Price: $$
Location: 1282 Worcester Rd.  Natick, MA 01760

Minado is a very large self serve buffet that a very large variety of food options to choose from. Variety of Japanese soups,  udon, rice, seafood, american food, tons of fruits, and dessert.

Atmosphere:   Minado looks like a buffet inside, but is good looking and very very large restaurant.  The biggest I’ve ever seen.  Minado entrance looks elegant with the kimono on display and their 3d name on the wall, good for posing next to for pictures.

Food:  The first time I went to Minado was in 2007, and it *was* the only Japanese All You Can Eat restaurant that had restaurant quality sushi in comparison to most all you can eat sushi places, because other places use lower quality tasting ingredients especially the Japanese rice.  I tried everything that I could in the buffet aisle, filling and overflowing 3 plates full of sushi, on top of a plate of dessert. I was stuffed and happy.

However, the 2nd time I went, which was this year, I noticed the rice quality in the sushi is lower.  I suspect when the 2008 rice shortage happened and the rice cost doubled, that they ended up needing to use the cheaper rice to be cost efficient.  They used to use the really high quality Japanese rice, but now it tastes more like the standard buffet sushi rice that other Japanese buffets use.  Regardless, the fish is still very fresh and sushi is still is tasty. But after trying everything once or twice, I am only able to eat a limited amount before the slight tartiness of this other rice is too much.

The Japanese eggplant was very very interesting but tasty, dumplings were really good.  The seafood soup (like miso soup, except seafood).  They have various fish, shrimp and seafood dishes and if you go for dinner, they’ll have crab and lobster and more expensive seafood. The fruits seemed fresh (there are some canned) and the little cake desserts were good treats specially the cream cheese cake, strawberry cake.  There are multiple lines for different foods.  A whole aisle of sushi, with several sushi chefs rolling up really fast. A few aisles of various foods including seafood and fried item.

Unfortunately, if you’re vegan, there aren’t many options as most sushi and dishes have meat or dairy in it. There is miso soup, some vegetable rolls, veggies and vegetable stir fry.  If you’re vegetarian and you eat seafood and dairy, you’re in luck.

So now I am still on the hunt for an all you can eat Japanese place with regular quality Japanese rice.

You can view the large menu on the website. However, do note that they have additional items not listed there.

Service:  There is a waiter who serves drinks and clears your table so expect to pay tip,  But food is self serve.   The lines go really fast.