After hearing so much about Tenji from friends and other food blogs, Suan, Horng, and I decided to give it a try almost 2 months ago. One of the reasons it took us so long to finally go there was to actually avoid the madness during their half price promotion (which still runs once in a while, check their website).
Tenji Japanese Buffet at Solaris
Tenji is often compared with Jogoya, the first premium Japanese buffet restaurant not in a hotel to hit KL in early 2006. Personally I think that the comparison is justified as both Tenji and Jogoya caters for slightly higher end market and offers dishes that are quite similar, and more importantly, they’re priced competitively with each other at full price.
At Tenji, lunch is priced at RM77++ while dinner and supper at RM88++. Jogoya’s buffet is RM78++ for lunch, RM68++ for late lunch, RM88++ for dinner, and RM78++ for late dinner. (Jogoya pricing, Tenji pricing)
ohh, the oysters!
Located at Soho Solaris, Tenji is a much friendlier place for those who drives. Parking is a breeze if you don’t mind paying a couple ringgit for the underground carpark, on the other hand, Jogoya is accessible via public transport since it is located at Bukit Bintang.
As for the restaurant itself, Tenji is huge, with both air conditioned indoor area as well as quite a bit of alfresco dining, especially for those who wish to punctuate an extended buffet session with some nicotine.
KY, Suan, and Horng
I started off the late lunch with some oysters, steamed prawns, and sashimi.
The oysters here were pretty big and certainly fresh and juicy, the good thing is that the oyster bar is always being refilled anytime it is less than half filled. I am very very annoyed at places that takes forever to refill their most sought after ingredients/dishes (like Yuen steamboat’s chicken wings, or Talipon’s prawns).
always start with raw or lightly cooked food
I like their surf clam, scallop (albeit a bit small) and their rather fatty salmon sashimi, the butter fish was pretty decent too but I would stay away from tuna and squid sashimi if you’re particular about quality. As with most buffet places, the tuna served are of pretty inferior quality. This is due to the insanely high price of tuna these days I suppose.
There are also plenty of pre-cooked items on the buffet spread, the Singapore chili crab was actually very delicious, and there’s always the added advantage of choosing only the pincers (who cares about other customers, right? hehe). Other dishes include grilled vegetable, squid with dark sauce, fish, lamb, beef, and dozens more I can’t recall.
buffet spread, including drinks and dessert area
Like Jogoya, Tenji also employs the clips system whereby you drop a clip with your table number at the bowl indicating certain dishes, wait for a few minutes, and they will be served freshly cooked. The downside is that you might end up waiting for quite a bit if the restaurant is particularly busy, but since it wasn’t when we were there, we didn’t need to wait for more than a few minutes before our orders were served.
The steamed cod with soya sauce was good, but the serving was rather miserable so it’s best advised that you order 2-3 at one go. Another more memorable freshly prepared dish was the soft shell crab and this vegetable (a type of beans?) with black beans. We also ordered steak, some teriyaki dishes, mushroom, fish filet, and so on. In general they tasted pretty good and very few of them were disappointing (for eg. the soup with razor clam).
Singapore chili crab, soup, steamed cod
In the drinks department, you have fresh brewed coffee, cappuccino, latte, quite a selection of fruit juice, soft drinks, and my favorite – chilled fresh coconut. I think I had about 4 of those.
Haagan Dazs ice cream was what I had for dessert while the huge selection of pastry and other desserts lay sitting in front of me. We were simply full to the brim after spending about 2 hours having the late lunch. If I remember correctly, we skipped dinner.
Tenji is located at SOHO, Solaris Mont Kiara
Compared to my last 2 visits to Jogoya, I would personally prefer Tenji. Although the buffet spread is smaller, the food quality reminds me of the earlier days of Jogoya. Fresh, tasty, and with good service, they just somehow managed to aged in the last 4 years to a point that I stopped going there, hopefully Tenji never follow the same path.
Address:
Tenji Japanese Buffet
Lot L-01-01, Soho KL,
Solaris Mont Kiara,
No.2, Jalan Solaris, KL
GPS: 3.174689, 101.659595
Tel: 1700-80-1818
Related Posts:
- KY eats – Zakuro Japanese Restaurant at Plaza Mont Kiara
- Awesomesausage Berlin Biergarten, Solaris
- Guinness Shamrockin’ at Boston Grill, Solaris Mont Kiara
- KY eats – SOMO Mont Kiara
- KY eats – Japanese Buffet at Pearl International Hotel, Old Klang Rd.
By eiling on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
the sashimi slices are too small and thin!
By Ziling on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
I went there on Tuesday and Tenji was so damn horrible! the oysters were never refilled at their counter! u gotta go n ask for it personally… and the coconuts were finished so early and they told me non restockable! WTF i didn’t even manage to get one! it took ne 5 visits to the counter to get 1 small pathetic bowl of cold soba too.. I have forever banned Tenji from my list!
By Huai Bin on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
I finally went to Tenji after hearing about it for such a long time too! It’s better than Jogoya, IMHO. Maybe that’s coz we found a cockroach in Jogoya.
By Robb on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
haha, too far and inconvenient for public transport. haven’t been able to try it out yet. plus, no red wine for my alcoholic bf. hahaha
By KY on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
eiling,
My dear, it’s a buffet. You’re too accustomed to RM 1000+ dinners.
Ziling,
Hahhaha terrible, that’s why we went there like 3pm Saturday. It was good!
Huai Bin,
cockroach in Jogoya, @.@ did you get a refund?
Robb,
Hahaha I think they have some beer or wine thing going on too, check their blog
By annant on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
i have heard so muchy of this tenji…
will try it next time..
but it’s not aptly located la…
By lotsofcravings on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
theres just so much news abt this place that it probably doesnt deserve..
looks like got to do a late lunch here if not theres not much point in going eh?
By Mellissa on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
Tenji is so, so, so good. Seriously. Reminds me of Jogoya’s better days. The thing about the oysters is that there’s too high of a demand for it – people take them before they get a chance to get chilled properly on the ice. Coconuts were lovely and abundant and unlike Jogoya, you’re allowed to take more than one at one go!
By Myhorng on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
i personally thinks it is better than Jogoya. however, it seems like the food quality inconsistent from the feedback.
By ShaolinTiger on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
I went but was kinda disappointed by the quality, I think they have different stuff at different times.
If you go during a promotion you are actually getting cheaper food, you aren’t paying less for the same stuff.
Will have to go back again one day during full price session.
By KY on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
annant,
Make it happen.
lotsofcravings,
Yah, I avoid crowd as much as possible.
Mellissa,
That’s why you should go at low period.
Myhorng,
Yah I agree.
ShaolinTiger,
I think that’s what they do too, plus if you go during busy period it’ll never be as good.
By lb on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
not a fan of buffet
in my opinion, buffet food is overall mediocre at best…
imagine if all the food was yummylicious…
how do you think they can make money.
By beccs on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
omg my dream buffet! yummMmOz!
By JD on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
eh KY, how can you managed to call them? I call them like a gazzillion times on the 1700 number but everytime also invalid number until I also sienz already!
By clement on Jul 6, 2009 | Reply
bro, how are you? so long din do posting on your blog liao. Hope everything is ok. Me down with some funny weird illness for past 3 months. Now ok already.
Thanks for the tenji info. Bravo!
By eiling on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
don’t be so terrible. This is not a cheap buffet ok?!!!
By KY on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
lb,
Fit for those who has big appetite maa
beccs,
Slurps!
JD,
Ohh, I guess we’ll just have to.. keep trying. :/
clement,
I’m good I’m good.
eiling,
A portion of salmon sashimi at a decent Japanese place costs RM 30 or so, this is RM77-88, so clearly we can’t really expect the same quality looo..
By aeroplane1234 on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
i can see myself getting chopped on the cutting board bleeding ringgit malaysia…
By mimid3vils on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
So many bad reviews abt it recently, luckily I went there when their food still OK, hehe
By Pureglutton on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
I went there once and it was so bad I didn’t even bother to blog about it. Food variety & quality sucks – the steamed fish (by order) was small & tasteless… and even tho the buffet closed at 4pm, by 2.30pm the Haagen-Daz icecream ran out & they REFUSED to replenish! Yeah, i heard the staff telling the customer queing in front of me! Swear I will never go back there again.
By KY on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
aeroplane1234,
lol, well but if you eat a lot.
mimid3vils,
Luckily my experience was pretty good. But don’t you notice that it’s a sort of a trend with everywhere, a few will blog that it’s good, then a few more, and then inadvertently there’ll be those who said it’s extremely bad.
Pureglutton,
Ah, that’s horrible. Our experience was rather good though!
By aud on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
ya i just went to jogoya last weekend and it was damn bad
shishamo fish also soggy wan wtf
By Enoch on Jul 7, 2009 | Reply
Tenji was alright, quite good but just too pricey, at least in my opinion. You just have to find the few things which they do well (the oysters were excellent
Would rather go for Kampachi at Equatorial KL or Umai-Ya a la carte buffet at Damansara Uptown. Cheaper and better quality feeds.
But if someone treated me to Tenji for free I woudln’t complain
By kit on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
regarding Jogoya (Jan09), we had a bad experience there too like Huai Bin. little cockroach came out to greet us. we took lotsa pics of tat little cockroach and ask the restaurant manager to come and explain.
By KY on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
aud,
Yah a bit disappointing these days
Enoch,
I’ve heard good things about Umai-Ya, time to head there!
kit,
I think you should write about it. hehe.
By dyson17 on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
Hello KY,
Re “Singapore” chilli crab. Please do not help perpetuate the myth that chilli crab originated from Singapore. Every crab dish they now have is copied from Malaysia.They do have a superior marketing of Singapore and I do not blame people from believing their claims. It is up to bloggers like yourself to prevent this from happening.Otherwise very soon they will claim that Penang char kuey teow and Laksa is theirs!
By Kclee2002 on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
I guess they bucked up. Heard many of my friends went during promotion and they were disappointed. I was one of the early birds, definitely wasn’t disappointed, other than the fact that they ran out of sushi/oyster/steamed fish and couldnt restock fast enough
By Stanley on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
I went there during the CNY promotion and had a good time, with a big group so it was a pretty happy atmosphere. One thing I remember is that we went CRAZY with the free flow of coconuts. Btw, commenting for the first time! =D
By Marcus Lee on Jul 8, 2009 | Reply
Tenji and Jogoya have the same boss. Isn’t it? Still i think i love to visit Saisaki Japanese buffet than Tenji/Jogoya, though it doesn’t have Haagan Dazs.
By KY on Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
dyson17,
Well the name of the dish doesn’t exactly reflect the country of origin in my mind. The Singaporeans can claim whatever they want to claim and people who really knows should know better. I was merely following the label at the buffet spread so that people wouldn’t have a problem finding it.
Kclee2002,
Yah I suppose they have.
Stanley,
Big group is always fun for buffet!
Marcus Lee,
Same boss? That I’m not terribly sure.
By DiN on Jul 9, 2009 | Reply
I’ve been there during the crazy peak hour and the off peak time. The foods are better and abundant during off peak. IMO, this is a place worth trying, especially with the promotion that they currently have.
By KY on Jul 12, 2009 | Reply
DiN,
Yah as with many places, off peak is usually better.
By vvens on Jul 13, 2009 | Reply
ah i always wanted to try it since it opened but havent had the chance yet! i remember there was this promotion, RM29++ for the first hour and additional RM10 for the next each hour. hahaha cant get to book it!
By Enoch on Jul 14, 2009 | Reply
Umai-Ya weekend buffet also has free-flow Tiger beer too, if you’re into that sort of thing. Personally the more beer you drink, the less you can eat so I’ll take the food anytime.
By KY on Jul 15, 2009 | Reply
vvens,
ooo that time it was super packed!
Enoch,
Hahah I agree the beer will fill you up pretty fast.
By Boon on Aug 16, 2009 | Reply
Wah, so many bad review, better off don’t try tenji.
By KY on Aug 18, 2009 | Reply
Boon,
Well it was good during off peak period though
By boonya on Oct 26, 2009 | Reply
how do I go Tenji by bus I start from china town ?
By KY on Oct 27, 2009 | Reply
boonya,
I’m not familiar with the bus system, would probabaly take a cab instead
By ss on Dec 31, 2009 | Reply
TENJI IS SO BAD AND LOUSY FOR A PRICE OF RM67.50 (NETT PER HEAD AFTER DISCOUNT) – THOSE WHO SAY TENJI GOOD WERE LYING !!
By KY on Jan 1, 2010 | Reply
ss,
oOo your experience was definitely different from mine, perhaps they slacked off lately?