Sura rolls out island’s cheapest Sinlaku recovery buffet at $10

In the wake of Super Typhoon Sinlaku, Korean restaurant Sura has reopened with what it says is the cheapest buffet on Saipan, offering a $10 lunch buffet to help residents still struggling with prolonged power and water outages.

Moon Park, who helps manage the family-owned restaurant, said the recovery-themed buffet was launched immediately after reopening last week.

“We reopened with the $10 Sinlaku Typhoon Buffet,” Park said. “We wanted to help the community out without having to raise up the price too much. We wanted to give everybody a reasonable price because everybody’s suffering right now.”

Before the storm, Sura’s buffet was priced at $15. But despite rising operating costs and the use of generators due to ongoing power outages, the restaurant decided to lower prices instead.

“So we lowered it down to $10 to make it reasonable, but we kept the menu almost exactly the same as before,” Park said, confirming it’s the cheapest buffet on island right now.

Park acknowledged the restaurant is absorbing losses while continuing operations without utility service.

“We’re not [maintaining margins] because we also don’t have power, so we’re also going around getting diesel every other day,” he said. “We make the profit, we go out and go get diesel. But we’re doing that not so much so that we can make the money, but really to help out the community and keep options open so that people with no power, no water can come and enjoy lunch and dinner.”

The lunch spread includes white rice, fried rice, soup of the day, pork or beef bulgogi, fried chicken, tempura, Korean side dishes, and a build-your-own bibimbap station.

Because of limited refrigeration and storage caused by the islandwide outages, Park said menu options sometimes depend on ingredient availability.

“There’s not food that we can store,” he said. “We sometimes have to go out to a store and buy the ingredients right then and there.”

The restaurant also sustained substantial damage from the typhoon, including flooding, cracked windows and floors, and the loss of perishable food inventory after more than a week without power and water.

“I’m pretty sure it’s in the tens of thousands,” Park said of the estimated losses.

Despite the setbacks, Park said the family wants to continue supporting residents through the recovery period and hopes to keep the $10 buffet in place for at least another month or two.

“We’d love to keep it at $10 at least for the next month or two, or at least until everything normalizes,” he said.

Park added that customer turnout has been strong despite little advertising.

“Word of mouth only. We don’t really do any social media,” he said. “I’m really grateful everybody’s been coming out and supporting local businesses.”

Sura’s $10 Sinlaku Typhoon Buffet is available daily from 11am to 2pm, while dinner service features an all-you-can-eat samgyeopsal special for $20 from 5pm to 8pm.