Sunday, April 22, 2007

Lobster a la carte buffet @ Honjin


Honjin offers a self termed lobster a la carte buffet at $52++ if I remember correctly. Disappointing is the word to describe the experience here. Even for fact that I was already prepared knowing that such an offer comes probably with fine print. Is that bad or what? The buffet includes a tiny menu tiny various sashimi, sushis, tempura, yakimono, agemono, ramen, temakis and so forth. UOB card holders get a 1 for 1 deal in this buffet. Now that "buffet" and "1 for 1" is mentioned, one would think you're probably geared up for what's to expect for the lobster. You think! Behold the lobster butter yaki portion for 2!


Yeah, that's pretty much 2 mouthfuls for you there. The condition attached to this a la carte lobster buffet is that each table is only eligible for one serving. One serving per table, not per patron. Yippieee!!! I wonder why is it that with foresight did I not see that coming. This place is suppose to be run by a top notch executive chef that has 15 years of experience in places like Nadaman and Keyaki? This puts into me some questionable light about what kind of experience was that. Dish washing is experience too.

Doesn't the sashimi presentation look just fabulous??!!

The food was palatable. Certain items turned out to be pretty good (tasting better than they look) while others fared worse than Sakae Sushi. This is definitely not a place that I would re-visit. One can reasonably expect lowered standards because of the nature of buffets in the effort to churn food out en mass to mobs hungry people. This, was simply a lack of effort with respect to the quality. Without the benefit of the UOB card offer, it would have been seriously overpriced with mediocre food to boot.


I shall refrain from further visual terrorism. I'm positive that in the realms of a la carte buffets, I've had better.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do try J-Toshi at M Hotel. The ala-carte buffet there is rather good. The sashimi is very fresh, and the teppanyaki is done pretty well.

Anonymous said...

u shd call uob to complain, tranishing the card's reputation...