I am in Chicago, and my wife and I went to one of our favorite restaurants – which is a chain! I got to thinking . . . even people who normally would prefer independents (like us) have that one or two chains that they do like!
My favorite chain is Todai. It’s a Japanese seafood/sushi all-you-can-eat buffet chain that is a LOT of fun, and the food is decent – not as good as several small specialized sushi places, but certainly acceptable and with much broader options.
The chain is out of (I think - someone can correct me) South Korea, and has locations in Hong Kong, 7 additional coming in Korea, Malaysia, around a dozen in California, Vegas, 3 around Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Manhattan, and Fairfax VA. The marketing strategy is to find an extremely upscale concentration of Japanese and Koreans, and locate a restaurant in the area (we’ve been to three of them, and they are all 75% Asian and 25% Caucasian/other).
Among the choices (and virtually all – unless noted – are very good):
• Several noodle soups, with chefs making tempura to add or eat separately – if they’re out of, say, shrimp tempura, just ask and they’ll fry up some more
• Salads, around a dozen, including Japanese cold eggplant, squid and octopus salad, crab salad (sometimes real, sometimes fake), seaweed salad, et al.
• Hot foods, including beef tenderloin teriyaki (cooked medium rare!), chicken, duck, at least one shrimp, at least one crab (and when in season usually soft shell crabs), three or four fish (some very different for American tastes, this time a seared rare tuna with a black sesame seed crust), a couple of noodle dishes, et al
• At least 65 types of sushi and/or sashimi. Not just cheap stuff, but giant clam, octopus, soft shell crab rolls, all the standards, interesting specialty rolls, three different types of fish egg sushi’s, around 12 chefs continually making sushi, a separate chef making hand rolls to order (from a limited number of options) – they don’t have uni very often, but have found it there!
• Fresh fruit
• Cold oysters, clams, and/or mussels (at least two of the three), shrimp, cold tofu items, other appetizers
• Interesting looking and sounding desserts (like green tea cheesecake) – but many of these are not worth the calories. They also have fresh crepes being made, rolled with various fruits and sauces.
Price is around $27 for dinner, plus beverage, and around half that for lunch (when the selection includes sirloin rather than tenderloin, and so forth, and only around 45-50 different sushi options).
Don’t think it will ever be here – not a large enough upscale Asian pop – but maybe if Toyota continues to expand???
Anyone else have a “secret pleasure” chain?
