Dynasty Hibachi Sushi Seafood Buffet - Visited Feb 2013

Entrance from plaza parking lot (south)

When we were eating at Mike Duffy's in December, I saw the Dynasty Hibachi Sushi Seafood buffet restaurant was in the works at the Richmond Heights Schnucks plaza. So recently when I heard it had finally opened I knew we would be visiting soon. Today was the exciting day, so off we went to visit the former Outback restaurant, now an all you can eat Asian smorgasbord! I was glad we were coming for lunch on Saturday since it was only $7.99 per person, whereas for dinner on the weekend the price jumps to $19.99 since they have all you can eat lobster and crab legs (it is $12.99 for dinner during the week).

While we awaited my daughter to arrive separately we waited at the entrance which is quite roomy and sports a large chandelier with changing multi-colored lights. We were curious if that was there when it was an Outback, and we were pretty sure the changing lights were not. The restaurant was pretty large and we were seated in an area closer to the lot but there was also more seating on the side facing Clayton Road. All the food was placed in the middle in different sections.

The buffet serving area as viewed from the south

I will begin by saying there were a lot of choices and a lot of varieties of food. On my first pass I simply walked around everything trying to decide what to first place on a plate. The middle section was the primary "Chinese" section, but there were other not so Chinese dishes mixed in with them as well. There were some seafood salads, random seafood dishes, items like stuffed mushrooms and even a large freezer of prepackaged ice cream. There were some steamed "dim sum" dishes, a bunch of fried Chinese appetizer type items, chicken, pork and beef entrees, rices and lo mein. On the western wall was the selection of sushi and next to it was the hibachi area where you could select meat, vegetables and sauces for them to stir fry for you. It was all pretty overwhelming. There was too much to list all the items, so I will just list what all I ate today. Now that I am looking at the list, I am amazed I was able to cram all of that into my stomach today for lunch:

Pot stickers, lo mein, General Tso's chicken, hot & spicy chicken, inari sushi, california roll sushi, pickled radish roll (maki) sushi, eel sushi, caterpillar roll sushi, sushi with fried shrimp in the middle, hot & sour soup, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves, baked crabmeat, stuffed mushrooms, crabmeat salad, buffalo chicken wings, boiled shrimp, puffed spinach pastry, steamed clams in sauce AND FINALLY for dessert an ice cream sandwich (and a fortune cookie)

Wow, that is a lot of food for $7.99. And although none of it was exquisitely gourmet quality, I will have to say it was not bad, with my favorite being the sushi of which I sure ate a lot. I think I probably ate more than $7.99 worth of sushi if I bought that somewhere like Sansai or the place in the Galleria, and then I had gobs and gobs of more food on top of that. I sure am glad I am not a glutton!

Before this past December when I visited Joy Luck Buffet, I had not eaten at a St. Louis Chinese buffet in a while, and I must say I do enjoy going every now and then. I will say that the Joy Luck has improved a lot since we had visited years ago, but with this new establishment opening up not so far away they will have some stiff competition. I know our department at Wash U recently visited Joy Luck, and with Dynasty only a few blocks from campus it will be an even more convenient place to go for large group lunches. My birthday is coming up in just a few months, and I know where I will be suggesting for the departmental birthday lunch!