1500 E Village Way #2203
Orange, CA 92865
(714) 974-0763
http://www.todai.com
My friend Jennifer and her hubby Peter live in El Monte. There are a few Todai closer to their house, but they rather drive for one hour to go to Orange Todai. According to them, that one is the best Todai with best selection of food. I haven't been to Todai for years. My family used to go there all the time in the 90's. Food used to be great. But the last few times we went, maybe 3 or 4 years ago, we thought it was expensive and the food was just mediocre. (We often went to the Arcadia location.) We were curious to try the "best" Todai, and made dinner plan with Jen and Peter.
Poki / Shrimp
We went on a Saturday night for dinner. The price is $28.95/person. The restaurant was super busy. Luckily our friend Tammy and Sam got there early and got a table already. We sat at the far end of the restaurant away from the buffet. Yes we had to walk further to get food, but it wasn't as crazy and crowded as the seats near the buffet. We got some shrimp cocktail and tiny poki "bowl" while waiting for Jen and Peter to arrive. After taking a bite of the poki bowl, I'm sure Todai is Korean owned. The sauce they used was the Korean hot chili sauce. It wasn't authentic Japanese poki, but still quite good. Shrimp was really fresh, and I ate tons of it. I was really looking for dinner after trying the delicious "appetizers".
Snow Crab Legs
Time for dinner! The first thing we grabbed was plates and plates of snow crab legs for everyone. The crab legs tasted very fresh and yummy. So good!
Oysters
Then it was oyster for everyone! They don't leave the oyster out on the buffet table. You have to ask them for it, then they'll get it from the back for you. The oyster was really good quality fresh oyster. Each of us probably ate at least half a dozen. Delicious!
Lobster / Sushi
Lobster is a must get item at Todai. It's limited to one per person per plate. The baby lobster was baked with creamy mayonnaise sauce. It was good, but I like the snow crab legs more. I also grabbed some sushi. They even have uni! But it wasn't out, so you have to ask the sushi chef to make it for you. I was so glad that we went with Todai expert Jen and Peter. Otherwise I wouldn't know about the oyster nor the uni.
Soup / Salad / Sushi
There were also a lot of hot dishes, but I was too full to try them all. I just got a bowl of tom yum soup, some seaweed salad (love the salad!), sashimi, sushi, shrimp, and kalbi. The kalbi was surprisingly good, a lot better than most kalbi I had at buffet restaurant. It was seasoned and grilled perfectly.
Crepe
Made to order crepe was great. I got strawberry with chocolate. Yum!
Dessert
I love the bite size dessert. I finished everything because everything was good. The flan and creme burlee were the best!
The Orange Todai is definitely much better than the other Todai that I've tried before. I would go back again any time. Dinner is a bit pricey so next time maybe we'll go for lunch. I think you get a free meal at Todai on your birthday. I'm so there next year on my birthday!
No comments:
Post a Comment