Todai Restaurant burst on the scene in Waikiki in 1999 offering a Japanese-style buffet dominated by seafood. But after a long run, the eatery with roughly 400 seats went bust itself last month.

Miwami USA LLC, the operator of Todai, was evicted from its longtime home in Canterbury Place at 1910 Ala Moana Blvd. over unpaid rent that the landlord said topped $1 million.

Todai was founded by Toru Makino, who established more than 50 Todai restaurants in California and claimed to be the first to bring such a buffet — loaded with tempura, sushi, lobster, crab and non-seafood dishes — to the United States. One feature that was hard to pass up for some consumers was free dining on one’s birthday.

Makino sold the Waikiki restaurant after a few years, but in recent years reacquired ownership with business partner Han Kim.

In an April 2013 story in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Dining Out section, Makino said he was excited to be back and hoped to draw "crowds of locals and tourists like we did in the past."

Yet revenue dropped drastically, according to a November 2013 letter to landlord Bruce Stark included in a bankruptcy filing by a Stark company that owns the roughly 14,000-square-foot Todai space.

Kim said in the letter that competition from similar restaurants was growing severe, though the company hoped more Chinese and Korean visitors would improve Todai’s business in 2014. The letter sought to restructure rent and establish a long-term payment plan.

Stark said he tried to help Todai and gave the restaurant breaks on rent, but last year he moved to evict the eatery after unpaid rent ballooned. "I really stretched to help them," he said. "They were beyond help."