Tons of seating and food choices. Admittedly, we were here around lunch time so the food was fresh. It would take forever to comment on each food option but here's a solid breakdown.... Great, super super great for kids. Cold food was cold and hot food was perfectly hot. Garlic bread, as commented on by my cousin "I can't chew this or my teeth will fall out". Sooooo no on that choice. Scoop your own ice cream is great and just enough topping to make it fun. The interior was clean and all of the employees were busy cleaning and very attentive. Overall great experience for a buffet. read more

We are honestly looking for like a Chinese takeout place with a typical cliché menu, but we found this place instead of the spring buffet $13.99 for dinner $10 for lunch, not a bad deal. It's a big space next to Lowe's in Plato's closet. Service was OK for drinking and then left us alone. They have Japanese in Chinese items primarily at this buffet food is OK. I mean for the price there's a couple items that were kind of eh. Egg custard variety of Chinese style, chicken; Tao , orange etc.. The vegetarian sushi rolls were pretty decent just typical stuff like eggrolls, wonton soup and stuff like that you'll get your fill for $10. It's really good considering every time I go out it's like freaking like $60. Me and my marketing mind would say this place would be awesome at the end of the ship of bars for drunk food, but check it out for eat on the cheap read more

See all

everything was stale and bland. Nothing was ever fresh and the deserts tasted like shit.

Good prices for a buffet. Nothing special about the food. The place is busy and there's always a line before they open in the mornings, but there's also no other buffet really around Ithaca. read more

The food is very hit and miss there, and if you go during a time that is not busy especially after lunch and before dinner but even at dinner on a slow night, the dishes aren't fresh at all, and by not fresh I mean some of the dishes have a skin on them that they shouldn't have If you go there when it's busy the food is definitely better but by better I mean fresher but still a bit hit or miss. The service is another issue, the main issue I have is they givve you the check in just under or just over 30 minutes That means if you want to add a beverage you have to get them to take back your check and add the drink to it, It's really a suggestion to finish up and leave. I've talked to them about it, and it still happens. The other issue with service is mainly only one time out of the six times I've been there have they cleared away my dishes after I've finished them. And the odd thing is both with them giving you the check after a half hour and not clearing away the dishes, one of the staff who is an older woman and doesn't speak a lot of English will come up to you if you don't leave a tip or don't leave enough of one and ask you/ tell you that she wants a better tip. Now I always do tip, If I'm not using cash then the tip goes on the card at checkout and if I am using cassh I do put it on the table and I tip the casheiers too. I'll be honest with you. if there were any place that i'd be tempted not to tip it would be when being served by that one older woman who tries getting you out in a half hour and speaks just fine when she feels that she's not eating tipped enough I've been there about 6 times now, the food when it's good is good, but not spectacular but you also have to keep in mind that its all you can eat for under $20 and on that basis alone it's worth going if you ignore the suggestion to leave when they present you with eh check just 30 mi9nutes after getting there read more

Very poor atmosphere Very poor food quality Very poor food selection Very poor cleanliness read more

The food was pretty good and the service was great! Plenty of seating just like an Asian Buffet.

The food was okay. Waitress was shocked when I wasn't going to leave a tip. It is self service after all. I will not be returning.

Coming from NYC this Buffet reminds me of the type of Buffet we had in the 90's. Lighting that is dark, a limited selection of food that has no flavor or quality and a restaurant space that has seen it's best days gone. This for $14.00. To put this in perspective in Fishkill NY there is a buffet that offers lobster, crabs. hibachi grill and a bigger selection for only $7.00 more. If you are from the area this looks to be the only game in town and if that is the case it should suffice. The staff were very friendly. read more

Delicious food I love it the steak was hard to cut through the service was very nice The ambience is ok could be better 7/10 read more

Great variety. Nicely presented. Only had time and appetite to check out one third of choices! Great service. Tasty stuffed mushrooms. Flaky delicious pastries. Pleasant room. Interesting windows. read more

Your typical affordable Chinese buffet. Food is standard and good for the price. You get what you pay for, but if you want a quick filling meal with a lot of selection options, this is a good place. read more

extremely good price (13.95 dinner as of 10/2025) excellent sushi good dumplings and chicken good lots of space to eat good ice cream

Great value and service! We were in the area for the day and decided to give it a try....good decision:)

You're not gonna get the highest quality food here, but you're also not paying much at all. They've got a good selection of decent-good quality food for the most part (besides the egg rolls, which suck). Service is also pretty good, and the restaurant is clean. Spring Buffet isn't gonna blow you away, but it's reliable and you know what you're gonna get. read more

Very delicious! The price is outstanding for a buffet and there are a variety of option. Everything was cooked very well read more

Spring Buffet - Icecream - Japanese Near Me - Ithaca, New York

See all

We came with family after long break from Buffet food and surprised to find good quality food at affordable price. 9.79 or so. Few things - clean - not crowded - warm food - enough items - friendly staff So it was very good. Give a try- you would like it read more

Spring Buffet - Restraurant - Japanese Near Me - Ithaca, New York

Food was pretty good. They struggle to keep food filled...some food temperatures could be a little warmer. Been here twice and both times the waitress set dirty plates and cups down on our table to pick up our dirty dishes, while we are eating. I've waited tables all of my life and never once have I picked up dirty dishes along the restaurant and sat them down on another patrons table to pick up more dirty dishes! Talk about contamination. Not sure we will return. read more

The reviews made me hesitate to try but the food was above my expectations! We really enjoyed it. The chicken was very soft and chewy. The egg tart was awesome! read more

Pre-pandemic this place was just alright. Now it it pretty bland and dried out. I've recently eaten lunch and dinner there. Lunch might be okay for most; I'd look elsewhere for dinner. read more

i love getting crunk with the girlies here . stuffed mushrooms 4 life . the workers are all beautiful and i love the chandelier in the front it is so fancy . read more

Food is as expected from a cheap buffet restaurant. But had very awful experience with the staffs who accused me lie just to get special discount for my 10-yo twin daughters. Very rude. I'm not coming back to the restaurant. I attached a screenshot from my Facebook because this site doesn't allow copy-paste. read more

Spring Buffet - Japanese Near Me - Ithaca, New York

We were told this place was "good and cheap" and that's exactly what it is! Some dishes were better than others but an overall great value. The steak was seasoned well and the sushi was pretty fresh. We'll be back! read more

I have reviewed this restaurant a couple of times in the past, but must again. The food has definitely gone downhill since the pandemic. They no longer have the hibachi open. And yes, I realize that was because of the pandemic. The food is just OK. Often not as hot(temperature) as it could be. But the main problem for me is the lack of variety, both at lunch and at dinner(although there is a bit more variety at lunch time, go figure). Most of the entrees lack vegetables. Onions and broccoli only. No zucchini, snow peas, bean sprouts...not even water chestnuts. And there is an over-abundance of chicken-oriented entrees. You will find on one of the steam tables, next to each other in a row, General Tso's chicken, Honey Chicken, and Teriyaki Chicken. Then on the next steam table, sweet'n'sour chicken, next to fried chicken. I'm not a vegetarian. I eat meat. But there are no pork dishes, and one beef dish (Pepper Steak) with very little beef, and a lot of onions. And the one Tofu dish they have at lunch time...very little tofu. I go there because my family likes to go there. Over the past two years, I keep hoping it gets better, but it hasn't. They don't have any incentive to improve. There used to be an older, more established Chinese buffet in Ithaca that they were in competition with, but it closed up before the pandemic. The older buffet wasn't the greatest, but the food was tastier, and had much more variety. My advice, Spring Buffet is OK, but it's mostly meh. read more

The buffet food is good for the price, but... their service is hideous. First time i went, i got scolded for using multiple chopsticks. Second time i went, i got scolded for eating while standing. If this place is going to be ran like a jail community, i hope and officer would brief me before giving me a table. The second time i left 0 tips, and the waitresses called me a nut and told me that people tip waitresses in america. I told them (in chinese) u didn't provide me any services other then scolding me, that's one. Two, american waitresses don't scold people and act reasonably. So since u got the service they don't provide, u also get to enjoy the treatment they don't get, enjoy. read more

Decent Chinese buffet in the area. It has a nice selection of your typical American-Chinese favorites and it tastes fresh and pretty good. I couldn't complain about the prices either as they were pretty fair in their own right. They also have a good hibachi section which made it more than just a buffet. It definitely has a nice following as it was pretty busy even after the usual lunch hour. What a nice find. read more

I absolutely have no idea how they keep their business profitable with all these great foods. This deal is too good to be true. I'm super stuffed! So ... let me just briefly describe this buffet restaurant in five words and let my pictures speak the rest. 1) $11.49 2) Seafood 3) Steak 4) Sushi 5) Dessert PS. To starving college kids, I know what you are thinking but let's try to keep Spring Buffet & Grill alive for the benefits of Ithacans ;) read more

See all

My kids like this place but the food is terrible I don't know how this place stays open there are a lot better single serve restaurants in Ithaca !! read more

We eat here all the time. The food is pretty good and the service is always fast and friendly. It's conveniently located too so that's a bonus plus the cost is reasonable. read more

Terrible. We did not expect much but it was worse than we thought. When it first opened, they advertised "vegas style buffet", yeah maybe for people who have never been to vegas. It's clear that they are taking advantage of the fact that they're one of only two buffets in town because food was crap. Dirty and very questionable. Had we not been very hungry, we would not have stayed. It's a very shameful place to call a buffet. When we got the check, I went to the front to clarify pricing as we had 4 kids who were all 13&under. I was not told over 10 yr olds were going to be charged as adults, instead of clarifying with me, this b*tch decides to go in the middle of the dining room, count head at my table OUT LOUD IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, embarassing me, and yelled out WE CHARGE CORRECT! i was livid but I was not about to embarass my family like she just embarassed me. Dont waste your time, they dont give a flying fuck about quality of food. They just want your money and the slightest hint of possible non-payment they freak the fuck out and will embarass you. For lack of a better word, owners are shit, place is shit, food is shit. read more

The hostess and table service staff was friendly. Other than that, there is nothing good about this restaurant. Two hours before closing, everything looked picked over, buffet items were lukewarm, the sushi looked old and dried out, the desserts were nondescript, cafeteria-style. There is no tofu available. Very little in the way of vegetarian options. There is a select-your-own hibachi, which was tasty. However, the chef was visibly annoyed that I interrupted his cell phone browsing to cook my meal and was irritated at my questions about the process (the signage is unclear). Wow. It really put a damper on the evening. The dining room was chilly and cavernous. The soy sauce tasted watered down. The tea cups had cracks. The kitchen started vacuuming an hour and a half before closing time, with a dozen people still in the dining room. To top it off, two out of our party of five had GI issues in the 24 hours following eating there. I will never go back. read more

We visited this restaurant couple of times. Lunch buffet is good. Although you will not be able to get fresh foods always. I like their Hibachi. Stuffs are rude most of the times. Overall it's ok. read more

My kids and I go here a lot and really enjoy it. Always been treated very nicely by staff and the pricing for the food isn't bad either.

Good food and priced really well. Brand new and clean place. Lots of selection - A LOT of seafood (shrimp dishes, scallops, crab legs, etc.) and real sushi (by real, I mean they include a wide variety of authentic rolls and raw fish). Has a make-your-own hibachi station. $11.49 per person for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, $10.49 Monday-Thursday, $10.99 all day Sundays. Lunch Monday-Thursday is $6.99, Fridays and Saturdays $7.29. read more

See all

Terrible experience. I went with a rather large group of people and the way they handled the payment was possibly the most abysmal effort of customer service I have ever been a part of. They took a very long time and every time that I thought it was over... BAM! We're told to wait again while they hold our cards for seemingly no reason. Simply paying upon entrance or handing us our receipts and letting us get up and pay when we are ready like most other well run establishments would have been a far superior method than theirs. In conclusion, I do not expect a return to Spring Buffet in my future. Poor customer service combined with sub-par food is not my ideal dinner. read more

Hidden gem in Ithaca! Was so cheap, went there for lunch, and was pleasantly surprised by the food selection. Food placement was a bit odd (raw shrimp placed right next to the desserts), but overall, the restaurant was very clean and you get to eat a ton of food. read more

Made two trips to the Spring Buffet this summer. All in all, many dishes from not just Chinese cuisine (though those are the best). I also enjoyed their soups, and the customized hibachi was great too. For $11, simply cannot go wrong. read more

I'm not usually a fan of buffets, but this one was good. The food was very fresh and high quality. I didn't hate eating here, like all other buffets. There are very many items to chose from, but not a lot of good vegetarian items. The lo mein was very tasty and the choy was great. My only recommendations would be to a add at least one tofu dish, and also labeling on the dishes that is more specific. Like what kind of egg roll is this? read more

This place a horrible. They used to be good when they first open but now they are so bad. The food was old and rotten. Our whole family came to dinner so we didn't have to cook and can relax but there was nothing edible there at all. The sushi was dried and old. The fresh salad bar was left over from the morning and all the vegetable was wilted and brown. The rest of the food was bland. Watered down. And cold. Spend your money elsewhere. read more

At just over $10/person for dinner, the value was good. One person in our party had a lemonade. $1.75 for the glass, but included refills. The rest of us prefer water. You should be able to find something that you find is OK to eat, and depending on your taste you may luck out and find something you think is good. In our party of three, we all found several things (most of which we've enjoyed numerous times at other restaurants) which we didn't care for at all. One person in our group said of the items he did finish that, "they were just ok, not good" (but, as he said, he could see going back if he were really hungry and didn't want to spend much.) There was a hibachi bar (pick out the food you wanted and they'd put it on the cooktop at the counter), but the items on it didn't look that intriguing to any of us so we passed on it. The sushi bar (pre-made rolls sitting there, without labels) didn't pique our interest, either. There was a carving station (carve your own) with ham, sausage and beef. The beef was well done (as in brown, all the way through) -- the one who ate it said it was chewy, but the flavor was good. There were a few soups to choose from. We didn't see any wonton soup. (Not a problem as we weren't in a soup mood. Just commenting as wonton soup is usually a staple at the buffets we'd been to in the past.) A couple of oddities on the buffet, which I haven't seen elsewhere: Crawfish and frogs legs. (Frogs legs were edible. I'm guessing that the crawfish were in some sort of Cajun seasoning which I didn't care for, but perhaps that's the type of seasoning rather than their preparation.) The dim sum that I ate was disappointing. And, as that's usually one area of the buffet where I usually have fun, it was a bit of a letdown that the selection was minimal. Dumplings and shu Mai were heavy and dried out. The egg roll that I had was awful. Took one bite and put it down (and was tempted to spit out what was in my mouth) -- thick, stale tasting crust.. I would have had to take another bite to get to any filling. I would have liked to see more vegetable dishes to choose from, to help balance out the various meat and seafood items. I did have some Bok Choy, which was as expected. I enjoyed the salt and pepper shrimp. Note: They were whole, with the heads on, which bothered the third person in our group. The person on our group who usually enjoys various items with barbecue sauce said those items were inedible here. The pork chops didn't look like they had a sauce, but they did and the sweet, heavy taste was overpowering. (Barbecue sauce, whether or not it was visible, tasted like a very heavy sugar glaze with no smokiness or anything to take away from the beyond-cloyingly sweetness.) Overall, if this were a restaurant where you ordered specific dishes, I would have only given it one or two stars. Same if the cost were higher. But, since you can push aside whatever you dislike in a search to find the ones that you think are ok or better, and you can do so at such a low price, I've given it three stars. read more