Yaki Yaki Japanese Barbeque Buffet Restaurant @ Jalan Bukit Bintang

It was the special month of two birthday girl - Ling and Cat. YC decided to try out the food at Yaki Yaki Japanese Barbeque Buffet Restaurant located in Jalan Bukit Bintang as she was recommended by her friend through a blog http://www.vkeong.com/2009/food-drink/yaki-yaki-japanese-barbeque-buffet-restaurant-jalan-bukit-bintang/. The food looked so yummy in the photos. In addition, they were having special promotion of 50% discount in that month and after so many good comments of "new kid for Japanese buffet" - Tenji Japanese Buffet Restaurant, we had no hesitation to give it a try. We thought they would have the same quality.

But the dinner ended up to disappoint us and we will never ever go back again unless they've improved on the food and service. You'll know what I meant after reading this. Sorry, I didn't take many photos as I was very upset with the food served and service. So, you might not be able to see how bad I experienced

As I stepped in the restaurant, it was very crowded but the dark environment made me felt not so comfortable. Although the restaurant was very spacious, I thought it was the "tactic" and strategy to design in such a way, so that customers were hard to reach for food. Maybe I was wrong, but can you imagine how much food could be served with only four corners of tables? Sigh...

豪豪 and I dashed to the cold section to get the most expensive food. Disappointment, no sashimi was displayed on the tray. The chef was slowly slicing the salmon and tuna to the queued up customers. Strange, we had to hand him our plate, and then only he gave us a portion of sashimi. I was not sure the idea was to maintain the freshness of food or to limit customers from taking more. But why Tenji and Jogoya can do so? Not many choices on the sushi too, only 6 to 8 types and the appearance did not give me an urge to try. So, I just took some cold dishes and sadly walked back to my table. 豪豪 took 2 plates of fresh oysters and I saw him enjoying it. He commented "Oklar, still can put in the mouth".

My second attempt was to another corner which displayed the uncooked items for barbeque. They have a wide range of meat - marinated or non marinated, fish, prawns, corn, mushroom and skewered sausage. The funniest thing was they put 9 of us on a joined table but only with 1 barbeque pot. All of us were squeezed to a corner to grill the food, but once Big Kent joined in, there was no space for the others. The barbeque pot also got dirty very fast but you can request to change a new one. I didn't enjoy the barbeque because I was too lazy to wait.

The worst thing was the food and coconut were replenished real slow especially the coconut. They opened one carton from the kitchen and brought to the bar counter, all the coconuts vanished in a minute. We had to wait for another 20 minutes for another opened carton. I gave up and just helped myself to get a glass of juice from the beverage corner. Luckily Chuan and Big Kent managed to "secure" two coconuts for me at last. Thanks ya!

I walked to the cooked food corner, most of the pots were empty and had yet to be replenished. Another corner served normal soup noodle which I felt nothing special about it. There were only 3 fried items. No soft shell crab!!! They served fried pandan chicken. Duh, how does this pandan chicken relate to Japanese food?

Finally, I decided to go back to cold section for more sashimi. I only stuffed myself with sashimi, cooked prawn and some grilled lamb at that night. All of us felt so disappointed after the dinner although we just paid RM48+/person for the food, we felt not worth the money at all. During the whole night, no one came to our table to clear the used and empty plates or glasses for us. We had to help ourselves to move those “unused” dishes to next table. So, what was the service charge for?

However, my cousin commented it is a good restaurant after my visit. He experienced the freshness and variety of food. Perhaps there were too many bad comments about the restaurant and they have improved it. We really wish they can do something so that the consumers do not feel cheated like what we felt. I want my money back....Sniff...sniff...

Hawker Food @ Pudu “为食街”

After a tiring day of work, we made our way to Pudu hawker stalls street for our late dinner. A place that I've not visited for long time where my parents used to bring us to have dinner or supper after a good movie at 增光戏院. The cinema was no longer there but was turned to a mall which trading the most famous things here - electronic components and parts. Miss the cinema so much, this place shared a part of my childhood memories.

Ok, come back to food. 豪豪 was a hungry and greedy man that night, he wanted to try all the food. I only ordered the “Ice Kacang”, he did the rest. First, he ordered "mixed pork" soup to go with rice. Then, here came the curry "chee cheong fun", fried carrot cake and Soup Kambing!

A bowl of icy “Ice Kacang” really quenched my thirst. Not too sweet and with lots of peanuts! Love it!

Honestly, I am not so keen on the "mixed pork" soup because of the "porky" smell. But this soup was so clear and good. A few slices of salty veggie made the soup tasted more flavourful. I could take the pork intestine and pork stomach like the ingredients used in "Bak Kut Teh" but pork liver is a no no to me. Pork blood will never been found in my food dictionary. So, I left all these to 豪豪.

“krock..krock...krock...” hmm...the dried shrimp and fried shallot on the curry chee cheong fun were so crispy. No other ingredients, just dried shrimp, fried shallot and curry gravy could make this simple chee cheong fun so tasty! A few sprinkle of sesame seed made it perfect. 豪豪 also add a piece of fried pork skin in the chee cheong fun. Hahaha…eating own skin. Ahem, you know what I meant!

Next, was the fried carrot cake – also a famous food here. Not bad. But it was a bit oily. While I was stuffed, our next dish arrived in front of me – Soup Kambing. It smelled so gooood. The soup was very rich, rich with mutton flavour. Although I was full, I couldn't help myself from scooping one after another spoon to my mouth. This bowl was very value for money. Looked at the chunky bites of mutton, so soft to chew. Thumbs up!

Lastly, we finished the food and walked to our car with full stomach. Greedy me...the smell of grill sotong and dried tau fu attracted me to stop there and ordered 1 set to bring back home. This stall was actually recommended in the food show of “Ah Xian”. The auntie was so happy when I took photo of her stall. She knew I'm going to “advertise” her stall to others or put on blog. Ok Auntie...I really want to give a credit to your stall. The grill sotong and dried tau fu were so crispy and the sauce was very yummy. Although I brought back and had it at home, the food was still crunchy and fresh. Good, good, good!

I faced difficulty to sleep that night as my stomach was too full. Luckily, the next day was Saturday. I could stay late and woke up late too! Hooray...