Imperial Sushi Seafood Buffet

FOOD

The food program is built around three overlapping strengths: a broad sushi and sashimi selection, shellfish-heavy seafood, and a Chinese hot line with enough depth to carry several plates on its own. Fresh sushi and sashimi are available at lunch and dinner, while the premium evening and weekend price adds snow crab legs and expands the seafood side of the meal.

Start with the raw side because it gives Imperial its clearest identity. Tuna and salmon sashimi sit alongside nigiri and rows of rolls, letting a first plate stay clean and focused before the richer hot foods begin. The selection is large enough to move from plain fish to sauced or topped rolls without committing to full made-to-order portions. A few pieces at a time leave room for the shellfish and hot dishes that follow.

Shellfish carries the dinner experience. Snow crab legs are the explicit premium upgrade, joined by shrimp, mussels and oysters in several preparations. Lobster also remains part of Imperial’s seafood identity, typically appearing in a chopped Chinese-style hot preparation rather than as a whole plated tail. Other recurring preparations include grilled or dressed oysters, giant clams with vermicelli, cheesy mussels and scallops, and shrimp cooked with garlic, black pepper, jalapeño or sweet creamy sauces.

The Chinese seafood side keeps the spread from flattening into crab and sushi alone. Sour cabbage fish brings tender slices of fish in a tart, savory broth with scallions. Spicy crab arrives coated in a red chile-forward sauce. Guifei oysters pair shellfish on the half shell with scallions and a light soy-garlic treatment. These dishes add sharp, aromatic flavors between colder plates of sashimi and straightforward steamed shellfish.

The hot-food line supplies the heavier middle of the meal. Beef short ribs and Korean-style galbi offer a sweet-savory, charred counterweight to seafood, while salt-and-pepper calamari, barbecue pork ribs, dumplings and dim sum widen the texture range. Familiar buffet staples such as beef with broccoli, General Tso’s chicken, fried rice and chow mein are present too, but they function as supporting choices beside the restaurant’s more specific seafood and meat dishes.

There is room for less expected choices as well. Frog legs add one of the less expected cooked options, and the soup selection can move beyond basic buffet standbys into more substantial Chinese combinations. Those choices give the hot line a deeper Chinatown character and give adventurous plates somewhere to go after crab, sushi and shrimp have established the meal.

Dessert is simpler than the seafood program, with cakes, pastries, fruit and ice cream providing a clean finish. Fresh fruit is especially useful after several rounds of salty shellfish and sauced hot dishes. Imperial’s strongest food story remains concentrated at the savory end: sashimi first, then crab and other shellfish, then the Chinese seafood preparations and ribs that keep the later plates from repeating the first.