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An all-you-can-eat sushi and pan-Asian buffet in midtown could be a recipe for tepid rolls and sloppy casseroles, but high turnover helps Ichi Umi deliver a shockingly vast assortment of fresh fish, hot items, salads, and even desserts for $18.95 at lunch and $28.95 at dinner (both three dollars more on weekends). The room is enormous and as stylish as you’d want a buffet atmosphere to be, with large plastic swordfish hanging on otherwise unadorned, neutral walls. Myriad options make the buffet a good way to sample, say, sea urchin without committing to an $8 roll—or to stuff yourself with stone-crab legs for cheap. Standouts include the smoky, grilled Korean kalbi, oily Japanese mackerel nigiri, and chewy jellyfish salad. Noodle dishes are also available, with ramen in a complex, meaty broth, and soba served with an array of toppings including shredded daikon and light, refreshing ponzu. Hot entrées can get dried out, and bite-size pastries for dessert tend to look better than they taste. Americanization is limited to Philadelphia rolls and a crêpe station just in case you want to follow nigiri with Nutella. — Hannah Geller

Nigiri sushi, hiyashi soba, ramen, grilled kalbi, jellyfish salad.