"Our new restaurant in the Galleria will be the first in the Northeast," says Todai director of marketing Richard Lee.

Each Todai restaurant features a 160-foot seafood buffet counter with 40 different kinds of sushi, a salad bar and hot entree island that offers more than 15 dishes and a dessert bar that has 20 different cakes and fruits, according to company officials.

Todai Franchising LLC and its subsidiaries develop, license and operate Japanese seafood buffet restaurants under the name Todai. The first Todai restaurant opened in Santa Monica, CA, in 1985. By 1997, 10 Todai restaurants were operated in a host of Southern California locales including Cerritos, Glendale, Orange and Studio City. Later that year, founders and investors formed Todai Franchising LLC. A year later the company was restructured under CEO Hans Kim. In 1998, Todai Franchising opened its first company owned restaurant in San Jose Calif., and its first overseas location in Hong Kong in 2002. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles.

Currently, there are 25 Todai restaurants operating in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Hong Kong. Company officials note that 15 of the restaurants are company owned and the remainder are franchise-owned and operated.