January 09, 2009

The Tenji Experience

Colleague 1: Pssttt.. Check your e-mail...
Me: ???

Colleague 1: Got damn good deal for Japanese buffet!! Looks like another Jogoya!!
Me: **shock** **opens e-mail...**

Wahhh... After reading the post from Precious Pea about Tenji @ Solaris, Mont Kiara, I forwarded the mail to a few colleagues as we were looking for a new place to meet up besides Rakuzen. We often meet up at Rakuzen for the Sunday "all-you-can-eat" lunch and to tell you the truth, we are a little "bored" with the menu. However, we love Rakuzen's Sencha ice-cream... **slurp**

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We noticed that there was a large crowd outside Tenji at 11:30am!! The buffet starts at 12pm and because of the lunch promotion of RM29.90++ (until 15th January), the queue started early.

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My colleagues divided up the labour very quickly. One got the oysters and sashimi - the other took loads of coconuts for everybody. The sashimi were very fresh. The food at this station emptied very quickly. Once the oysters were reloaded, there was a queue to grab the oysters off the crushed ice.

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There were many different stations ranging from Western to Eastern as well as standard Japanese fare, i.e. Teppanyaki, Sushi, Sashimi and Soup/Soba. We did cover most of the stations in our brief 2 hour "mission" but I would have liked to have tried their cold soba noodles.

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As we sat near to the Teppanyaki station, we ordered quite a number of prawns. In fact, I think I may have consumed my two months worth of prawns in 1 day!! (~.~) It was yummy but then, I have to watch my cholesterol levels! *sigh*

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My colleague ordered this lovely cod dish from the Western station. It is steamed cod with a lovely bean paste and creamy mushroom dressing. I'm drooling just recalling the taste of this dish!

Of course, let's not forget about the desserts! There is a wide variety to choose from but we couldn't try it all. However, you MUST not forget to take the ice-cream!! The ice-cream is from Hadgen Daaz and there are about 4 varieties offered. I went for my favourite sencha (green tea). I believed I took about 6 scoops!!

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Towards the end of our gloriously satisfying meal, a waiter came with some grilled crabs legs courtesy of the Western chef. This came about 10 minutes before our 2nd hour was up..... We were quite shocked at their "generosity" but since we were a large party of 10 folks, they stand to gain an additional RM100 if we pass our 2-hour deadline...

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Well, we attacked the crab with gusto and managed to get to the payment counter just before our 2nd hour was up! *Phew*!!

The quality of the food at Tenji was excellent. It was really worth the $$$ spent. The after-promotion price tag of RM77 (for lunch) and RM88 (for dinner) can be a little steep. But if the quality of the food presented is fresh, tasty and varied; the price is worth it. I've been to Shogun and Saisaki previously and enjoyed my first experience there. However, after a couple of visits, the food quality drops, i.e. the cooked food is cold; sashimi and sushi slightly warm. In fact, some folks have told me that they were unfortunate enough to get food poisoning after visiting such outlets!

Some of my other colleagues who heard about our experience has been trying to book a place for lunch but apparently, the place is fully book right up to the end of the promo!! WOW!! Personally, I don't like crowds as you have to jostle for food/space as well as that innate "kiasuness" behaviour would emerge - making you take everything in sight because someone else is just grabbing as much as possible!

I will try to go again with my other friends and family to gauge the quality of the food and services after the promotion ends... By that time, I think my stomach would have "rebooted" itself and my wallet has gained a bit of cash again. ;-)

Note: More photos of Tenji can be viewed at my flickr site.

14 comments:

  1. Lucky you!! I am drooling looking at the crab's leg!!!! Aww..so many people raving about the cod fish. I didn't order anything from the western corner cos i was too busy with sashimis!

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  2. Anonymous9:15 am

    Your photos... cantik! :)
    Good bargain. Let's see if I have time to visit this place b4 the promotion ends.

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  3. hahah looks like the capital of the crab legs didnt pay off in getting u guys to eat for another hour! good marketing tactic

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  4. Hi Precious Pea, Che-Cheh, Joe,

    Precious Pea - My colleagues tried the pasta which was good as well. Going to buffet in a large group is a good deal as you get to try lots of stuff without wasting alot of food and stomach space.

    Che-Cheh - Latest update from Precious Pea is that you can't even walk-in for the buffet anymore. :-( Besides that she did mention that the quality has degraded slightly due to overwhelming response.

    Joe - Yeah, it was a brilliant marketing ploy. We kept saying to the waiter, we didn't order this. But lucky with so many willing mouths, we managed to stuff the crab down in 3 minutes flat! HAHAA

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  5. Wow! The food look so delicious! What happens if you pass your 2 hour deadline? Also what happens if you there's a queue at the payment counter and by the time it's your turn, the 2 hours is up? So which is better, this or Jogoya?

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  6. Hi foong,

    Not sure what will happen if you pass the deadline by a few minutes, especially when there's a queue at the payment counter... :-P I think there should be a system where you can call the waiter to "clock out" where they can give you a ticket or something to indicate the time you stopped eating. ;-)

    I've never been to Jogoya but from what my colleagues said, this is perhaps even better as Jogoya has all this VIP stuff which you can't get unless you join their membership.

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  7. sooo lucky of you to have caught their promotion. really value for money hor.. just looking at the food makes me salivate :D. Must really abreast with all these food promo thingy lah

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  8. Hi YozoraNiteSky,

    Yeah, my colleagues acted really fast on this. Once they saw the blog, they just went ahead to book for 10+ people. :-)

    Hahahaa... It's been a while since I kept in touch with these food promo too.

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  9. Angie, maybe you should go try Jogoya and compare the differences! Haha!

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  10. Hi foong,

    According to some friends, they said that Tenji is better than Jogoya as Jogoya's standard has deteriorated... So, no point I go there-lo...

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  11. You guys makan so sedap at KL hoh! Malacca don't have o! =/

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  12. Hi Tekkaus,

    Hahahaha.. When you have the time, come down to KL to sample-lo. But I thought that Melaka has a lot of good food too?

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  13. Anonymous11:59 pm

    I love japanese food! this look yummy

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  14. Hi TH,

    Glad you liked the pictures!

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