Birthdays are a big deal in the Nomad household. All activities and requests center around the birthday celebrated Nomad. This year, our eldest Nomad son Noah, decided that he wanted sushi for lunch. So Mama Nomad, our resident research guru, got on track and found, what seemed to be, a good choice. Noah agreed and we were of to Yao Sushi and Buffet in Asheville, North Carolina.
We arrived at Yao and there was ample parking in the parking lot. There are two front doors to enter the restaurant. Both sides of the entrance were adorned with Chinese Lion statues and a happy Buddha greeted us as we approached the counter. We entered, were greeted and escorted past a Hibachi grill, 3 rows of buffets and a sushi bar to get to get to our table.
Quality of Food – 5
First, let’s keep in mind that this is a sushi and hot foods buffet. The sushi is designed to be made at a rapid pace and the hot food is under heat lamps. With that being said, the sushi was great. It did not compare with a stand alone sushi restaurant. However, it would be unfair to compare it as such. When you compare this place to other sushi buffets, Yao gets top marks. It had a great selection of sushi and it was delicious.
Yao had three rows of buffets with food choices that encompassed much of the orient including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, Thai and other cuisine. The buffet food seemed very fresh and never dried out. That is a difficult thing to achieve with a buffet.
Also, Mama Nomad had the Hibachi chef cook up some vegetables. She remarked how fresh and delicious it was. It is easy to see why Yao received a ranking of 5.
Service – 5
I cannot tell you who our server was. I always like to give credit to the server who took care of us. But, honestly, we had at least three people come to our table to fill our waters and clear our plates. They did so, 100% of the time, without us asking them. It seemed that every time I looked up my water was being filled or plates were being cleared by someone with a bright smile.
Price – 5
We knew the prices going in. Adults, for lunch, were $8 and kids were $5. We expected to pay $37 plus tax. That would be $8 each for me, Mama Nomad and our two eldest boys plus $5 for our youngest (age 10). At that price, it was a steal. Honestly, we were wondering what kind of buffet we would walk into for that price.
To our amazing surprise, when we entered we saw that those who are celebrating their birthday eat free. Score! We just dropped $8 from our bill. So, a family of 5 ate a delicious and amply filling meal for $29 plus tax! You can see why we gave this place a 5 on price.
Overall Value – 5
Yao had delicious food, fantastic service and they delivered it all at an unbelievable price. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Yao. We left happy, full and our wallet was not empty. If you are in the Asheville, North Carolina area, we recommend you stop in and give Yao a try. Safe Travels.
