Tenji Japanese Buffet @ Solaris Mont Kiara

No doubt Tenji Japanese Buffet @ Solaris Mont Kiara is the latest craze in town. It has been forwarded in emails, blogged by numerous food bloggers, and perhaps the most attractive thing about it currently is the buffet luncheon promotion @ RM49.90 per pax. If you are a fast eater you might even grab it at RM29.90 for the first hour, followed by an extra RM10 for the subsequent hours. I was there yesterday and there are a few things (not mentioned in other blogs) you ought to know:

• The luncheon buffet is fully booked until 15th Jan 2009 Good news, the luncheon buffet has been extended to 17th Feb for RM55 nett per pax. This means there’s no more per hour dining.
• If you did not make a reservation, you might as well forget about going to enter as a walk-in guest. Because only guests who made reservations were allowed to enjoy the buffet. Unless, you are willing to try your luck to see if any of the guests who made reservations did not turn up, then you could take their places. Chances are pretty low to be frank.
• The full luncheon buffet costs RM54.90 per pax, inclusive of 10% service charge. No government tax.
• Like some have mentioned in forums, the restaurant is not full even though they say they are fully booked. I guess they want to restrict the number of guests in order to maintain the service and food quality. Or simply because they might not be able to cope with the volume of customers, since it’s a new restaurant.
• Tenji’s [tag]Japanese Buffet[/tag] is pork free.

That being said, let’s move on to the food!

The sushi was good, I enjoyed the salmon sushi the most. The rest you see on the plate were so-so, because the lobster salad was pretty bland tasting. If you are wondering, the maki behind was not made with soft shell crab. I must admit I was tricked into taking it because it certainly looked like soft shell crab maki.. but in fact it was just fried prawns (the tail part).

Then I went to take some sashimi and oysters. Tenji’s [tag]oysters[/tag] are seriously huge, just humongous – at least 50% larger than the largest I have had so far. If you could down it in one mouthful, it would be really impressive, lol.
You can see it is as long as the plate, with plenty of flesh too. They were fresh as well but some had sand in them for not being cleaned thoroughly, which was the only gripe I had. If you are an oyster lover, I bet you would be 110% delighted to have joined this buffet.

For drinks, I drank the imported coconuts mostly, as the fruit juices were very diluted and didn’t taste nice. By now you would have seen quite a lot of complaints regarding the coconuts not being replenished fast or often enough. But, when I was there, I noticed the coconuts were always available even at the buffet’s peak. So it’s either I was lucky, or the management noticed the complaints and made improvements. The coconuts are a must try because they had a nice, aromatic pandan flavor. Very different from the local coconuts.

There is a station for Japanese paper steamboats and it’s perhaps the most relaxed among all. The huge tiger prawns caught my eye and I just had to try it. Besides, I have never tried paper steamboat before. After picking the other ingredients like mushrooms and vegetables, you can then choose between spicy and miso soup, then delivered to you when it’s ready.
A [tag]paper steamboat[/tag] holder is on every table but it won’t be lit up to keep the steamboat warm, hmm. The miso soup was OK, but the prawns were a let down. Despite being really fresh and having super tender flesh, my palate told me the tiger prawns were reared type and not those caught from the sea. Hence, the lack of sweetness.

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