Ocean Buffet

Was amazing, everything tasted magnificent. The smell in the air was clearly good food cookin no complaints. The best part was the hibachi bar they have, if you love yamatos there in Gainesville then try it out with all the raw ingredients they offer, they even got the yo ho sauce.

Horrible service!!! I have loved this restaurant for years. My fiancé and I always come atleast twice a month sometimes, often bringing our friends with us. The food is always really good and I've never been sick even though I've heard lots of people mention they have. Today my fiancé and I came in with our roomate and ate like we usually do. As we were eating our server brought a shrimp tray and out it out on the dinner buffet counter that had just started at that moment. A customer started to put the shrimp on her plate and the server started yelling at them "dinner, for dinner." The customer said yes, I paid for a dinner buffet. Again the server yells "dinner" points at the checkout counter and says "pay." The man at the counter said "she paid for dinner." And then the server rolls her eyes, scoffs and walks away. 10 minutes go by and we are talking and eating as usual, everything has gone back to normal. Our server brings out the check which my fiancé handled while I was conversing with our friend. Now I usually handle the tip with cash since he pays for the food, but before I realized that the check was out and being paid for (I was still talking with my friend) the server grabs the check with my fiancés card, points at the tip section that he filled in with $1, yells "tip?" And he said "yes" and I kid you not she yells "one dollar tip?!" At my fiancé and then scoffs and crosses out his 1$ tip. Now at this point I'm furious, I didn't even get the chance to pull my wallet out and give her a cash tip. After that performance she isn't getting any tip from me and we will not be going there ever again. The audacity and rude attitude of this woman cannot go unnoticed, if something isn't done about her this company will go under. I've read several reviews from people being forced to tip or tip shamed at this location. It's not right. I understand some people under tip but she didn't even wait to see if we were going to leave cash as a tip, which I always do!

Food excellent, good service

I wish there were such a thing as a negative star! NEVER AGAIN WILL I EVER EAT FROM OCEAN BUFFET. I took my family there to celebrate my nephew's birthday. I fixed myself and my daughter a plate from the buffet. My daughter loves shrimp, so I couldn't give her her plate fast enough. I also had shrimp on my plate, but I was waiting on the others to join us before I began to eat. I was MORTIFIED when I went to eat the shrimp. The smell alone was HORRIBLE! I got another's opinion and they said the shrimp was def bad. I wasn't concerned with the fact that my appetite had been ruined, I was concerned with the fact that my daughter had eaten a handful of the shrimp and there was nothing I could do I this point. She is only 2 so of course she doesn't know what bad shrimp is. I called the manager over and told her what happened. She lied and said it was a different "Brand of shrimp". Then she told me (in the 5 min that she left my table) that she was gone to call the seafood company and tell them not to send that shrimp anymore. REALLY? On a Sunday you got in touch with this 'BIG SEAFOOD COMPANY" that you kept telling me you order from? So, I was appalled that not only was the food bad, the service sucked, and now you are lying to me. I told the manager I was not going to pay for the food that we could not eat. I really didn't feel like we owed them anything after that experience. She didn't agree, and CALLED THE POLICE ON US. I couldn't believe it. We hadn't even left, but the fact that I contested the bill SHE CALLED THE POLICE! NEVER AGAIN! And yes, we are in the process of a lawsuit because Ocean Buffet refuses to pay for the medical bill after my 2 year old ended up in the ER the following day. Guess what she was diagnosed with FOOD POISONING! They can narrow it down to SHRIMP.. imagine that!

The wait staff needs a lesson in how to deal with the public. My daughter and her boyfriend went and spent over $30 and when it was time to leave the waitress stood over them and pointed at the charge slip saying "tip, tip". She stayed behind them the whole time they filled out the receipt, and when they DIDN'T leave a tip due to the rudeness, she cornered one their friends and didn't want to let him leave. According to what the kids said, the food was good but they did find a hair in something.