BBQ buffet at Yaki-Yaki

After reading the Yaki-Yaki 50% promotion from Vkeong, I couldn't help but persuade Saucer to try it out with me. After all, promotions like this only come once in a while. :) And it so happened that I was going to be in KL during last weekend. So without further ado, I made a reservation for the Hi-Tea session on Saturday.

There are several reasons I chose the Hi-Tea session, which starts at 2.30 and ends at 5.30pm. Firstly, it's the cheapest session out of all. *LOL* Here is the price list for your information:

• Buffet Lunch NP RM65++ 11:00am to 2:30pm (3.5 hours)
• Buffet Hi-tea NP RM55++ 2:30pm to 5:30pm (3 hours)
• Buffet Dinner NP RM75++ 6:00pm to 10:00pm (4 hours)
• Buffet Supper NP RM65++ 10:00pm to 2:00am (4 hours)

So you see, with the 50% discount, the nett price for Hi-tea session was only RM35.75/pax. The calculation is a little tricky: The 15% tax is levied on the original price (RM55), whereas the 50% discount is on the price exclude taxes. Hence, you'll get RM55*0.15 + RM55/2 = RM35.75. Strictly speaking, it's not really a 50% discount, because the taxes are still based on the original price. But anyway, ~RM36 for a buffet is very reasonable and cheap!

Secondly, I chose the Hi-tea session because of the time frame (2.30-5.30pm). This would be perfect for me to sleep in later on a Saturday morning, and take my own sweet time to get ready. Plus, I'll only need to eat one meal on that day, because by the time it's 5.30pm, I would have been full to the brim with the buffet, and I wouldn't even have to eat dinner! Isn't that killing 2 birds with 1 stone? *LOL*

OK, that aside, many people asked me whether the Hi-tea session would have less variety compared to Dinner, since the price was cheaper. Well, since I didn't go to the dinner session before, I wouldn't be able to comment, so I'll show you what I ate and those who went to the Dinner session could tell me if I missed anything. :)

We reached there at 2.25pm, and were faced with a long queue! It was almost as if Yaki-Yaki was giving away free food. The wait was quite annoying because the queue extended right up to the road side, and it certainly didn't help that the sun was blaring on us. Luckily, we managed to get our table by 2.45pm.

Yaki-Yaki interior

My first target was to look for the coconut drinks! Even though Yaki-Yaki lacked in presentation, it certainly made up for it in terms of quantity. The coconuts DID finish up by 4pm or so, and didn't refill even when we left at 5+pm. But I guess we managed to drink more here compared to Tenji. :)

Coconut drinks

Now the first thing you should do when you're there is to order the special dishes from the menu! Seriously, with large crowds, they'd take forever to arrive. So it's wise to place the order first before going around to pick other dishes. The order list is as shown below, and we ordered probably 6 sets of Unagi and a few other sets of Scallops and Salmon. :) And now I shall kick myself because I forgot to take pictures of the Unagi! *sigh* I'll tell you the reason why later.

Special order list

After ordering, the waiter would help to set up the BBQ pit at our table, complete with charcoal the net beneath.

BBQ pit with hood

While waiting for the orders to arrive, I went around exploring. I have arranged all the sections into different groups so that it will be easy to browse. :) Starting with the drinks:

1. Drinks section:

There were several coffee machines available to make hot coffee/cappuccino/latte/macchiato on your own. I'm not a fan of coffee so I didn't try this out. Plus, it was quite warm during the afternoon, so no thanks!

Coffee machines

Ahh... cold drinks! This is more like it! I love iced Milo! And I also took half a glass of iced Nescafe, because I was feeling a little sleepy that day. *LOL* This was a mistake! I took only 2 sips, I swear! But after 1+hour later, I had gastric. *cries* I have told myself time and time again, never to consume any sour or caffeinated drinks on an empty stomach, but I kept forgetting. This explains why I didn't take some pictures of the special dishes, because I was too much in pain to bother taking pictures. :( I only got better around half an hour later (Thank God), but by that time, the special dishes we ordered were already finished!

Cold drinks section

2. Sauce section:

Our table was very near the sauce section and there were so many choices available it was difficult to pick! I only picked 2 out of all those (satay sauce & 5 taste sauce or something like that). They turned out to be quite nice.

All types of sauces

3. Sashimi section:

Moving on to real food. The sashimi area had a big salad bowl of vegetables with pickled ginger, soy sauce and wasabi at the sides. I didn't bother eating this, because I was more interested in the stuff coming next!

Salad

Sashimi! Many types of raw fish, octopus and abalone

Sashimi

Salmon here was really fresh. No fishy smell at al. And stock was always replenished. :)

Salmon

This was the plate of stuff labelled as abalone. Not really sure how true it is, but they taste was not bad. I liked it very much.

Abalone

Plenty of sushi for sushi-lovers! Didn't take any from these.

Sushi

They had hard-boiled eggs and century eggs as well, together with many types of sushi.

Eggs

Oh this is the part of sushi that I took! :) Unagi sushi most definitely. :)

More sushi

Finally, the oysters! At least, we didn't have to queue up to get oysters here. *LOL* The size of the oysters were smaller than those in Tenji, but they were much much fresher! I had a hard time stomaching the oysters in Tenji because they were just too big and too fishy! But this one, not fishy at all. I am learning to enjoy oysters now. ;)

Fresh oysters

4. Deep-frying section:

Everyone loves deep-fried food! So do I. :) And I absolutely love soft-shell crabs! I didn't have a chance to eat them in Tenji, and I was glad that in Yaki-Yaki, they tray for soft-shell crabs was never empty for long. :) I took as much as I wanted to without feeling guilty of leaving none behind. :)

Soft-shell crab & crullers

The tempura prawns, although freshly fried, were not too great. The flour coating was too thick, and the prawn inside was barely noticeable! *LOL* The baked oyster was much better, although I still preferred the raw version.

Baked oyster and tempura prawn

There were also baked mussels which were fresh and delicious. I wish I had a bigger stomach.

Mussels

5. Chinese/Eastern section:

Every buffet will never miss out on Chinese/Eastern cuisine. Yaki-Yaki didn't either. They have various types of Eastern-style dishes including fried rice, prawns, snails, crabs and of course, stir-fried vegetables.

Chinese dishes

I only managed to try the prawns, snails and crabs from here. The rest didn't look too tempting to me. :) Eating the snails was quite an experience, and Saucer didn't know how to eat them at first! *LOL* The meat was quite tough, but it was an enjoyable experience.

Snails and curry crabs

The soups here looked good, but I didn't try because I was just too full to consume more liquid.

Hot soups

Then there were clams (lala) with Chinese wine. According to the instructions, you're supposed to pour the Chinese wine onto the aluminium plate and heat it on the fire before consuming. The funny thing was Saucer didn't know about this, so when I brought them back to the table, he just ate the clams without heating them! *LOL* So funny! But apparently the lala was already cooked and he didn't have any stomachache after that, so all's well. However, I managed to save 1 piece of the lala to heat it over the BBQ pit and I loved it very much! Very refreshing and tasty. Should take more of these next time. :)

Clams (lala) and Chinese wine

6. BBQ section:

There was a whole section dedicated to raw and marinated meat as well, for the BBQ lovers. Plenty of chicken wings marinated in different sauces shown in the picture below:

Chicken wings

Also skewers of corn, mushroom, ladies fingers and potatoes. The mushroom was a new idea for me. After BBQ-ing the mushroom, it became surprisingly soft and rather nice with a strong mushroom aroma. Not bad really.

Ladies' fingers, corn & mushrooms

A whole area for lamb! Lamb cutlet, lamb shank, lamb rack, you name it!

All cuts of lamb

And also ribs! Beef ribs and pork ribs marinated with various sauces.

Beef and pork ribs

Skewers have their section too! Look at that! Satay lovers will find these their paradise. *LOL*

Skewers of meat, meatballs, fish balls, ham, etc

Apart from those above, there was also marinated meat without skewers.

More marinated meat

Don't forget the seafood! Fresh clams on ice to maintain freshness.

Clams and fresh fish

Also fresh fish and prawns.

Fresh fish fillets and prawns

7. Desserts

Finally, the desserts! They didn't much choice but it's OK with me. Quality is better than quantity. :) I loved that they have Gui Ling Gao (Kwai lin kou in Cantonese or Herbal turtle jelly). It was a very refreshing twist to the dessert section! Plus, it goes very well with the BBQ theme because it's supposed to cool your body after eating all the heaty food. I had two bowls of these. :)

Gui Ling Gao (Herbal turtle jelly)

There were also several fruit platters available, but I only took dragonfruit which was my favourite. :) Too bad they were not that sweet.

Dragonfruit

Who can forget ice-creams! :) The ice-creams here are very smooth! Hardly could taste any trace of ice, but the taste for green tea was a little weird. Quite hard to describe it but the green tea taste/fragrant wasn't strong, but it wasn't bland either. Just different. :)

Ice-creams

The black sesame ice-cream was a new thing for me though. And it was pretty good! That's why we had 2 rounds of it. ;)

Green tea & black sesame ice-creams

Our plates:

OK, I'm finally done with all the sections, so I'll share with you some of the food we took. This was the first spread that we had. So greedy huh? :P

Our first spread

The lamb chop was not bad, although you need to be careful while BBQ-ing it. Once the oil drips onto the fire, you'll see a huge blaze suddenly. *LOL* Quite scary.

Ribs, meat skewers and lamb rack

Ahh, the fresh oysters. :) You have officially changed my mind about how nice oysters can be. Yumm!

Fresh oysters

Some of the Chinese dishes. The prawns were fresh, but spaghetti was just normal.

Spaghetti bolognese, lamb and prawns

My love! Soft-shell crabs. I guess I was really too greedy with this. By the time I finished, I was too full for other things.

Soft-shell crabs!

Curry crabs from the Chinese section, taken by Saucer. I didn't eat these because I was having gastric that time, but Saucer told me the meat wasn't very fresh.

Curry crabs

Oh I found one picture from the special list dishes! The Salmon fillet. They are meant to be BBQ-ed, not eaten raw. Personally I preferred the raw type, because once BBQ-ed, the meat lost some of the moisture and became quite dry.

Special order salmon fillet

Saucer was proudly displaying his BBQ cuttlefish here. We thought it was already burnt, but at a closer look, it wasn't. And it tasted quite good, surprisingly.

BBQ cuttlefish

Overall, I think I enjoyed the meal in Yaki-Yaki more than Tenji. For one, I didn't have to queue up for anything, unlike Tenji, where I had to spend time queueing for oysters and Haagen Dazs ice-cream. Plus, they replenished their food in Yaki-Yaki very fast, so I never had to deal with disappointment of missing food (except coconut drinks). Most definitely, we were so full we didn't have to eat dinner that night. So it was like RM36 for 2 meals! Very cheap! *LOL*

Witch and Saucer

Of course, it's only cheap during the promotional period from 16/03/2009 to 30/04/2009. So quickly call and reserve a seat before the promotion is over! :)

Yaki-Yaki Japanese Barbeque Buffet Restaurant
Ground Floor, Federal Bowl,
Jalan Bukit Bintang,
Off Jalan Bukit Bintang,
Bukit Bintang Central,
55100 Kuala Lumpur (next to Plaza Low Yat)

Tel. no. : +603-2142 8111