This buffet thingy has been the talking point for some of my friends since two weeks back. High anticipation and expectation for all of us. But perhaps it was the fact that we all got 'high' on our senses that when things turned out to be slightly lower than our expectations we tend to take it rather
'differently'.Anyway...the buffet wasn't 68++... that was for late lunch, which starts at 2pm and ends at 4pm. My slot was at 12pm to 2pm. So the price is 80++. With taxes and such...the price was a nett
RM89.70.You have to queue outside, make payment based on the number of headcounts before you are allow to enter this place. There was plenty of selection for a Japanese buffet. I spent 15mins of my precious 2hour limit taking pictures...and checking out whats available. I was pretty amazed by their variety, from
sashimi to tempura to cookies and dessert.
I only managed to make a quarter of the round perhaps, when I saw small black ants crawling in and out of one of the plates they served grilled prawns on. Errmmm...how come no one notice...? One of my friend still thought of goin for the prawn, I told him he'd be eating grilled prawns with black sesame. He decided that wasn't a good combination after all.
After making a round, I still have not decided of what to go for first. Guess I'll start with some fully cooked stuff, just to serve as '
base'...in case, my weak stomach decided not to accept raw stuff on my first meal of the day.
My first attempt wasn't anything significant. The crab was already cold when I took it to my table, so are those prawns. The taste was just OK. So, I was rather disappointed. But I told myself, '
hey...this is a japanese buffet after all...maybe the sashimi's good...' Erm....maybe!
The sashimi's fresh alrite...at least, it ought to be! The salmon's fresh. Not bad at all. But the wasabi could be better. I wont be too demanding over this, so guess it's a pass for this one. But the rest that followed, to me...was a disaster.
The 'siao loong pao' my friend took. Its worst than Da Niang's back in Anggrek, Jakarta. Skin's too thick and you can still taste the flour and the soup's too little...and the meat's not tender.
Ok, so this is Chinese...maybe it doesnt count too. Fine. More to come...
Tempura time. There were about 6 to 8 choices. From
fried durian to
fried water chestnut. I wonder why...? The prawn fritter has too much flour, the taste was just so-so. Heck...the whole plate was a
so-so. I'm giving this another
C- or
D.
Then comes the Yakitori. Meat's not tender enough. Not much taste. I took 3 sticks to share among 10 of us. We only manage to finish 2. It's that bad! Even Tori-Q in Singapore, which you can get for a mere SGD1 / stick tastes better.
My friend ordered
steamed fish. Thought we could have something nice. He took a bite and was already throwing out his comments before the rest of us could even try. It turned out, the fish was '
hard'. Either its over cooked...or perhaps its not that fresh. Some tried and was nodding their heads to agreement over what comment was made earlier. As for me, I couldn't be bothered to even try.
One thing that annoyed me was the
VIP coupon system. There were a few dishes that even with the price you have paid earlier will not entitle you to order. King Crab and Lobster are a few of those fine examples. You need to have VIP coupons. How to get them? Make sure your total bill was
RM1200 or above. Then you can try.
One thing that I wont be complaining about is probably the dessert. They have plenty. And I think these are at least 'good' as compared to the rest of those which failed to make it into my 'would take for 2nd round' list.
Service was bad. The
waiters /
waitresses only stood there...they dont serve you water like hotel buffets. If you want, you have to ask. They will take your glass, run off, disappear into the corner and return with your water. You want a refill.
Wait. They will repeat that process. Sometimes you
waited for them to clear your plates, and they dont seem to notice. But once you walked away to the washroom, they come and offer to clear whatever you were eating halfway. Most of the time, they dont understand what you're talking about. You have to speak slowly and repeat a few times if you're lucky.
At least the toilet was decent. It was equipped with "
Super Toilet". With heater seat and water volume that you can select from. Though it doesn't look like something which you'd like to seat you a$$ on, but still...at least something to LOOK at. Its a pity that this is the only thing which manages to raise my eyebrow for just a lil while during the whole lunch course.
The fact that I've heard people giving pretty good comment on this place made me wonder...maybe its just me having a bad day.
Here are the rest of the pics I've took :
Jogoya
