Jogoya Japanese Buffet Glutton Fest and Engagement Party!

Special occasions call for special makan places. After us kids all veto-ed Mama and Papa (who wanted to eat at home 'Save money mah'), we descended upon Joyoga Japanese Buffet Restaurant at Starhill Gallery for my sis Eirene & Ben's Engagement Party. Most of us hadn't been before, and actually, I haven't been in Starhill before! Like rusa masuk kampung only. I got there at 6 pm, but decided to wait a few minutes before entering the Starhill parking just to make sure I got in after 6 pm (flat rate RM5). I drove nervously down the road behind Starhill - the road itself was marked with arrows going the other way (i.e. one way street) but the Parking Signs were the other way. Confusing!

Baby Z and gang arrived early to get a headstart on the buffet

We reserved a table for twelve - four men and eight ladies. Just so happens, it's 'Ladies Month' where from Mon-Thurs, lady couples get a buy-one-get-one free! At RM88 (before the 16% tax), it's a good deal.

This place is huge, and takes some navigational skill. You gotta go forage for the food and there seems to be a station proffering foodstuff tucked away in every corner. These things take time, and I was glad that the management didn't tell us to leave after our two hours was up! I heard they sometimes do that if it gets packed.

I tried all sorts of food, and ate as much as I could. Which sad to say wasn't as much as I usually manage, because why? because not been well and haven't been exercising, so small appetite. I still got my money's worth. Jess gave Faith and I a tour. There's Japanese, Chinese, Western cuisine, BBQ, Teppanyaki, Dim Sum, Bar, Desserts etc. There were a bunch of clips on our table with the table number 65 on them. We're supposed to drop a clip in the bowl for whichever cooked-to-order dish strikes our fancy and that said dish will magically appear on our table moments later. This only applies to some of the food stations. The rest, we still have to forage ourselves. Such hard work! Oh ya, we found that this table clip system is open to sabotage - after we received a THIRD dish of Fried Fish Skins that everyone denied ordering, we began to suspect that Somebody was taking our clips and moving them into the bowl saying 'Order Your Delicious Fried Fish Skin Here!'

Drop your Table Clip in the bowl ok!

I loaded up first thing on the sashimi: Salmon (5 pc), Tuna (4 pc), White fish (4 pc), Tilapia (3 pc), Clam (3 pc), Octopus (3 pc), Squid (3 pc), Scallops (5 pc). That's 30 pieces of sashimi = RM60. Korean Oysters on the shell (3 pc, huge, plump and juicy), loads of lobster salad, scallop carpaccio, raw seafood salads.

I took note of the pandan coconuts on every table and made a point to hunt for those next. These coconuts are probably the hottest item in Jogoya and seemed always in short supply. Thirsty diners would skulk around the drink station waiting for the next binful to arrive and would hijack the bin's contents before it made it to the serving area. I wish I'd got a photo but I was too busy trying to wrestle some off the server myself! I put away about 5 coconuts (RM25), and so did every else in our party. The server resorted to delay tactics:

Grace   :  Excuse me, when will the coconuts be replenished?
Server  : In 10 minutes

(10 minutes later)

Grace   : Hi! Are the coconuts in yet?
Server  : In 10 minutes

(10 minutes later)

Grace   : Any coconuts?
Server  : In 10 minutes
Grace   : But you said that 30 minutes ago wor...
Server  : (realizes I'm not leaving without a coconut)  How many you want?
Grace   : Four
Server  : In 5 minutes

Five minutes later, when I returned, he disappeared into the walk-in-chiller and surrendered four hapless coconuts to me.

My second round, I got two giant clams, 3 monster bamboo clams, 2 prawns, and a humongous snail (RM16). I put that in a bowl of miso soup (there were choices of XO soup and tomyam soup, which was delicious) and brought it back to our table where the waitstaff lit a personal burner to cook up. My third round, I got some palate cleansers below - salads, different thai salads and more of the lobster salad. Yumm!

By that time I was feeling quite full and decided to start working on desserts. I nibbled bits off everyone else's dessert! I sampled 6 varieties of Haagen Daz and New Zealand Natural ice cream (Tiramisu was my fav. Rum Raisin, Berry, Macadamia, Choc, White Choc, etc), tiramisu, scones, black forest cake, blueberry mousse, pandan layer, cream puff, mango pudding (not recommended), ais kacang (not so good), kuih talam (blech), hot chocolate, bread pudding. I'm probably gonna pay the consequences of eating all this stuff tomorrow, because I don't do well with gluten, or sugar, or dairy...

After everyone had maxed out on their stomach capacities, we sat around interrogating Ben on how he had planned to pop the question and got every single juicy detail out of Ben and Eirene. Nice! Can't wait for the wedding! Congrats Ben & Eirene!

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Peace!