All-you-can-eat sushi is ubiquitous in Reno. One transplant from San Francisco called it “weird and confounding,” but for long-term locals, it’s sushi à la carte that seems novel. Here, we’re accustomed to chowing down on course upon course of rolls, nigiri and apps for a flat price of around $30 for lunch, or $40 for dinner.
Miyuki Wong, a salesperson and purchaser for Sierra Meat and Seafood, has been selling fish to local sushi places for 27 years. She said the all-you-can-eat trend started in 1995, when Sushi Club opened on Moana Lane. (It eventually closed after a 20-year run.) She figures the idea sprang from the casino industry’s all-you-can-eat buffets; maybe Reno was ready for all-you-can-eat meals outside of casinos, too.
“It just spread like wildfire, really,” Wong said. “People loved it. It was so accessible. It was really yummy. … Sushi Pier became all-you-can-eat, and then everybody became all-you-can-eat. … The quality’s great. The chefs are great. The presentation’s really good. It’s not inferior sushi—but it is, you know, made for the masses.”
The AYCE trend made sushi, formerly a special-occasion splurge, an easy option for young people on a date and families with kids. To this day, Wong pointed out, AYCE places are usually packed.
How can restaurateurs afford to let us stuff our faces like this? They rely largely on good-quality frozen fish, Wong said. She sells frozen hamachi in the $9 per pound range; fresh hamachi is in the $20 range. With the exception of salmon, which is always fresh, and fare from a handful of higher-end places, most of the sushi fish you eat in Reno was once frozen.
Wong has seen a few sushi places opt for lower-quality frozen fish over the years. “I’ve seen them not last,” she said.
Heejin Polon, owner of Sushi Pier, has seen the all-you-can-eat sushi scene evolve during her quarter-century tenure.
“When we first started, our sushi chefs were from Micronesia,” she said. Micronesians brought family members to Reno to work in the industry. Their children were more inclined toward college tracks than kitchen jobs, and Latino chefs then rose to prominence in local sushi kitchens.
“They started bringing in different flavors like the jalapeños and the spices and the limes and the fruit, the mangoes and things like that,” Polon said.
So, is AYCE sushi as quintessentially Reno as we think it is? Said Wong: “I’ve never heard of all-you-can-eat in L.A. or San Francisco.” While she has heard of a few AYCE places opening in Las Vegas, she thinks it’s still safe to call it a Reno thing.
Reno currently has a few sushi places that don’t serve AYCE. Miyabe Japanese Cuisine opened in 2021 in Shayden Summit mall, 13967 S. Virginia St., Suite 910, and Yuzu Sushi & Bar opened in 2026 at 440 N. Virginia St., in downtown Reno. Wong does not believe this means the end of AYCE.
“People love it. I think there’ll be room for both,” she said. “All-you-can-eat is just so popular, and I think it always will be.”
Polon’s forecast: “I think it’s going to sustain, because really, with sushi, there’s no substitute. If you are jonesing for sushi, there’s really nothing else that you can eat that’s going to satisfy that craving.”