Our initial order of food from the Sunday Buffet.

Early in January, I came across a deal for the Sunday Brunch at Sumo Sumo Sushi in Sherwood Park. Their website listed an offering of five dollars off their usual price throughout the month. I hadn’t been there for years and was excited to learn that there was another all-you-can-eat option near the city, so I made a point of dragging my fiancé there over the last weekend it was available.

We arrived at the location on Lakeland Drive shortly after noon, so we kind of hit the lunch rush. The host at the front counter reminded us that the only menu on offer that day was the buffet and she asked if that was okay. She was also sure to let us know that the cost had been reduced to $29.95 per person instead of the regular $32.95 (updated February 2018). Once we had agreed to those stipulations, she checked to see if we had a reservation. Since we did not, we were seated in their enclosed patio space. The room was heated, but we were by a window and I found it got a little chilly after a while.

The Sunday Buffet menu.

Service was also slow to start as no one came by our table for a good ten minutes after we sat down. Once the server showed up, it wasn’t too bad though. She brought us our drinks (one beverage each is included). I opted for orange juice that came in a very tall glass, so I think the value was decent, especially since the majority of alternative sushi places charge extra. My fiancé chose to go with a pot of green tea. Sushi, sashimi, udon and shrimp tempura orders must be placed through the servers. On this occasion, the restaurant was out of toro and octopus. To make up for that, they relaxed their limit on the tuna, yellowtail and scallop. For our first run, we got six pieces of shrimp tempura, three pieces of chop chop sushi, and I maxed out on my sashimi portion by getting eight pieces of salmon and seven pieces of tuna.

While those items were being prepared, we ventured out to the ready made buffet. They do have a decent spread with a number of cold salads, a few hot salads, mussels, several maki rolls, meat skewers, teriyaki and tonkatsu, vegetarian tempura and a handful of dessert options.

I brought back a large plate full of seaweed salad, bean sprout salad, sesame beef pasta salad, California rolls, Aloha rolls, yam tempura and ponzu mussels. When we returned to our table, we realized that we were never given any utensils. To prevent further delay, I ended up grabbing a couple of forks from the buffet, but we did have to inquire with our server who apologized as the chopsticks and napkins should have been set out earlier. When she came back, she had those as well as a dish of wasabi and pickled ginger for us. Within the following ten minutes, she brought us our sashimi, tempura and sushi, too.

Some of the items I picked up from the ready made buffet.

I’ll begin by reviewing the buffet items that I chose. I felt that the seaweed and bean sprout salads were standard. The seaweed salad was seasoned well and the kelp had that crunchy, chewy texture. The bean sprouts were pretty fresh, and I enjoyed the flavour of the sesame dressing. My one issue was that the sauce was somewhat watery. Surprisingly, I really liked the sesame beef pasta salad. It’s kind of an unusual find in a Japanese eatery; however, the beef was tender and marinated nicely. I believe it had the perfect amount of mayo-type dressing on it (not drenched) that gave it a slight tang.

Tempura at Sumo Sumo was decent as the kitchen avoided over battering and the shell remained crisp despite sitting out in the buffet servers. Despite the California rolls tasting great with their use of cucumber, avocado and sesame seeds, I was a tad disappointed to see that they utilize fake crab meat. I appreciated the Aloha roll as it provided a balance of sweet and heat through the combination of tuna, avocado, masago, green onion, eel sauce, spicy mayo, pineapple, shredded coconut, soy and sesame oil. I loved the Kiwi mussels because they were so large and fleshy, and the ponzu sauce was light with a kick to it.

Chop Chop Sushi, Shrimp Tempura, Salmon & Tuna Sashimi and buffet items.

I’m very glad that they make the shrimp tempura fresh when requested. It meant that each batch came out piping hot. The chop chop sushi had a good ratio of scallop to masago to mayo to rice with a perfectly dry nori wrap. Shockingly, the pieces of sashimi were massive, at least when it came to the tuna and salmon. They were incredibly thick cut, meaning there was a ton of protein. I thought the tuna was the better of the two as it tended to melt in the mouth whereas the salmon was tougher and required more chewing. Since my fiancé isn’t a fan of raw fish, he took full advantage of the cooked meats (kebabs and tonkatsu at the buffet).

The second order of sashimi. The snapper on the top right corner of the plate were still frozen.

To maximize the value, I made sure to put in our second order for sashimi. This time, I chose to try three pieces each of the tuna, salmon, yellowtail, scallop, and snapper. It was a long time before this plate made it to our table and I know why. When I bit into my first slice of snapper, it turned out that it was still frozen in the middle and I could feel the ice inside the fish. The kitchen must have been hoping it would thaw. I informed our server of that problem and, thankfully, she offered to switch the snapper for something else. The salmon and tuna (more sinewy) were comparable to our initial dish of sashimi. I’m not sure that I liked the scallop sashimi that much. It sort of left a bitterness at the back of my throat and I don’t think it should have. On the other hand, the yellowtail was fantastic. The slices of this last fish were much more manageable in size and the flavour was sweetly tangy.

Chocolate Mousse and Crème Brûlée

By the time I made it through that portion of sashimi, I was so full. Yet, I wasn’t willing to leave without dessert. I was capable of fitting in a small cup of crème brûlée and a glass of chocolate mousse in my stomach. Both refrained from being too heavy, making either an ideal way to complete the meal. The restaurant allows diners a total of two hours to eat and we finished almost exactly within that time frame.

After doing the math, I surmised that all of the food I ate myself was equivalent in value to what I paid for our lunch. Everything that my fiancé ate was the cherry on top. Ultimately, I would say that our experience at Sumo Sumo was a fun one. Even though I don’t think it’s as good as Watari ($36 during dinner gets each person 30 pieces of reasonably sized sashimi and all items are made to order from the kitchen), this was, overall, alright. I think if Sherwood Park isn’t too out of the way, it’s worth dropping by once in a while to fulfill any cravings. Otherwise, Sumo Sumo is a place that I probably won’t be going out of my way to visit for another few years.