AYCE Sushi At Kimko Seafood Restaurant

Not my plate. I skipped salad.

There are only two types of people in the world: Those who want all-you-can-eat sushi and those who don't.

Or is that just here in my house?

I took the '34 Act Gourmet for a weekday lunch at Kimko Sushi in Ellicott City.  This is the former Bethany Sushi.  It's a Korean restaurant with lots of seafood specials.  Many offered in Korean printed on the wall.

We started simple -- walk in, order the buffet, and go to work with an empty plate.  We filled them fast.  Start with the sushi, of course.  Don't overfill the plate, but work down the line.  Fish is cut thin, but there is a lot of it.  Some sushi pieces with a single slice.  Many rolls with rice, vegetables and fish.

Kimko's sushi

On the second plate, look around.  Along with the sushi in the front, Kimko has a hot bar along the side.  That's some Korean food like barbecue beef, noodle dishes, and kimchi.

Don't miss the kimchi.  I was facing all-you-can-eat sushi, so I could pass on salad, rice, and tempura vegetables.  But the kimchi was delicious without being very spicy.  Other pickled vegetables were a refreshing contrast to the sushi on plates two and three.

I promise this is a good idea.  Some people don't want all-you-can-eat, and I can't claim Kimko has the pizzaz of Sushi Sono or Sushi King.  But it's fun.  Rolls are varied -- tuna, salmon, shrimp, roe, etc.  Rolls are creative.  Several had sliced beets, which were interesting and a little sweet.  The fish was delicious.  Even the tempura shrimp rolls held up on the bar.

(Update: I think the buffet was about $12.  I lost my notes.  And I'm pretty sure it was just Monday to Friday.)

For another report, check out Kyle's report from last year.  And if you don't want all-you-can-eat, you can still stuff yourself at Kimko.  The This Is Gonna Be Good blog wrote about a seafood feast of the regular menu -- including a meter-long wooden platter of sashimi.

Can anyone recommend other food at Kimko?  A bunch of specials are written up without English translations, but they're clearly focusing on seafood -- down to tanks full of live fish.

Kimko Seafood Restaurant
10176 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21042
(410) 480-1442

NEAR:  Pay attention.  This isn't hard, but I have screwed up the directions several times.  Kimko is on the north side of Rte 40 just west of Bethany Lane.  But it doesn't face Rte 40.  Turn right two driveways before the traffic lights at Pine Orchard Lane.  Kimko is all the way down at the end.  If you go too far, turn right anyway.  You'll drive into a parking lot with Mirocjo and other good food.  You can walk up the hill and into Kimko's back door.

Link: Kimco Seafood On This Is Gonna Be Good

The This is Gonna Be Good blog has terrific photos and a long description of a Korean-style sushi feast at Kimco Seafood.

This was a spread with 25+ panchan and a meter-long wood board covered with sashimi.  1000yregg posts about exotics like sea squirt, sea cucumber and lobster, but much of the sashimi was halibut, tuna, salmon and yellowtail.  After all that, they had a lobster soup.

TIGBG actually posted about Kimco in April, but I overlooked it then.  It's too good to miss.  Kimco is the Ellicott City restaurant that I reviewed a long time ago when it was called Bethany Seafood.

For more about Korean restaurants along Rte 40, check out a prior post where Kevin talked about the variations, including Korean sashimi called "Hwae."

AYCE Sushi And Korean At The Kimko Buffet

Kyle tried the Korean sushi lunch buffet at Kimko after reading Min's report on the all-you-can-eat option.  That was part of a two-post discussion of Korean joints along Rte 40 in Ellicott City.  Kyle hit Kimko, and he was impressed.

My other Korean sushi buffet place is Gah Rham in Beltsville. They're both similar and worth doing, but I appreciated the Kimko spread better.  I think I was the only non-Korean there but they seemed to take a little better care of me. I was asked several times if everything was ok or if I needed anything. My main server was raised in HoCo.

Korean sushi buffets seem to follow the same layout. The previous Korean Howchow post did a good job of explaining the Korean food part of the kimko buffet. But how do you eat fried rice with chopsticks? This is not the kind of place you ask for a fork, though I'm pretty sure they would of given me one.  This day's buffet was light on noodle dishes. The only one was a salad noodle combo that was very good. The spicy food was not very spicy except for the killer raw green hot pepper half in one of the dishes.

The sushi component consisted of four different trays of raw fish on rice at the top level and over a dozen and a half sliced rolls  on shelves below.   There were vegetarian, raw fish, and cooked fish rolls. Several were in the fancy category with or without a tempura component. They were all labeled, but the fancy rolls were just labeled special. You have to guess at the contents. You use tongs supplied in a container at the beginning to select individual slices. The variety is overwhelming.  It's fun to watch how many slices a person  can stack on one plate. Personally I go lighter on the sushi (one layer not touching) and heavy on Korean food (it can touch).  This isn't Sushi King or Sushi Sono, but it's decent.  

I'm not a good person to judge quality. I don't even know the names of this stuff but I did like everything. The Korean food was not labeled.  I'll go back again and I'll keep recommending the buffet. 

Kimko's buffet is $11.95 and runs 11-3 weekdays.   Kimko's is on Rte 40 at Bethany Lane.  It used to be called Bethany Seafood.

Korean Restaurants On Rte 40 -- Looking To Trade Advice About Ellicott City's World Cuisine

Pork belly and more at Honey Pig

There is a world of Korean food along Rte 40 in Ellicott City, and I'm looking to trade advice about what to try and where to eat.

You don't go to Rte 40 for some standard "Korean food."  We're past the point where restauranteurs offer up an identical menu of classics.  Instead, the restaurants are spreading out -- offering a range of dishes and offering atmospheres from classy to casual, from hip to dive bar.  They're all delicious.  They're all friendly to non-Koreans.  I'm outlining what I know in the hopes that folks will add more detail in the comments.