Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Rakuzen's Buffet @ Chulan Square

Yippee! I was so delighted to know that Rakuzen is now offering buffet spread, priced at Rm55 per pax only. My booking was made 2 weeks ahead, note that this is only available @ their chulan square branch, from 12 to 3pm on Sundays.

Take your time to peruse the menu on a lazy Sunday afternoon, place your order and wait for the food to be served. Some of the fresh food like sashimi were promptly served upon placing order but other hot food like tempura and yakitori took forever to come. Imagine a fully booked Japanese restaurant.

FYI, all the food featured in this post were walloped by 2 kiasu gluttons only.

1) Hotate sushi
One obese scallop which is heavenly fresh and juicy. Should have ordered more.


2) Assorted Sushi Plater (soft shell crab roll, prawn tempura roll, cucumber maki, spicy salmon roll & futomaki)
This is one whole plate of goodness. I luv the gigantic soft shell crab roll with crunchy bits of crab rolled inside. But do take note that the serving of the sushi plater is way too generous for 2 people.


3) Assorted Sashimi
Came with the obligatory salmon, tuna, white meat fish, cuttlefish and octopus. Too bad the menu doesn't offer my fave white tuna, okay that saved me from mercury overdose.

Still can't get enough of that, we had another plate of tuna and white meat fish.


4) Spicy baby octopus
This is from the starter selection. Oh poor baby octopus, I didn't try that. All walloped by char siew bao.


5) Grilled mackerel
My fave grilled fish. Not bad.

6) Assorted tempura
This looked really sad and disappointed. Lack crispiness too.


7) Buddock-simmer (with unagi)
The unagi is simmered in salty broth with egg and fried onions. Great to go with rice as they were too salty to be eaten alone.


8) Assorted yakitori.
(Chicken & mushroom skewer and grilled pregnant fish)
Yar yar, we like to have more varities of food so everything comes assorted :P


Time for more carbs...
9) Garlic fried rice
It tasted more like normal chinese fried rice. Nah, can't complain too much, we just want to have rice.


10) Cold Udon & Cold Soba


And for desserts...

11) Green tea ice cream
This is the best of the lot, very refreshing with strong aromatic green tea flavour. We had 4 scoops of this. The waiter did give us a strange look :p Can't we have more ice cream?


All in all, the buffet brunch was enjoyable though there were some disappointing dishes which we suspected that the buffet is used for clearing food storage for the whole week (read from Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential") but I would still recommend this place for japanese food lovers.

Other review:
by Meiyen
My previous visit:
Rakuzen, Hartamas Shopping Centre

21 comments:

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

What gluttony! Good job, guys! haha. Have yet to try the buffet here. Am drooling at your pics...yum yum.

Anonymous said...

Oooooooo looking at d pics, i feel like eating it all over again, minus d tempura which was lousy!

Yum Yum!

Wanna go again?

teckiee said...

i miss good greentea ice cream ... shangrila have really good ones

Anonymous said...

I wan the sushi platter! I can wallop whole plate myself... I'm sure :P

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

wah you definitely fill yourself up with lots of carbs! and crabs!..i went rakuzen that day..wasnt too impressed...served a set lunch too quickly b4 we ate our appetizers and served a set lunch when we were almost done..crap service..

MeiyeN said...

me and fiance definitely wanna go again!!!!! so, when?

Kok said...

xiu long bao,
RM55 per person is definitely a great deal after looking at all the food they served. Yum yum!

~Christine~Leng said...

I've got to know on the restaurant from Mei Yen's blog previously but have not give it a try yet. and now you're making me drool very seriously! I wanna go!

boo_licious said...

Ah, the buffet which everyone is talking abt. Looks good, now I must muster up tummy space for all that food.

Xiu Long Bao said...

lyrical lemongrass:
Tq Tq...Worth trying but dun set ur expectation too high for that pricing.Some food are not that fresh too.

csb:
hehe...tot of revisiting too. Maybe 6 mths later.

teckiee:
Oh ya, i had really nice green tea ice cream from shangrila's zipangu. Interesting enoh, haagen daz has the best green tea ice cream ever. Luv it very much :)

jason:
haha...but not when having buffet. I luv the soft shell crab roll. Triable!

joe:
huh? which branch? I wasn't impressed wiv their service either. Not really attentive, maybe due to super gud biz.

meiyen:
waa...u r really loyal rakuzen fan lar. I'll definitely revisit. But no so soon :p maybe 6 mths later.

kok:
True. The menu is impressive but some food weren't that fresh. But can't expect too much on the quality of food of buffet spread.

christine:
Am sure u n chris will luv it. Remember to booking ahead oh.

boo_licious:
Ah...i feel like revisiting too. Keep up the Japanese food kawan association's spirit!

wmw said...

I think I would ask for more than just 4 of the matcha ice cream! Ha ha ha...

MeiyeN said...

6 months later? remember to call me along yah.. :D

Anonymous said...

wooo hahaha! Clear stock buffet...green tea ice cream!!!! aiyoh...kesian me lar...looking at the photos while wallet is all dried up T.T

God of Food's said...

Woow, so nice and it look so fresh.. yummy....

Precious Pea said...

Lyrical, i think you better conduct your future interviews there. All looks good...oooo...sashimi!

Xiu Long Bao said...

wmw:
Nxt time i'll order 4 scoops before starting to binge on my mains, n another 4 after meal...ahh...feel like having ice cream now :)

meiyen:
oh, no prob! Will revisit 6 mths later cus my bro will be back from aussie then. He must be drooling over my pix now ;p

jian:
ei, its payday liao lor. I mean ur dad is now paid, so can get $$$ from him...haha

god of food's:
hi there, thx for popping by. The foos is triable considering the price. Some are very fresh n yummy.

precious pea:
President will be too busy eating then. No time to interview, eat first.

Anonymous said...

hahaha...he will whack me lar.
din give him money ady samo ask from him? *kena slap on my face, piak! piak!*

lolz

Xiu Long Bao said...

jian:
LOL! cus u r still studying mar, so good justification. No money-No food-Then no heart to study :p

Jean said...

look at the price, i think v can't complain much bout the food quality right? but as i can see wat u'd introduced here, some of the food look quite nice what~
do u think the buffet still on?
i shud go n try one day~^^
i like ur blog, because i love food too~^^
linked u alry~

Anonymous said...

hi ,, do you hv rakuzen kl website?
i would to propose to my col.

my email add is "purplehaze_004@yahoo.com"

soulesscloudy said...

wow.. definitely will go try for this.. so yummy..