New owner acquires shuttered Tokyo Buffet building on Greenback Lane

By Mike Hazlip—
Records show the Tokyo Buffet building at 7217 Greenback Ln., which has been shuttered since a fire occurred at the site in 2019, has a new owner.

Sacramento County Assessor data shows a transfer of ownership for the property on December 2, 2021. Citrus Heights Communications Officer Nichole Baxter confirmed the site was purchased in 2021 by Kobe Hibachi and Sushi Incorporated based in Lincoln, California. The previous owner was Milpitas-based Gosing LLC.

The sale price was $1.8 million, according to information published by RealtyTrac.

Public records from the City of Lincoln list a Kobe Hibachi and Sushi Inc. at 131 Ferrari Ranch Rd. with an active business license. An employee at the restaurant did not have information about the purchase of the buffet property in Citrus Heights, and said the owner was not available when Sentinel staff called the restaurant Saturday.

Baxter said the new owner has not contacted the city about plans or future uses.

Tokyo Buffet has been closed since a kitchen fire damaged the restaurant in August of 2019. Metro Fire Capt. Chris Vestal, told The Sentinel at the time the likely cause of the fire was a general failure of the restaurant’s kitchen hood fire extinguishing system. The system was inoperable at the time of the fire, he said.

According to Metro Fire, the blaze caused damage to the restaurant’s heating, ventilation and cooling system. No estimation of the total amount of damage was available.

The fire occurred during business hours and all patrons were safely evacuated.