Jasmine Tokyo Buffet: What Do They Pro-Claim?
Featured Posts,Table Talk
At some point you’ve gotta just admit some things to yourself. Today, one of those things is that the people passing through Scottsdale and Shea don’t want their food to be overly good (meaning expensive) and they don’t want their food overly bad (meaning, well, bad). For this reason, a place like Claim Jumper thrived for years in a huge space on the northwest corner. But now that Claim Jumper’s gone due to bankruptcy, its replacement may just nail the niche that sorta neighborhood thrives on—perfectly mediocre food at a perfectly average price in a perfectly booth-filled dining room.
Jasmine Tokyo Buffet has kept virtually every element of Claim Jumpers, from the river rock walls to the actual booths to the old box TV’s in the bar, but on one side of the restaurant, a giant buffet was plopped down. We don’t imagine this place resembles Tokyo in any way, shape, or form, but it does resemble the kind of restaurant that will probably do well here.
The buffet is a cornucopia of “Asian delights,” as one Yelper put it. From sushi rolls and sashimi to cooked dishes, a meat station, dessert bar, salad bar, apps, and build your own situation. Sure there was one piece of yellowtail sashimi that received a single bite before being concealed in a napkin; sure there were a couple pieces of breaded chicken that wouldn’t cut; sure the beef with broccoli was basically beef in soy sauce; but overall, all things considered, the meal was totally edible.
There’s a full bar, and the place works like a typical buffet. Sit and order drinks, then get right to it. Some of our favorite items: ribs, shrimp cakes, pork gyoza, and strangely, the crab Rangoon. All of these items were above par for a buffet situation, whereas everything else we tried was simply on par. Make sure while you’re circling that you tell the staff to keep refreshing the chafing the dishes. There’s nothing we are more scared of than congealed pork (unless of course it’s congealed fish). As you can see from the dishes above, we tried the calamari (sweet and spicy, not too tough), all the chicken dishes, some breaded shrimp, and some other stuff that should probably just be labeled “some other stuff.”
We stopped in for lunch, where the options are noticeably paired down, but so is the price. We paid about $12 per person; for dinner that fee jumps up only $8 and you get access to a prime rib station, oyster bar, crab legs, and more “Asian delights.” Will we be back? Probably not. But do we recommend you give it a try just to say you gave it a try? Sure. No one got sick. No one felt price gouged. And no one hated their meal from top to bottom. What more can you ask for at Scottsdale and Shea?
Jasmine Tokyo Buffet
7000 E. Shea Blvd.
Scottsdale, AZ
480-991-0655
www.jasminetokyo.com
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