Saturday Dinner Buffet @ Genji Japanese Restaurant, Hilton Hotel Petaling Jaya

This is a long due post happened three months ago XD

Throwback to being a September baby and I share very close birthdate with my dad, my parents and I always have a celebration dinner combined that week.

I was craving for Japanese phood (always loved it) and was in the midst of searching for a new Japanese buffet place to try. Do you realize that many better Japanese buffet are usually just Sunday lunch buffets or the rest are affordable but always full and definitely don't take last minute bookings.

Being in this industry as well, I always, always, emphasize that service and attitude plays a very, extremely important role. Customer is not always right, but as a service attendant or host the way you attend to the guest do make a difference.

While searching online for a place to dine just a couple of hours before dinner time, I remembered this Japanese restaurant in a hotel in town recently promoted their Saturday Japanese buffet dinner, so I gave them a call. The person who attended to me was like the 'aku malas nak layan kau' (I am lazy to attend to you) tone, saying that 'we only have a table left in smoking area', i was in silence for a few seconds because I don't really like to dine in the smoking area, but yet wished to try their buffet, then he added 'if you don't reserve it now it will be taken within minutes'. Wah lao eh, lansi... forget it. Dowan dowan lor~

So then I search up on Hilton Hotel PJ and found out that their Japanese outlet Genji offers dinner buffets too, so I called and seriously, you can really hear a difference of 'happy tone' and the person who answered my call was so polite and you can feel he's smiling while talking to you.

Genji Japanese Restaurant have their Saturday dinner buffet in two sessions, I can't exactly remember the schedule but one is early evening, one is 8pm onwards.

A very spacious outlet with table dining and also tatami-style seating, I believe it can easily seat up to 80 pax.

Similar to any other Japanese buffets, Genji has a wide variety of Japanese food presented from sashimis, soba, salad bar, assorted tempuras, made-to-order teppanyaki, sukiyaki, and a dessert table with cakes, hot desserts and mochis.

At the cold cuts counter, they have arrangements of salmon, tuna, tako, and special Tai (Japanese sea bream) sashimi. The Tai sashimi tasted too fishy for me but the salmon was so good... I enjoy salmon always so hehe, yay!

I personally enjoyed the soba broth a lot, the tempuras, teppanyaki, and nonetheless the sashimis!

But my fave of the meal would be the red bean soup dessert with glutinous rice balls! It was so, so good. I prefer red bean soup with bits of red bean chunks in it and the glutinous rice balls was so smooth, 'bouncy' and chewy. So, so good. Compliments to the chef on this.

We had some small chats with our neighboring table and the 'grandfather' mentioned that they are very regular customers here in Genji, he said that the standard has dropped comparing to how it used to be. They used to go there quite often but has lessen the visits.

Well, maybe because the establishment has been around for so long and we also compare to some of the newer Japanese restaurants around in terms of the food quality in par with the price offered.

Service was excellent, very polite and nice staffs attending to us, even the teppanyaki chefs were so nice! But i agree, there's improvement space for the quality of food such as the ready-cooked dishes in the chafers, the sukiyaki was a bit too sweet and the assorted cakes.

Hilton PJ parking costs quite a bit so you might want to park slightly further near to the shops and walk over to the hotel.

CIMB credit card users are entitled for a 20% discounts when you dine at Hilton PJ outlets.

Genji Japanese Restaurant
Level 1, East Wing,
Hilton Hotel Petaling Jaya
No 2 Jalan Barat, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia
Tel : +60 3 7955 9122

Operation Hours:
Monday - Sunday 12:00 to 22:30
 

 

My Top 5 Eggs Benedict in KL & PJ

I can honestly say that I've had a fair share of Eggs Benedict/Eggs Atlantic in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, as I would always choose Eggs Ben over Big Breakfast or Pastas. A crusty bread, perfectly poached eggs with runny yolk (shape doesn't really matter to me) and just enough hollandaise (not too thick, but not too runny either) to cover the eggs because if too much sauce it will be quite 'jelak', and the sauce should have the tangy flavor there to make the dish more pleasant tasting. Here is to share what I would categorize as my top five favorite Eggs Benedict/Eggs Atlantic in KL/PJ area. (Disclaimer: it's personal preference) and sharing with you as well the dishes that I've had in other cafes.

Rank No. 1: Tedboy Bakery, Jalan Telawi 4, Bangsar Baru
I actually found this unexpectedly through googling 'eggs ben in kl' and there was this comment and rating on tripadvisor for tedboy to have the nicest eggs ben and truly it is! Well, for me the hollandaise could be a little more tangier but I rank it number one is because of it being very standardized. For both the times I had it, both tasted as good.

Rank No. 2: Yeast Bistronomy, Bangsar
I prefer their oeufs mollet florentine but their eggs ben is also of high standards and quite delicious. Of course, I've seen that they have French chefs in the kitchen and their menu is quite premium.

Rank No. 3: That Latte Place, Ikon Connaught & Map's Sunway
I would have ranked them the first if I didn't go for the second time. (Maintaining standard is verrrrrry important) I still remember the first time I had it, I told myself this was the best, best, best eggs ben I've ever had in kl. The perfect poached eggs, crispy cold salad, and crunchy crispy hot cubed deep fried potatoes that were so, so good. But, it was the opposite the second time I went. The potatoes were cold, not even warm, it was cold, and the taste was kinda not as nice as I remembered it to be. So my expectation declined immediately. I'm not sure if the owner owns TLP and Map's together but their eggs ben were quite similar. 

 Rank No.4: Twenty One Grams Cafe, PJ Newtown
Presentation of the dish was verrrrry simple but the taste was good. I liked it actually.

Rank No. 5: J&D Espresso, Lebuh Bandar Utama
Quite a posh looking cafe, and have lots of variety of food and drinks. I saw someone having some orange cake or something that was flaming. Their eggs ben is huge, very filling for me, I couldn't finish the bread, just that I'm not sure was it truffle oil they use, or maybe too much they put in, it was somewhat a bit too overpowering and made me feel 'jelak' halfway. But overall, taste was alright.

And below are pics of the eggs ben of other cafes...

The famous Antipodean, ever so crowded when it opened. I still remember their big breakfast was SO huge, and had to be shared. But now, portion shrank, and I feel their standard dropped. This was served to me the last time I went. Midvalley.

 

TBF (The Beer Factory), now become a casual dining place, Sunway Giza.

 AMPM cafe, USJ

The Atlantic, The Good Batch, Damansara Uptown

 Yellow Brick Road, Jalan Batai

 Nutmeg, BV2. Some people like their gravlax but I don't really. It tasted fishy. And the hollandaise was so eggy and I can taste the 'blowtorch' fire taste.

 Eggs Atlantic, Garage 51 Sunway. Kinda pricey for the portion size. Eat not full for me.

 Also another eat not full and pricey. Jibby & Co, Empire Shopping Gallery.

 Quartet TTDI. Well this was long long time ago, the hollandaise was too sour. Hope it has improved now.

Wood and Steel, Kota Damansara. Average.

Uncle John's Nyonya Food @ Limapulo, Jalan Doraisamy

Throwback to two months ago, I was introduced to this restaurant by local celebrity Mr Alan Yun, and on the evening of Deepavali day, me and my two friends decided to drop by for dinner. My memory of Jalan Doraisamy was all the pubs and soup kambing, and there it stood, Limapulo in the center of this nightlife lit street, but the street is bound to have some road renovations going on.

(Photo Credit: Limapulo Facebook page)

We were offered the set lunch menu although it's dinner time, as well as the ala carte menu. The set lunch is very very affordable, at rm9.90 you pick a main and it comes with rice, a slice of fried egg and side vege. So for three of us, we ordered 3 set lunches, pie tees, a mango appetizer, a vege dish and sambal petai sotong.

The waitress told us it is a warm mango dish cooked in sambal. We could not imagine the taste at first as it was our first time trying it, but it's quite refreshing. Tasting similar like rojak mango.

 This..is..good. So good, for petai and squid lovers. Especially the squid tentacles lol, the sambal goes so well and it's just so good with rice. I can just finish this whole plate with plain white rice. And the portion is big, enough for three.

Kangkung masak lemak keledek. Crapz, I can't remember it was kangkung or bayam, but nonetheless, it's a very creamy santan-ny vege dish that goes very very well with rice too.

 We ordered the Chicken Pongteh set lunch, Gerang Asam Pari set lunch and the Ayam Berempah set lunch. The taste, the flavors were all there. 

Pie Tee (4 @ RM10)

The only drawback for me was, I didn't get to try their laksa even though it was a Wednesday, due to it being a public holiday, and apparently I was told that the laksa usually sold out during lunch. So i have to head over some fine day to try their laksa because it looks damn awesome. Yummy yummy!

Nyonya Laksa is available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Limapulo also has a branch outlet at Intermark, called Limabelas.

Limapulo
26, Jalan Doraisamy,
53300, Kuala Lumpur.
(Beside Sheraton Hotel )

Limabelas
The Intermark@ Double Tree Hilton
Level LC
(Same level as Jaya Grocer)

Tel: 03-26983268

Biz Hours: Mon - Sat 12pm-3pm, 6pm-10pm

Japanese Modern Teppanyaki @ Kazoku-Ai, 3rd Mile Square Old Klang Road

It's so convenient nowadays to find out new eateries or newly opened places of interest around us via the social media. And thus, through Facebook and blog entries, my mum found this new modern teppanyaki restaurant near our home.

Kazoku-Ai, a teppanyaki concept restaurant, in 3rd Mile Square, Old Klang Road. At one glance, you will be attracted by two Vespa scooters parked outside the entrance, which cost as much as a car.

The three of us, ordered the current promotional dinner set Kazoku-Ai Neptune Family Meal (RM190+) which consists of 9 courses plus green tea. It was all seafood items, but we wanted to try their beef, at first it wasn't allowed but the very friendly partners of the restaurant gave us the choice of removing the teppanyaki scallops course and switch in the normal teppanyaki beef sirloin. That was great!

They have individual set meals for lunch and dinner you can choose one of the two family meals or a la carte. One of the partners, Mr Ming was very very friendly and told us the restaurant is still coping to run better for the customers and definitely, the freshness of the seafood and the cleanliness of the toilet (lol) are their main objectives. Freshness guaranteed.

 

First course: Burdock Salad, it comes with a spicy Kimuchi dressing, but if you don't fancy a spicy dressing, you can request for their Goma (sesame) dressing.

 2nd Course: Teppanyaki Sirloin Beef with garlic and wasabi.

 

 3rd course: Seafood Combination Teppanyaki (oysters, prawn, scallops, salmon). This was good. Seriously, freshness guaranteed. The oysters' juice oozes in ur mouth and the scallops are doink doink!

4th Course: Fresh salmon sashimi. One of the partners mentioned that when the salmon came, it was still alive and they slaughter it themselves! Plus, the teppanyaki salmon is the same fish as this salmon sashimi. So the teppanyaki salmon is sashimi grade salmon, woah...

5th Course: their signature - Spaghetti Mentaiko. Kinda dry, and a lil' spicy, it's like stir fried spaghetti with mentaiko powder, tastes not bad.

 6th Course: Saba Shio (Mackerel) fish

7th Course: Garlic Fried Rice. 8th Course: Sorry i missed out on the Miso Soup.

9th Course: Also one of their signature: Warm Choc Mud Cake with vanilla ice cream. Too sweet for my liking but they said it's their best seller so you ought to give it a try.

Mr Ming also highly recommend their sake brand, Tatenokawa 楯野川. Well I'm not a sake expert so according to him, it is one of the best selling sake in Japan, and only 30 odd restaurants or retails in Malaysia hold this  brand. He has a couple of bottles of the noble ones, which is like worth thousands per bottle. His statistics are too good I can't remember the numbers lol. He mentioned that this sake is super, super smooth and they even have sparkling sake like champagnes. Ought to give it a try next time.

Overall, a great dining experience, it gets a little smoky inside, so you can choose to sit outside if you don't want to get all that smell in your hair and shirt. Taste wise, it's really really fresh and cheers for the Tatenokawa sake! Have fun!

Kazoku-Ai
3A-G, 3rd Mile Square,
151, Old Klang Road,
3 1/2 Batu, 58100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-79831919
www.KazokuAi.com.my
www.facebook.com/Kazoku.Teppanyaki