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.
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
