I heard a lot of great things about this restaurant. The words people used to describe it were: luxurious, pricey but worth it, amazing selection of food, posh, the best Japanese buffet. After finally having gone there, I find it difficult to believe that people were talking about the same restaurant. I even googled to see if there is any other Jogoya in town...
This is what was bad about the restaurant:
1. Hygiene level was very poor. The sashimi and sushi chefs did not use gloves when touching food and putting in on the buffet. Some parts of the restaurant were really smelly like something got spoiled and was never cleaned up.
2. Food freshness. I can't say enough how important this is especially for Japanese cuisine where a lot of things are eaten raw. Some of the sea food items smelled bad and I wouldn't dare eat them. Oysters for example. This goes to some of the cooked items too. It tasted like they cooked fish or meat that started spoiling. So they just cooked it with a lot of spices. Sting ray was really smelly. The items that were displayed on ice for sukiyaki looked like they were lying there for a few hours.
3. Western food. For some reason this restaurant decided to have Western food counter as well. After seeing the quality of food items there I started thinking that this restaurant management had no clue what quality food was. They had items that looked like bad fast food or some "make it yourself" microwave TV dinner.
4. Malay sate. There was a counter with Malay sate. Sate is usually delicious and it is really had to go wrong with sate. Yet here it was all wrong. It was cold, burnt, soggy and dripping oil.
5. Korean food was so salty you could hardly swallow a spoon full of kimchi.
6. Desert. The chocolate cake that I took from the chiller was already melting and mashy. My guess is the chiller did not have the right temperature.
7. Facilities. Dirty glasses. Chipped plates. Air conditioner above our table was leaking. Imagine my friend's face when some water dripped into her ice cream.
8. Service standards. For the money they are charging (even after all the discounts and promotions we still paid RM 78 per person) you get a service of a school canteen. Even water is not served to the table. You have to go and look for ti yourself. In fact, whatever it is you need, it is easier to get up and go look for it yourself than wait for the wait staff to notice you. There is also a time limit to how long you can sit there. It would have been fine in a cheap joint. But in a Starhill restaurant which is so pricey you do not expect to be chased out when you time is up.
9. Layout. The restaurant is scattered all over the place. There is no logic in the layout. There is starter counter, sukiyaki area, then all of a sudden desert bar, then main course. Chawanmushi was nowhere to find until we finally located it in Chinese food area. Very strange.
Now, there are a few things that I liked. Though they are too few to make ti worth the money.
1. Dim sum was great. Fresh, tasty and with good variety.
2. Sashimi was fresh. I even found it odd that they got one thing so right and everything else so wrong.
3. Waffles were great! They served it with many types of syrups and ice creams. That was perfect.
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.