Starting the Year Off with a Bang?! (Tenji Japanese Buffet @ Solaris Mont Kiara)

A break from the Melaka post, and rewind back to a week ago .... the dawn of a new bullish year. I said BULL-ISH, according to the lunar calendar. Not Bullsh*t. Though given the current economic downward spiral trend, the latter may suit our prospects for the coming 365 days more ....

So, how was YOUR new year celebration? Mine = Ruckus. Should've known better than to spend it around the Golden Triangle area in KL. The seas of revellers flooded the streets around the city(which fortunately, were closed for the celebration since evening. If not? Refer Xmas Gurney Drive pandemonium).

The fireworks display (a fix affair over at KLCC every year), and the aftermath of 'WAR' along Jln Sultan Ismail .... had us cowering in fear of sprayed with snow.

Since early evening, Astro started the ball rolling by staging a show outside of Sg Wang Plaza, with mostly local and some international Chinese artistes performing. Over at Pavilion, booming loud music was emanating from some boombox around the giant Xmas tree at the entrance. Xmas was ... in fact, a week's old story though.

But really, it was cool to see Malaysians from every race and background, as well as generation, celebrating amidst the turbulent times, for one night only ..... albeit the un-ruliness. But hey, all in the name of fun, no? :)

Tenji Japanese Buffet Restaurant @ Solaris Mont Kiara

On the 1st day of 2009, I was still reeling from the previous night's experience, walked miles after miles of unnecessary pilgrimage with thousands of others, as I chose to take the train, seeing that most roads were closed off to traffic.

However, on the day after, things started to pick up, as influenced by the many rave reviews of Tenji's buffet promotion, we crawled, traversed and scrambled our way to Mont Kiara. (Side note : Do ask or search for directions beforehand, if you're not familiar with the way. Mont Kiara can be seen from the highway, but took us a few extra rounds to find our way there from town. It's in fact, rather near to Hartamas).

Notice the clips with numbers 172 and 173? Our tables' numbers, meant to be used for ordering cooked items. Much like Jogoya.

When KCA called up to book a day before, the staff stated that the place was fully booked. Yeah, right. But we pushed our luck and arrived at 11.30am, the time when they open for business. Full prepared to be turned away, we were surprised to be ushered to our seats. Although at the verandah on the outside, the weather was thankfully cooling that afternoon.

The starters - Sashimi (raw fish slices), sushis, HUMOUNGOUS raw oysters, and various boiled seafood

Tenji is running a promotion until the 15th of January 2009, whereby lunch buffet starts from RM29.90+ onwards for the 1st hour, RM39.90+ for 2 hours of binging, and RM49.90+ for prolonged glutton session, up til 4.00pm. Do take note that from roughly 2-3pm onwards, a few counters would've stopped 'production', according to the crowd.

And the sudden blackout on the day we went rendered most kitchens dark and eventually closed. Rats.

The variety of cooked items

Of course, even RM49.90 per pax is a steal, if you're a fan of large oysters (REALLY big, I tell ya .... length comparable to a spoon! And required THREE mouthfuls each! You can gulp one at one slurp, but risk suffocation), sashimi (salmon, swordfish, scallops and tilapia only. Yup, TILAPIA. Never realised they can be eaten raw!), Haagen Dazs ice-cream (retail price at Haagen Dazs outlet? RM10 per scoop!) and seafood.

But seriously, we were rather disappointed at the choices of raw cuts, and sushis available. There's no maguro (tuna), butterfish, or ika (squid). Of course none of the yellowtail, bluefin, blackfin or whatever-tuna. Hmm.

Chinese cuisine station with Dim Sum - But we skipped those.

At the oriental station, you get Kam Heong snails (not bad, but messy), herbal soup (drop your clip and wait), greens cooked to your liking (drop clips), steamed fish (redfish or siakap), dim sum (ready for taking), and various other cooked dishes. Even the lobster salad's there, though the minced bits of the prized crustacean was akin to 'needle in a haystack' comparison. Not exactly impressive, but the steamed redfish was OK (refer pic below).

Steamed Redfish - Requires at least 15 mins of preparation. We waited more than that though ...

Kushiyaki - Unagi (eel), Mushrooms, Grilled Lamb Shoulder, and Grilled Salmon

One gripe we had about the clip-dropping system is that you can ONLY drop ONE clip into each bowl, wait for your dish to arrive, then only drop another. BUT, the grilled items on skewers eg. unagi, yakitori, etc come only in solitary form, or in duo. Imagine a table of 3-4, sharing ONE pathetic skewer of unagi. Hmm, certainly something to improve on.

And look at the slab of salmon above. Roughly 10-15 mins of wait, and gone in an instance. Not to say it's good though, the flesh was dry and tasteless. With minimal citrusy dressing. We skipped the fish and chips, as the cut of fish is equivalent to the size of a nugget. Really.

Fresh, sweet young coconut juice

Worthy of praises are the coconuts. Very sweet, thirst-quenching to the max. The juice counter offered 4 types of fruit juices. But not all were freshly-squeezed ones. Stick to the coconuts only, please!

The Chocolate Fountain

It could be the trend nowadays. Every reputable (or not) buffet spread in hotels or restaurants MUST incorporate a chocolate fountain (black or/and white) for chocolate-lovers to indulge in some work. OK, not much work la, just drizzle/drench your sticks of fruits or biscuit, or even marshmallow (not available at Tenji though) with the flowing chocolate sauce. Sinful,right? WRONG!

Desserts galore

The chocolate syrup was way too diluted, and tasteless. Reminded me of Nini's chocolate sauce. If you're not sure what's Nini, go back 10 or 20 years in time, or back to your childhood, and reminiscence. Thumbs down ....

The other desserts were not too memorable either. Though so many options available at the counter, but you're served by the staff at the counter, handing you your picks, on such a small plate. You can't even fit more than 4 pieces of mochi (sticky glutinous desserts in various flavours), cookies or cakes, at one shot. Imagine going back and forth a few trips to sample everything. Which is impossible anyway.

Hint : Go for ONLY the Haagen Dazs ice-cream (forgot the pic!) in 5-6 flavours, and get your $$$ worth! The cookies are HORRIBLE, btw.

Floral/fruity tea - A soothing end

The variety of floral tea available was impressive. There was lavender, chamomile (I think), mixed berry tea, and a few other unrecognizable names. You can even brew them freshly with the leaves provided, in a mug.

Sipping on them while seated at the verandah overlooking the highway = Bliss.

Thick, frothy cuppa coffee

Chef at work .... the misty effect looks cool, no?

On the whole, I'd suggest go for only an hour of rapid downing of oysters and sashimi, followed by Haagen Dazs ice cream. For RM29.90+, it's well-worth the price. Don't go for anything more, the cooked items are not worth the time and gut-space. :)

Location : TENJI Japanese Buffet @ Lot L-01-01, SohoKL, Solaris Mont' Kiara2 Jalan Solaris, 5o480 Kuala LumpurTel: 1700-80-1818 / 03-6203.6896