I had never heard of Tokyo One until I was invited for lunch by my boyfriend’s relatives. I had passed by it a few times before but from the outside I couldn’t tell what it was, I just assumed from the name it was a night club. Yes, I know now that that would be a strange name for a night club. I was surprised to find that it was actually a sushi and grill buffet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a buffet quite like Tokyo One, from the inside it looked very much like one of those Asian restaurants in China Town.
There’s two Tokyo Ones in Houston and the one I visited is located off of West Sam Houston Parkway. They get a lot of business so if you want to be served I’d suggest getting there early or visiting during their slower times, if they have one. As I mentioned earlier I was invited out for lunch so I wasn’t aware of the prices, all I knew was that it was pretty pricy for a buffet. Their weekend and dinner prices start at $20 for adults but their lunch price for adult is $15.99, a little more reasonable but still a tad pricier than many buffets I’ve been to.
If you’re not prepared to eat I wouldn’t recommend Tokyo One, you’ll just be wasting your money. It might be pricy but the food selection is phenomenal and many of their dishes are just to die for. Their sushi is so so in my opinion, definitely not the best that I’ve had, but really why fill up on sushi when there’s so much other great dishes to try. They have a good selection of salads for vegetarians. It’s not your run of the mill garden greens either, it’s still an Asian restaurant after all. Their hot dishes is what I went after mostly. I have a weakness for seafood and having grown up on the gulf coast to shrimper parents, I’m not easily impressed by just anything that comes from the sea. Toyko One didn’t let me down though, they had oysters, mussels, crab, shrimp, and a variety of fishes. Everything tasted wonderful and fresh my favorites were the mussels and crab.
Don’t forget to save room for dessert. They have a nice selection of desserts, none of which I know the names to but everything that I tried was scrumptious! I only wish I had a bigger stomach to accommodate more food there’s only so much I can pack into my 5’2″ frame. Oh a little something that I didn’t know of until someone told me is that there are items that aren’t on the floor so you’ll have to order it. Don’t worry it doesn’t cost extra but I guess certain dishes need to be ordered for either freshness or to prevent it from going to waste. One item that needed to be ordered was our ice cream. It was the first time I had green tea ice cream and I’ve been a fan ever since. Not all green tea ice cream are alike, I’ve had some other places that tasted too bitter.
My only complaint about Toyko One at this location was that after we’ve been there for about an hour the manager, perhaps the owner came by and tried to rush us out the door. We were sitting there mingling, some of us still eating when she came up to the head of the table and said that there were customers waiting for a table and she would like us to hurry up, pay our bill so she could give our table away. I thought that was tactless. Other than that I would recommend this place if you don’t mind spending a little extra money, it’s worth it if you go hungry or with a big party.
