The other day, I vowed to not eat until I finished my short story.
Usually, I don't follow through when I make vows like this, and I give in to the demands of my hungry belly well before finishing the story on my computer screen.
However, this time, I stuck to my guns and didn't eat until 4 PM, which was when I finally finished my story.
Since the only thing I'd had to eat all day was a donut at 8 AM, I was absolutely ravenous.
To satisfy my appetite (and then some), I went to Kumo, a buffet in Parma.
As I've mentioned before, Kumo is one of my favorite buffets in Greater Cleveland. Fortunately, after my latest visit, it remains so.
Kumo has gone through some changes. Some were to be expected (inflation caused the buffet prices to go up a bit), some were for the better (the buffet now includes unlimited hotpot with no additional charge), and some were not ideal (for example, the ice cream is no longer self-serve).
Both despite and because of the changes, I still greatly enjoyed my most recent visit.
On a previous trip to Kumo, I remember the sushi selection being kind of limited. Thankfully, this time, I saw both more sushi rolls and nigiri. I ate a bunch of tuna, probably too much (okay, definitely too much). As always, the fish was fresh and tasty.
And because the buffet price includes hotpot now, I had to indulge there as well. I cooked myself a whole plate of lamb plus a variety of seafood: mussels, clams, and blue crab legs. Everything was fresh, and I dipped everything into a variety of tasty sauces from the sauce bar.
The hotpot and sushi were more than enough food, but of course, I also had to stuff myself with things from the hot food section. I got an egg roll, vegetable lo mein, plantains, ginger crab legs, more mussels, more clams, fried frog legs, and mango chicken.
My only quibbles were with the paper plates and dessert selection. The paper plates were mildly annoying, but since I was still able to load my plates with plenty of food, I quickly got over it.
The dessert selection, however, was a little more disappointing. The big self-serve tubs of ice cream of yore have since been replaced with little cups of ice cream that you have to request from the staff. Though I enjoyed my cup of low-fat vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce (don't worry, they still have full-fat ice cream), I missed digging for big scoops of mint chocolate chip.
However, I know that buffets have to make some adjustments during these challenging times, and in my opinion, it's better to have Kumo with a more limited dessert selection than no Kumo at all.
Kumo Japanese Seafood Buffet is located at 1975 Snow Rd, Cleveland, OH 44134.
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