Fukushima Restaurants (part 3)

It's time for Fukushima restaurant number three:

四季菜食

Kauri's Kitchen

四季菜食 - the kanji at the top stand for "Four Seasons Vegetables and Food"

Who doesn't enjoy a nice buffet lunch on their day off?  Haidee and I discovered Kauri's Kitchen (カウリキッチン) one Monday afternoon when we were at the Daiyu Eight Max (a mall here in Fukushima City).  It's become our favorite go-to spot for Monday lunches ever since. 

In Japan, a buffet is known as a viking (バイキング - baikingu).  I always thought this was referring to the Norsemen who (presumably) had ferocious appetites!  Apparently, though, that the word originated from the restaurant "Imperial Viking" in the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which was the first restaurant in Japan to serve buffet-style meals.

The way it works at Kauri's Kitchen is that you pay for the amount of time that you're in the restaurant:  60 minutes, 90 minutes, or unlimited.  They also charge different amounts for men and women; they assume (probably correctly) that men will eat more than women.  I certainly makes sense, but I don't think something like that would fly in the USA. . .

They have an awesome salad bar and a large selection of food.  There's even three kinds of ice cream and a variety of other desserts.  I really should just let the pictures tell the story. . .

Good variety of pastas and salads (I like the spicy wasabi leaf salad with sesame dressing)

The Main Line:  Curry-flavored lotus root (れんかん）, sweet potatoes, omelet, roasted chicken, fish, and more!

Main Line #2:  You can see some soba noodles in the front, next to the pickled vegies, as well as some tempura on top

3 kinds of ice cream today:  vanilla, green tea, and strawberry

Also included for dessert:  fruit, homemade yogurt, vanilla pudding, and biscuit cookies

In the winter we could cook soup in a nabe pot right on our table.

Yummy!

A plate of Japanese vegetables . . .

Here's a nice link to a page that highlights all the Japanese vegetables.

The cool thing about the square plates is that it looks so artistic!

Dessert Time!  ice cream, jelly, sweet red bean with mochi rice

And finally, the most satisfying part of an all-you-can-eat buffet:  the leftover dishes that you don't have to wash!