
98 Pounds is definitely not bad for a buffet. Â We've been going there since the week it initially opened (we live close) and were very impressed right away. Â The food was always fresh and they had a good variety of items, especially stuff you don't see normally on buffets. Â The last few times we've been there, it seems like they may have let things slide a little (food wasn't as fresh for sure) but there are still good crowds in there. Â Overall, better than most of the Chinese buffets you'll find around for sure.
Review Source:I don't love suburban Chinese buffets, but this one is not too bad, all things considered. A bit more seafood than your usual buffet- some nice shrimp dishes, steamed fish, and even cheese oysters (!?!). The salad section was actually fresh with assorted greens and an interesting marinated cucumber/seaweed dish. Much better than the typical iceberg lettuce and gross tomatos you get. And of course your usual chinese buffet standbys.
The sushi leaves a lot to expect but is honestly not bad for all-you-can eat buffet- the unagi roll was surprisingly decent.
Lunch is $9.99 plus tax, not a bad deal if you are really hungry.
Almost 4 stars, but not quite. They still had cream cheese wontons.
The Good:
-Much fancier decor than we expected from the outside view
-Most of the "fancy" sushi rolls
-Crab Legs that were actually cooked the right way
-Crazy odd mix of food
-Ameri-Chinese standards like General Tso's Chicken & Chicken w/Broccoli.
The Bad:
-Cream Cheese Wontons...how do you screw that up?
-Spring Rolls without any flavor at all.
-Shrimp Gyoza....isssh.
The Ugly:
The one piece of Sashimi that I tried tasted like how the seal exhibit at Como Zoo smells. I spit it into my napkin, which was awful, but I actually couldn't swallow it. I am not expecting the best sushi when I come to an all you can eat Chinese& sushi buffet, but I'd at least like it to be swallow-able.
I went here on a Sunday lunch (apparently it costs more than a Sat. or weekday lunch) and it was packed. The restaurant is very clean and had expensive looking decor. Not what you expect from a buffet.
The buffet was like a hybrid of dim sum, sushi, americanized Chinese, and seafood (think Mystic's famous Wednesday seafood buffet). The sushi wasn't extraordinary because, well, you should go to a sushi restaurant for that. But they do a lot to make up for the lack of flavor in the rice by dousing the stuff with mayo and eel sauce. There was some tempura battered sushi rolls (wasn't replenished for a looong time), rolls with sliced avocado on top, shrimp tempura rolls, a couple of spicy tuna and crab rolls, and a basic nigiri selection. Some people were literally picking up a tongful of rolls and next thing you know the serving plate was empty. So act fast before people poach em'.
I was mainly excited about their dim sum. They had leaf-wrapped sticky rice with shitake and shredded bean curd sans Chinese mystery meats, excellent pan fried chive and shrimp dumplings, coconut pudding dumplings, and later on they added shrimp dumplings. Their dim sum tastes a lot better than at a certain famous dim sum place whose dim sum quality I think has gone down recently. I won't name names.
Anyway, their dessert bar was a typical one but with fresh lychees. I've never seen that at a Chinese buffet and people were loading up on them like they were crab legs.
I think as a bonus for paying $6 more for a Sunday lunch, they had a special where you can order a broiled fatty fish at no extra charge. I'm assuming the specials change every Sunday so make sure to check it out at the hostess desk. They have it advertised in plain sight.
All in all, this buffet was the best buffet I've had in the TC.
If you ever want to know how clean the kitchen is, go and look in the bathroom. If its clean and sparkly, then you can usually rest assured that they are running a tight ship and the kitchen is just as clean, if not cleaner.
The bathroom at 98 Pounds Buffet was immaculate. Very impressive.
Staff: The staff was very polite and accommodating (had our 3 month old daughter along). Drinks were promptly brought to the table and our glasses were never half full for very long.
Food: A wide assortment of meals to choose from, including sushi rolls. (We had lunch, and this was our first visit, so we don't know what the dinner selection entails - although we were told from a friend that the dinner selection is amazing) The quality of the sushi rolls would be the same as what you would get a Byerlys, and I buy sushi there often. Of the food that I selected, I found each one very good. And there were some items that I had never seen before on a Chinese buffet (sushi, lychee, actual seafood in the seafood delight). My husband and I agreed that this was a place that we could make the drive for at least once a week. Nothing on the buffet line was dry. Everything was very fresh and was being replenished accordingly.
Value is Excellent! For two people for lunch, we paid $19.50. I believe that we got a lot more than what we actually paid for. We each went to the buffet and sushi bar twice.
Other notes: Being in the restaurant industry, and my husband is a chef, we notice things. The food was prepared/served in small amounts, thus insuring freshness and quality. The entire establishment was spotless - a very impressive feat - whoever owns/runs this place, cares a great deal.
We learned about 98 Pounds Buffet from a co-worker of my husband. She had gone to the dinner buffet and told him that we must check this place out.
Hands down, this is the Best Chinese Buffet that we have ever been to. We will continue to go back again and again and again....
This is an evaluation for lunch and I'm comparing it with the other lunch Chinese Buffets. Â The place is huge and kept very clean. Â They have the biggest selection for sushi and the quality was compatible to the sushi you would buy at the grocery store. Â You can see them making the sushi right behind the counter. Â Their entrees were just average and they didn't replenish some dishes even during noon hour. Â So, if you are OK with grocery store quality sushi and want to eat a lot, this is the place to go, but if you are looking for quality Chinese food, this would be a disappointment. Â I also wish I could get my own drinks rather than waiting for them to come around and they didn't come around often enough.
Review Source:
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