Japanese food fright

Lately, I've been buffeting more buffet than buffet ever buffeted. Well, not really. What I meant to say was that I went buffet twice in the last 3 weeks, and interestingly enough, they were complete polar experiences.

The first one was ________, which I will not print.

I don't know if it's fair to go with highish hopes but I suppose at $40 a head, you'd think at least there'd be 1. good variety 2. good food 3. good service. I mean, any boss would feel pretty embarrassed if they were to charge the same amount knowing that people wouldn't be getting value for money eh? Of course, profit oriented bosses would be laughing at my naitivity.

Well, we got food.

and this is a picture of the food.

Looks tasty right? Looks presentable right? Looks nice... right? Although I do not dare claiming myself to be a sushi expert because after all I've only just ate sushi all my life, been to countless sushi places interstate and abroad, tried countless sushi varieties and that my dad makes his own sashimis.

That my friend, were not very nice sushi stuff unfortunately.

I really don't want to be mean but everything was DRY and tasted like they had just DEFROSTED - which is kind of rude. The salads had the old "storage" taste to it and the oil/fat on the beef were solidified. They can blame the ice but should've thought about that before opting for the ice, I just know that my dad wouldn't serve his customers those sort of stuff.

The teppanyaki beef was quite nice - the first one only which comes to the table automatically. When I ordered the second serving it took absolutely FOREVER and came out cold, practically uncooked.

What the.

The teppanyaki beef is capable of being delicious so why's the second one really gross? The only reasons I can think of are 1. time stalling 2. prevent customers from further orders.

Dodgy.

Chicken pieces were cut up to massively abnormally huge pieces and we had to pay extra if we wanted water.

C'mon.

Dessert was carrotty spongy cakeish and lemonish spongy cakeish. Boring. Then the strawberry ice cream cake came out and that eased my pain a little but returned when the waitresses were pretty ignorant and didn't clear the empty plates very often. My friend and I left very early promising each other to never go back again.

Then I went online to get a different opinion and found that it seems reviews from last year were good, this year, not so good. I think I will stick to Matsuiri for sashimis and sushis from now on. Food there for me is authentic (run by actual Japanese) and quality.