After many months (years, actually) of feeding Anton Japanese at every birthday, graduation, anniversary or any celebration for that matter, I finally got him Jap crazy. To be more specific, salmon sash crazy. Because of this, every Japanese sulit meal that came across our Facebook feeds or any slight craving for it brought us to the closest Japanese restaurant in the area. It just so happened that a few months back, two new Japanese buffets that offered affordable prices for unlimited Japanese feasts, opened. Once we saw this on Facebook, we scheduled a trip.
Genji-M
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| Genji-M, Makati Avenue |
The first one we read of online was Genji-M. We saw on a blog that it had a promo of P250 off the bill of customers that printed out the Genji-M coupon and brought it when dining in. That's P250 off per head, provided that each person had their own coupon.
When we got there we were asked to choose between three menus: (1) one with just rolls and sushi, (2) another with rolls, sushi, and sashimi, (3) there was a third but I don't really remember what extra it came with. We chose the menu without sashimi since it was more affordable, and we thought that unlimited maki and sushi would suffice since the list we were handed had quite a hand full of choices. How it goes is they serve you your first platter which contains all the available choices, and after tasting the variety, you get to pick which rolls and sushi you'd like to have again.
I don't really remember the names of all the rolls we tasted, but of course we had the basic tuna and salmon roll. I wasn't so happy with the two because their tuna and salmon rolls had ham and other extra ingredients in it which I don't really like. I usually like them simple with the rice, good sashimi, nori and a little bit of wasabi. Aside from that, the slice of tuna or salmon laid on top of the roll was extremely thin that the other ingredients of the maki sort of took over the flavour of the roll.
From the bunch, one roll that stood out was that maki with cheese on top--yes, cheese. I don't know if this is normal, but never in my life did I eat Japanese maki with cheese on top. I did not like it. We also had California maki in that first platter which I didn't like either. I don't like any California maki anyway, wherever it may be from.
For the sushi, I've had better. The rice that came with it was almost shaped like a ball and was way too compressed, so when biting into it, it didn't feel like rice. Our seared tuna sushi did not taste fresh at all, and the other sushi choices were OK, nothing great. The serving sizes were much smaller than the photos I saw online and again, the rice just wasn't done right.
In the end Anton and I were disappointed with our meal. I don't know if we just so happened to visit on a bad day because according to others, Genji-M is okay. But we weren't happy with the maki and sushi that we got, and I forgot to mention, my Miso soup tasted like water.
Banzai
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| Banzai, Mall of Asia |
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| Banzai, Mall of Asia |
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| Banzai, Mall of Asia |
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| Banzai, Mall of Asia |
A few weeks after Genji-M, we decided to try out Banzai, the new Japanese buffet in Mall of Asia, Seaside Boulevard. This buffet is kind of like Sambokojin with a more Japanese ambiance, and a slightly wider range of choices. It included unlimited zaru and cha soba (which they don't have in Sambo), pizza, steak and others I was not able to taste. My meal as a whole was actually okay. I had my regular: sushi, sashimi, spicy tuna, zaru soba, tempura, gyoza, steak, Miso soup, and picked on a few meats from Anton's plate. I remember the steak and the Teppanyaki to be good, and the quality of the sashimi, sushi and the cha soba to be mediocre. The noodles of their soba didn't slide off each other once you try to pick them with your chopsticks; they clung to each other like sticky rice. I had a taste of their spicy tuna but didn't go back for a second round (as I usually would) mainly because the sauce tasted more like regular mayonnaise on tuna sashimi.
For the price though (if I'm not mistaken, about Php 899 per head for dinner on weekdays), I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with what I got. It's not great Japanese with regard to the raw dishes, but I'd say the cooked meals are pretty good.
Until next time #danielaeats!
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