Mando 万岛 @ Shanghai

This is one of the rare visit to a buffet for me in recent years. But we were too lazy to go too far away from our hotel (The Westin Bund Center), we settled for the Japanese buffet that had opened a branch right behind us.

Mando Japanese and Teppanyaki Buffet 万岛日本料理铁板烧 is a reputable Japanese buffet that has been around for quite some time. I remembered their unlimited servings of uni and we were totally stuffed with teppan beef and other items. But these days, I go for quality rather than quantity so I have not been to a Japanese buffet for a long time.

You can pick the seafood you want for the sashimi platter or let them bring one out for you. We took the trouble to make sure they only placed the things we were interested in – pacific clams, langoustines, botanebi, sweet ebi, uni. They missed out the uni in this platter.

The botan ebi was very sweet and succulent, but they came with the shell intact. So I gave up after two, and too lazy to go for more. Smart tactic to discourage multiple orders of the more expensive ingredients.

Besides sushi and sashimi, you can order a wide variety of side dishes like sea whelk in wine, poached Dalian abalone, and beef tartare with quail egg yolk.

Foie gras poached in red wine with blueberry sauce was a disappointment though. I thought foie gras was served pan fried since this restaurant was also a teppanyaki. Turned out to be a cold pate and a rather hard and tasteless rendition.

I am reluctant to try fresh shucked oysters in China, especially ones these big. Luckily they were steamed. Not a fan of steamed oysters.

Finally the uni sashimi came. They could have just gave us the whole box, but it stretched the dollar by placing it on a large platter. Not the top quality, most likely local produced ones, perhaps Shandong. Nevertheless still a nice ending to a really full meal.

It’s a buffet and you can eat as much or as little as you want. Especially useful if you are unsure what you feel like eating. Be warned, as this place was in a basement, the ventilation was horrible. The place smelled like a massage parlour that has not been cleaned for a long long time, you know want I mean 😉

Mando Japanese and Teppanyaki Buffet 万岛日本料理铁板烧(外滩店)
上海黄浦区延安东路222号外滩中心1层(南广场外手扶梯直达)
Tel : 021-63217727

Date visited : Jan 2022