Konnichiwa Kumo!

Konnichiwa (kor nee chi wah)

Hello in Japanese

We've heard so much of this new Japanese, Chinese American type food buffet from multiple friends. We didn't think much about it because you tend to think buffets are the same.  Kumo though brought rave reviews from our friends.  I love all Authentic Asian as well as Asian American influenced food.  It's probably some of my favorite foods.

We had a day to enjoy dinner sans kids and I thought this would be a great day to give Kumo a chance.  We first thought to walk in and check it out and do a walk through, see what they had to offer, check out the environment and see what we superficially felt about it.  We were impressed!

We hit this apparent hot spot at it's prime Saturday Lunchtime.  There were so many people you could barely move but the food didn't suffer and wasn't scarce despite the rush.  We couldn't believe the selection Kumo had to offer.  It reminded me of a Asian American/Canadian buffet I would eat at when visiting family in Toronto, Canada called Mandarin.  Well honestly, I think as far as food, Kumo had more to offer and was much more relaxing.  We thought we would come back for dinner and eat.

What we were impressed with was the huge selection of so many different foods.  Vast amounts of various sushi, cold seafood, hot seafood and fresh steaming hot food, all the trimmings as well!

If you love seafood and I mean really like seafood then Kumo is a seafood lovers dream.  Dipping into the treasures of the exotic seafoods of the seas.  I am talking Spicy Octopus, Ginger Roasted Crab, Sushi, Dragon Fish, Crayfish, Clams, Oysters as well as Frog Legs that looked pretty meaty!  These fish dishes were steaming hot and they were aplenty.  You had basted, grilled marinated whole fish, fish heads and tails.  Take your pick, heads or tails!  I couldn't believe it and all I could think to myself was that if my dad was still alive, he would be drooling!  My dad loved his seafood, fish and especially the exotics.  My family is from the shores of Bari in Italy so fish is heavily consumed.  I kind of smiled when looking at the fish because it reminded me of my dad and it was bittersweet he wasn't here to enjoy it but probably was looking down at me daring me to eat it as he always did when he was alive.  Daring me to eat the craziest fish and seafood, most of the time of course I passed.

Seafood Aplenty!

You are probably wondering if I ate any of the seafood?  I was tempted because it did look so good but I don't think my stomach was all there, I didn't feel like peeling and I have had frog legs in the past (yes, it tastes like chicken).  I did see many people filling their plates with it.  So I assume it tasted very good.  

Speaking with my Asian friends, if you see Asian people eating at a restaurant that is Asian, odds are good that it's good Asian food.  There were many different cultures there, I live in a Ukranian influenced part in my city so there were Ukranian, Italian, Asian and American.  They knew it was all good and my gosh was the parking lot packed.  We arrived right when dinner started, 4pm.  My guess is that they serve for fish selections at dinner time.

They had a whole bar station dedicated simply to Sushi.  My gosh there was so much Sushi.  Your typical Sushi was created then a whole bunch of others I have never seen before.  There was Tempura, Avocado, Phildelphia and more, the list was long so maybe you need to see for yourself....

My gosh look at all the Pickled Ginger, I couldn't fit the huge plate of Wasabi!

This is my favorite photo, I love how the Sushi guys dressed in traditional garb was doing this plating.  Arranging in floral patterns and some placed nicely in fried wonton cups.  I didn't get to try it but my gosh it looked yummy!  Pretty!

I was delighted of course to enjoy the typical favorites.  I love to eat Lo Mein and it was really good, the crab rangoon were fresh, crisp and delicious.  The potstickers were soft, light and full of flavor.  The chicken for the sweet and sour chicken was perfectly battered and fried.  The sweet and sour sauce was that fake red sauce, which was disappointed because I would of loved to have seen the orange sauce with pineapples.  There was chicken teriyaki skewers, egg rolls, mango chicken, peppered chicken wings, and some huge BBQ Ribs and so much more that is so filling.

Here is their sweet rice, I don't know what it was like, Scott said it was good, it had raisins and fruit and what looked like crushed pink candy.

I really loved all the soups offered with Hot & Sour soup being my favorite.

So with all these savory foods you have to have some sweets.  They offered some Asian influences in desserts.  Fruit is huge and there was plenty of it, it was interesting to see coconut jello along side some strawberry jello.  The pure white color of the coconut jello was interesting and although I despise jello because being force fed after tonsil surgery in my teens and then adding the dessert as a painful enemy on my list, I just can't eat it.  They offered what looked like a great selection of desserts, but when we tried them they were dry, bland and not very good.  That was a let down because the presentation really fooled us.

The plate we tried....

However they were quickly redeemed by amazing us with a crepe station.  Not bad with what they have to offer as fillings.  There was a sweet bean paste, strawberry, peach filling and apple.  They had chocolate which we tried and despite the chocolate melting it seemed crunchy, I quickly figured that the chocolate was crushed crispy rice chocolate like a crushed Crunch bar, wish they would sub it for semi-sweet chocolate chips they would have a home run.  I also had a small peach filling one and it wasn't too bad with the whip cream and the birthday cake ice cream which was awesome!  I also tried their banana pudding and the strawberry glazed banana was also very good.  They are all so sweet and helpful and I loved that at the same crepe station they also make udon noodle soup in a broth a you can add whatever you want to it.

Udon Soup

My crepes were yummy, however I would of preferred some semi sweet chocolate chips instead of the smashed up crunch bar they were using.  Nutella and Bananas would be awesome too.  I wonder if I made the suggestion they would take it into consideration?

She was so sweet making my crepes and very helpful!  All the employees were awesome!

My plate of crepes and sweets.

I highly recommend Kumo.  If you are a fish person I would definitely do dinners.  If it's not your cup of tea then I would do lunch.  Kids have their own set prices according to age and you can visit their website for all that info at:  KUMO

It's a nice, clean and family friendly place to eat.  The staff is nice and informative and I think there is much to choose from and all the food is good.  The only thing I didn't like was the stir fry station.  I didn't think it was all that great and just will stick with what is on the buffet.  I had a lo mein stir fry done and it seemed watered down and not very flavorful.  I loved the Mango Chicken and plan on visiting again most likely during lunchtime.  I'll give you an update when I do!



Have an awesome weekend!
Annamaria