Mel's Munchies: A new sushi experience

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: ROZIN ABBAS
168 Sushi Buffet offers a delectable variety of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Thai food.

Ordering off iPads? Pretty cool, if you ask me. London's newest sushi restaurant, 168 Sushi Buffet, is a new all-you-can-eat experience.

I visited the restaurant on a Friday for lunch, and had an amazing time. My meal was a great price, $13.95 for a weekday lunch, but going after 4 p.m. will cost you. During the week dinner service is $21.95 and on the weekend increases to $23.95 — pretty pricey for sushi.

The restaurant was busy on a Friday around 3 p.m., but with a 6,000 square foot building and 200 seats, they had no problem seating us with no reservation.

The iPads at each table added a modern and sleek appeal to the restaurant. Each menu item had a clear picture and descriptions, which helped us determine exactly what to order.

You use the iPad to order your meal by simply hitting the “plus” symbol and adding each item into your order list. Once we submitted our order, a message appeared on our screen: “Sit tight, your server is coming.” I found it a little bit awkward that once we submitted our order, we had to wait for our server to send it to the kitchen, so sometimes we were left waiting for a few minutes.

With inspiration from Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Thai cuisine, there was great variety in the menu, but it was a little bit overwhelming.

In addition to sushi, the menu featured everything from Dim Sum to curry items to tempura and soups. Some of my favourite items were the steamed pork dumplings, the seaweed salad, and the chicken teriyaki.

My favourite sushi item was the green dragon roll, which features tempura shrimp inside and avocado on the top. The sushi was definitely fresh, but it was difficult to eat; it was served warm and the rice sometimes fell apart.

The portions were small, which was helpful when trying not to over-order (and get charged for leaving too much food on your table).

The service was very fast, which also helps the all-you-can-eat experience, because you can gauge how full you're getting, and how much more to order.

If you're a sushi lover, I would definitely recommend you try out London's newest sushi addition. It's located at 660 Oxford St. W., just west of Wonderland and Oxford.

For the best value, go for lunch and go hungry!

If you have a restaurant or recipe suggestion for Mel's Munchies, email her at m_anderson6@fanshawec.ca.