Momiji Japanese Buffet Restaurant (City Square Mall)

Came here with friends for a buffet lunch. All I can say is that it is pretty average. Given the price, I suppose I cannot expect a large spread, however I personally prefer places with a larger spread as I ran out of variety by the second round of 'food collection'.

Following my earlier reply to the immediate past reviewer few days ago, I decided to come here to try the buffet. So my friend and I came here for the lunch buffet this weekend since we were in this area supporting a sort of a flea market roadshow in City Square.

While I do agree with most points the previous reviewer have comments, there are some areas the restaurant did ok, and did not have the bad experiences "suffered" by the reviewer. Perhaps this can be attributed to the inconsistent level of service.

We arrived 5 mins to 12.00pm and were told to wait "for a while". However, the wait was more than 10 mins and we were only "let in" at about 12.15pm, despite all the staff were queuing to lead the customers to their seats and all food were ready. After making the payment, we were led in. As we walked in, we asked the staff if we could be seated by the window and were said "yes" and being led to the end of a corner, giving us a good view on the condo opposite. Other than the 15mins wait outside the restaurant, the service was quite ok. Staff were polite and cleared our used plates promptly and regularly. No issue in this aspect.

The price was $23.80++ and if you come with four persons, you could get a free small yusheng set. But since we only had 2 persons, we would not be able to have that dish (anyway, its fine for us, since we already have quite alot of this dish).

The food was divided into a few sections, with deep fried food (squid, fish nuggets, salmon fish skin - which was quite nice etc), live ordered section where you could choose beef, chicken, pork chop, salmon, vegetables for tepan cooking, salmon and sushi maki, cooked food (like fried rice, pork ball, fried vegetables), drinks, desserts and pastries, fruits and ice cream. The spread was quite ok and similar to Sakura, but that was not surprising since the 2 belong to the same parent group.

Overall, the food here had their hits and misses. Some of the skewers food were too salty and the vegetables in soup, which was almost like the salty miso soup were beyond acceptable level. The mocha coffee from the the machine was extremely sweet and ice cream were ok.

On the other hand, some dishes were quite nice. The pork ball in soup was nicely cooked and the salmon and sushi maki were generally ok. At this price, you cannot expect to have ultra fresh and high end quality. Some sushi maki were rarely seen elsewhere, like the fresh mango sushi. Handrolls were fine too.

The tepan cooked food items were generally ok and nice, the marinated and sauces used were good, especially the black pepper sauce, except that it was a bit salty. Surprisingly they do not offer Japanese curry dishes.

Overall, it was an ordinary buffet spread and normal quality and nothing to shout about. With the pricing (as dinner is more expensive and also weekend), we were not sure if we would ever come up back as with this price we are paying, we could find other better places to dine in with more and better quality food.

http://thechosenglutton.wordpress.com/2011/12/25/momiji-japanese-buffet-restaurant/

How many Japanese Buffet Restaurants are there, really. I have lost track of them, and I bet so have you. As you go along and catch them all like Ash Ketchum does to Pokemons, all of them just seem to look the same / taste similar. Read on to find out how Momiji Japanese Buffet Restaurant is.

The magnificent-looking Miso Mushroom Soup. Like my friend who went for this, we were tempted just by the look of it (hell yeah the mushrooms), although we both know it’s not worth it, the soup, how much space it takes in our limited pits. I’m alright with Miso-based soup, I thought it was okay. But definitely one dish that can be skipped if you don’t have the capacity to store it. Maybe have one and share it amongst four.

You can see that generally, the sushi they have here at Momiji is very rarely-seen elsewhere. That is one of the selling points I’d say. Even though sushi is filling, it’s after all a Japanese Buffet. What’s one without good sushi. One that imprints strongly in our senses is a sushi topped with strawberry. Interesting isn’t it? Their sushi is worth taking a look. We couldn’t help ourselves but fill out plates with many different sushi (even though, again, it’s a suicide mission to a Japanese Buffet).

There are quite some worthwhile skewers items to fill the plate with. I must say that they look very appealing displayed out on the counters. That’s the first step to having a good spread of buffet for diners. Taste wise, it was just alright. Nothing to rave about. They also have Enoki Maki (Bacon + Golden Mushroom) and Bacon + Asparagus. I thought it was a good item to have on a Japanese Buffet spread, one that I rarely see too.

Grilled steak, dory fillet, chicken steak, beansprout + snow pea shoots (dou miao) are some of the items on the BBQ / Live Cook list. Of them all, I thought the Grilled Steak was awesome, although some of my friends call it a ‘chewing gum‘ because of its tendons. I didn’t get those parts even though I love it, I love to chew on steaks rather than softly and uneventfully swallowing them down. Yes I’m a weirdo like that. A few rounds of grilled steaks ordered. Guilty as charged.

I was walking around the counters and picked this up, proudly telling my friend this is going to be epic. It looks too good – appealing and appetizing. But god like to play fun with you, as always, the higher your expectation, the bigger your disappointment. It was bland and tasteless, and I had enough after having one piece of the two in the small cold dish.

What I love about this buffet is its feature on some of the uncommon dishes. Even though all in all, I thought the concept and the likes are still very similar to other Japanese buffet. A plus point is its Chocolate Fondue. I didn’t realize its presence until later in the buffet. A wide array of fruits, desserts and chocolate fondue items all at your disposal. Asked if I’d go back again, I’d most probably not. It was not a bad experience, although the ambience was almost near non-existent, just that it has nothing that entices me to go back again.

—> Note #1: For the opening hours and prices, click here. Although I think the prices are a little outdated. If I’m not mistaken, they jacked up the prices by $2 each. You have to check with them on this.

Went for lunch.

Buffet, but you need to place orders for most dishes using clips.

Quality was quite ok for the sub-$20 price.

Worth mentioning that the sashimi (salmon, tuna, squid, cuttlefish, prawns) and boiled prawns/mussels were really fresh. Yakitori & bbq items were good. 

Teppanyaki beef & pork were tough ... Fish and vege were good. 

The cooked items - chicken wings, soba fish, fried udon noodles don't taste that good to me..

services were rather efficient, considering that they used many small plates for their dishes.

... the staff timely chase us out at 2.30pm .. not sure why .. perhaps they take afternoon nap =)

Went to Momiji Restaurant today to have dinner, food was great and sashimi was well stock. But dislike those cook dishes as it was simply SLOW and some cook dishes doesn't match well with the sauce. Overall it was good as there were nice dessert that was serve over there.

I recently tried the buffet at City Square Mall, and I believe the quality is more or less the same with the branch at PoMo Centre which has closed down. For a complete review of the food (based on the PoMo branch): CLICK HERE <wait for 5 seconds and click SkipAd on the top right hand corner... thanks!>

The buffet really has a widespread of food from sushi, sashimi, agemono, soup, fruit, dessert and drink. The best parts of the buffet are the agemono and the dessert, in my opinion. I would definitely come back to Momiji! :)