click to enlarge Emanuel Wallace

On the hot pot side: Kintaro's full-color pictorial menu includes 75 items, all but a few of which can be ordered again and again. The variety is staggering, ranging from everyday add-ins like bean sprouts, broccoli and shrimp to offbeat foods like chicken gizzards, pig liver and beef balls (as in meatballs, silly, not bull testicles).



For $25, diners enjoy unlimited food, which can be ordered all at once or in stages. Items like live lobster plucked from a nearby tank, crab legs and duck feet require an $8 surcharge and can be ordered only once. Also, requesting a split hot pot of two broths will cost you an extra $5, but it's money well spent for a few reasons. Chief among them is having one spicy and one non-spicy choice. Also, vegans and vegetarians might prefer a broth unsullied with the likes of pork stomach. Broth choices include an herbal brew, an umami-rich shacha, a red-slicked Szechuan style, and chicken.



For the price of $25.99, a diner instead can order unlimited sushi. The options include not only an expansive selection of sashimi, nigiri, maki and hand rolls, but also classic sushi items like miso soup, edamame, gyoza and tempura. But wait, there's more. These meals also include chicken teriyaki and hibachi-style foods like salmon and steak with fried rice. Owing to the onsite sushi bar, the quality far exceeds that found at a buffet-style sushi setup but naturally falls short of a high-end Japanese restaurant.



At lunch, the AYCE sushi drops to $15.99 and the hot pot to $10.99, but swaps the time limit for a 10-item limit. Our server said that weekends are much busier than our mid-week visit. Diners are not permitted to take surplus food home and in fact will be charged a fee for excessive leftovers.



Fans have been packing Kintaro in Brooklyn at Ridge Park Square (7325 North Cliff Ave.) for all-you-can-eat sushi and hot pot since owner Zhixin Lu opened the restaurant in October 2016.Three years later, with that success, Kintaro was ready to expand and in December opened its second location, this one in Fairview Park at 3111 Westgate Mall a128. Fans and newcomers will find the same menu, which includes none-AYCE options and deals being served in Brooklyn, along with the same well-executed touch that Scene dining editor Doug Trattner so enjoyed when he reviewed it in 2017 Both locations are open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.