A large buffet and hibachi grill is now open at the corner of Singleton Road and Jimmy Carter Boulevard. The shiny lacquer booths and decorations speak to its newness. The voluminous piles of food will give you a good idea of why this $8 flat fee restaurant is so busy in its first weeks. 

As you can imagine, I would steer you away from the pizza, oddly shaped chicken fingers and twice-baked potatoes at an Asian buffet.

You could join the crowd and see how many crawfish or crab claws or peel-and-eat shrimp you can possibly eat for just $8, but allow me to advise you against that, too. Unfortunately, I’ve also got to direct you away from the sushi. The colorful spread is simply not fresh. I always judge a sushi establishment by the quality of its ginger. Give it a nibble if you are in doubt.

But—but—there’s nothing except curiosity to stop you from only getting plate after plate of freshly grilled meats, veggies, rice and noodles from the hibachi chef. You’ll have to pass arrays of Chinese soups, three different sweet-and-sour dishes and, oddly, fried plantains to get there.

But go all the way to the back, where you’ll find a bar of raw ingredients that you pile onto a plate, Mongolian Barbeque-style. (Basically a “create-your-own stir-fry” set up, where you pick the ingredients that you want grilled by the chef from a cold salad bar.)

Hand the combination you fancy to the hibachi chef who lords over a sizzling-hot, flat grill. Wait patiently while he cracks an egg on the side, then dices and grills your steak, shrimp or crab with the other ingredients. The "white" sauce on the bar is a delightful creamy garlic number with a little bit of a kick. 

On the sluggish walk to the car, we tried to crack open our fortunes from the cookies we swiped on the way out. In one cookie, no fortune. Not a blank piece of paper—but no piece of paper at all. Symbolic?