This breathtaking spectacle includes, beef, desserts, hot dishes, drinks, and a special grill experience, but it requires some insider expertise to properly wade through.

As much as we love a bargain-priced all-you-can-eat restaurant, we also love a great deal, and right now one of the best deals you can find in the Tokyo buffet sphere is at Ginza Happo. This restaurant has two branches in Tokyo, one in Ginza and another in Shinjuku, both of which opened in 2024.

We’d long heard great things about the restaurant, but the relatively high starting price of 13,000 yen (US$81.21) had always made us push our visit back to the “someday” pile. However, with the chorus of praise for the value-for-money aspect growing louder with every passing month, we decided to finally bite the bullet and head over to the Shinjuku branch.

Taking the lift up to the third floor, we stepped out into an impressive-looking reception area. After informing staff that we were here for an all-you-can-eat meal, they told us there were two plans available, the first being the Standard Plan, priced from 13,000 yen for 120 minutes, and the second being the Premium Plan, priced from 18,000 yen for 120 minutes. The higher-priced plan includes everything in the Standard Plan, plus unlimited servings of spiny lobster.

A restaurant that lets you eat unlimited spiny lobster is a spectacular find, but the 18,000-yen buffet was well out of our reach so we settled for the Standard Plan. Staff informed us that payment was to be made upon leaving the restaurant, and then they showed us to our table.

▼ Each table is equipped with a tabletop grill, so diners can enjoy freshly cooked meat and seafood.

This was like no other tabletop setup we’d ever seen before, as it came with a set of utensils that included scissors for cutting through crab shells. The metal colander placed above them is used when grilling shellfish to prevent bits of shell from popping and flying about.

The utensils might make the grill seem like an intimidating task, but there are instructions provided, complete with recommended cooking times for each type of shellfish so you can grill oysters, clams and other shellfish to perfection.

▼ Grilling seafood like this is called “浜焼” (“hamayaki”), a Japanese term that literally means “seaside grilling” or “beachside grill.”

Feeling more confident in our grilling abilities, we headed out to expore the buffet area, and were met with an overwhelmingly incredible display.

▼ The seafood was so abundant we almost felt like we’d arrived at a fishing port.

On the central counter, there were mountains of oysters, turban shells, clams, and whelks, along with piles of sweet shrimp and botan shrimp, as well as hairy crab, snow crab, and king crab.

▼ It was like the best of the seafood world, brought together in one place.

After our eyes adjusted to the incredible volume of ingredients spread out before us, we were able to zoom in more closely to discover rows of sashimi hiding on the top tier.

▼ The items in the foreground were so gobsmacking that most people probably wouldn’t even notice the sashimi sitting there.

After perusing the seafood, we stopped by the meat section, where we saw an equally impressive spread. Yonezawa pork, wagyu kalbi, and wagyu sirloin were all laid out in front of us, featuring cuts of meat you would rarely come across at a cheap all-you-can-eat yakiniku restaurant.

▼ Expensive cuts, all casually placed amongst the spread as if they were nothing out of the ordinary.

The meat was fresh, and the marbling beautifully fine, but as a supporting act to the seafood, this section was empty compared to the seafood buffet, where foreign tourists appeared to be going all-out on the crab.

▼ Another section devoid of crowds was the cut fruit section, which all looked to be top-quality.

Behind that was the cold appetiser section. The selection here was extensive, and each item had been carefully prepared.

▼ Beyond these displays was a full spread of hot dishes.

Featuring Chinese cuisine, these dishes were also impressive, with a quality on par with what you’d expect from a renowned restaurant or luxury hotel.

Some of the dishes here included braised pork belly, shumai, black vinegar sweet and sour pork, and stir-fried water spinach. However, despite the delicious-looking array, this section also seemed to be overlooked by diners.

▼ There turns out to be a good reason for this, which we’ll discuss a little later.

Venturing further through the buffet area, we discovered a whole prosciutto leg and Peking duck quietly placed on display.

Along the kitchen-facing counter, we discovered sushi, and it looked far more appealing than what you’d typically find at other buffet restaurants.

There were also plenty of fried dishes on offer, including karaage (fried chicken), croquettes, spring rolls, and fried prawns.

Tucked away discreetly were sweets such as egg tarts, chocolate banana rolls, and apple custard rolls.

What got us most excited, though, was the dessert section, where we found tubs of Häagen-Dazs included in the all-you-can-eat selection. With Häagen-Dazs being such an expensive brand, it’s rare to find it at a buffet, yet here they were readily available, in three flavours: vanilla, cookies and cream, and strawberry.

▼ There were also six varieties of cakes, in easy-to-eat slices…

▼ …and at the very back, an alcoholic drink bar.

This section has beer on tap, red and white wines, and spirits and liqueurs so you can easily mix yourself up a cocktail.

There’s also sake, makgeolli, and umeshu completing the impressive selection.

With so much on offer, it’s almost like you need a guide to walk you through it all. We felt so overwhelmed by the selections that we ended up just piling whatever caught our eye onto a bunch of different plates, so when we got back to our table, we weren’t sure what should be the main focus.

We decided to start with the sashimi, enjoying two slices each of scallop, red sea bream, yellowtail, and tuna, along with one botan shrimp and one sweet shrimp.

Then we had five pieces of sushi: tuna, squid, conger eel, and seared tilefish, while the one in the middle was, unfortunately, something we’ve since forgotten.

Then, for our tabletop seafood grill, we had two clams and an oyster, as well as a couple of king crab legs. Looking around at other tables, we saw diners creating piles of discarded shells as they devoured crab after crab. We couldn’t be bothered with the tiresome job of shelling, though, so we just stuck to two easy-to-eat legs.

Also for our grill, we picked up three kinds of wagyu beef: misuji (chuck flap), sirloin, and kalbi (short rib).

Tucking into the sashimi, we had high expectations for the tuna, but the yellowtail turned out to be the real surprise. It was exceptionally fresh, deliciously fatty, and far more satisfying than expected.

As for the sushi, it was on par with the quality you’d find at a fairly good conveyor-belt sushi restaurant. It doesn’t quite reach the standard of a proper sit-down sushi restaurant, but even so, for an all-you-can-eat buffet, the quality was impressively high.

What makes this restaurant really appealing is you can eat sushi while grilling meat at the same time, and not just any meat, but wagyu beef.

Taking bites of sushi and sashimi while also gorging on freshly grilled meat made us feel like glutinous heathens, but in a sinfully good way.

Now it was time to fire up the hamayaki. Tossing our oysters and clams onto the grill, we covered them with the metal colander and followed the cooking times as instructed, grilling the clams for three minutes on each side and the oysters for five minutes on one side before they were ready to eat.

▼ When they were done, they were super plump and juicy.

▼ Freshly grilled and utterly delicious.

After eating our way through everything, it was time to finish with dessert.

▼ A bite-sized Opera cake and a strawberry mille crêpe…

▼ …and a tub of cookies and cream Häagen-Dazs.

After finishing our feast and walking away with a very full and satisfied belly, we realised our one mistake – eating too much fried food. By treating this like a regular buffet and trying a bit of everything on offer, including the fried food which was particularly filling, we weren’t able to take full advantage of the big-ticket items in the seafood section, namely the crab, which most diners had clearly come here for.

Compared to other diners, who seemed to be seasoned buffet pros with a radar for the good stuff, we thought we were getting a good deal by enjoying food from sections that appeared to be less loved by others. As it turns out, though, it wasn’t that they didn’t love these other dishes, just that they wanted to get the most value for money, and with only 90 minutes to get a good return on such a high investment, there was no time to waste on buffet items you can find at other all-you-can-eat restaurants.

Ginza Happo is famous for its seafood, so if you’re a seafood lover with a stomach as bottomless as the ocean, this is your must-visit destination in Tokyo. If you have other niche interests, though, then the all-you-can-eat deal at this tofu restaurant and the cheese buffet at this pizzeria will be more up your alley.

Restaurant Information
Ginza Happo Seafood Buffet Dining Shinjuku Branch / 海鮮ブッフェダイニング 銀座八芳 新宿店
Address: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Shinjuku 5-17-13, 3F Oriental Wave Building
東京都新宿区新宿5-17-13 オリエンタルウェーブビル 3F
Open: 11:30 a.m.–10:00 p.m. (last entry 8:00 p.m.)
Website

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