Toyosu is an Asian Buffet, whose strength is found in its Japanese and Korean dishes. The make your own Ramen bar is great. When you consider that the going rate for Ramen around town is $12 - $14 a bowl, having good Ramen included in a $17 buffet is a good deal. While the buffet instruction suggests that you let the noodles sit in the warming water at the buffet bar, quite honestly though you can skip that step if your willing to let the noodles warm-up and loosen using only the hot soup stock back at your table. The ramen bar has all the classic Japanese supporting ingredients along with a few things like chicken that don't normally go in Ramen.
The sushi selection is good. While it's a smaller selection than Yutaka, the ingredients were fresher and there were more premium selections. They had Unagi nigiri that is typically one of the most premium sushi items you can get, which again if you're going for bang for the buck they run about $8 per two pieces anywhere else. I've had the Unagi three times there, and on only one occasion did I find it overcooked. They also have great Tako salad across from the sushi bar. Personally I think Fuji's has the best Tako salad in the city, but for a buffet item, it was great.
While getting the Tako salad to be sure and check out their seaweed salad and Korean noodles also located on the same cold bar.
Keeping with the theme of good Japanese food items the Tempura shrimp is great, but be sure and get the tempura sauce on the counter to go with it. There are small plastic cups on the corner of the "meat bar" and that way you can get your sauce with it running into all your other foods. Again, not as good as what you would get at a dedicated Japanese restaurant like Fuji, but better than anywhere else in town. They actually have the correct Tempura batter. Most places use the same batter as what you would put on sweet and sour chicken or use panko batter. While panko batter is authentic Japanese, it's not the same batter as Tempura. I will say that on my first trip to Toyosu they were using domes above all their friend food which made everything soggy. Domes hold in moisture and should be used for things like noodles and rice, and not for crispy things. It seems like they corrected that mistake on my last two trips.
I will say service has been hit or miss, I've had good service twice and had one trip where my family and I were rarely visited. Paying before you eat creates two different situations than your standard buffet. One you have to figure out if you want to tip before your meal if paying by card, and the other item, which I like, is that no one passive-aggressively brings the check to your table when they think you have eaten enough.
So the question is, should you go? Well if you only like American style Chinese buffet food, then no, you shouldn't go. The price of your meal covers a lot of the premium food items that I mentioned that I doubt you would probably want to try. If you like going to places like Fujis or Memories of Japan and you want to experience a wide variety of food then yes, you should go and you will probably love it. I thought Yutaka was bold to favor Japanese and Korean dishes over typical Chinese food fair, but Toyous takes it up a notch. read more