Jogoya - My MSG-Fully-Loaded Action

I was so thrilled when my bf said we are going to Jogoya for my birthday treat. We decided on supper since I will usually work late. Wrong wrong wrong… we shouldn't have eaten at Jogoya and to think that we chose it over Nikko buffet! Sorry to all the lovers of Jogoya… maybe there's something wrong with my eyes and tongue on that day. Or maybe because it costs RM68++ per person, I just failed to agree Jogoya is a nice dining place.

We walked along the dimly lighted aisle to our 'reserved' 80cmX80cm table. Our seat was just around 30cm distance from the other table, and my bf's butt can barely pass that. We might as well join the tables with our neighbours and pretend that we were friends dining together, instead of peeping into each other to see what the others are eating. The floor was not marbled but cement, yes C-E-M-E-N-T, just the same as the traditional wet market!

It's time for food hunting and we grab all the 6 tokens (to order food, we must put the token at the counter and food will be delivered to our table) and hunt for food. After getting lost a bit here and there, I make out here are the food counters in Jogoya:

Japanese
DIY
Steam Food
Italian
Soup & Dimsum
Tempuras
Fish
Grilled Food
Cooked and Ready to Eat
Desserts
Ice cream & Drinks.

We put in our token at whatever food that crossed our path and decided to save the coconut drink and ice cream for last. It's a torture to pass the Baskin Robbins, Gelatio and Haagen Daaz and pretending not to see them. I knew if I dip on them first, I would waste all the chances to taste other 'delicacies' - that's what I thought at first!

To our horror, the food we took and tasted simply turned from OK-loh to worst plus they are loaded with MSG. Perhaps because they put MSG in practically everything, all food tasted exactly the same to me, of course, except the sashimi and sushi. I have to drink a lot of juices and water to quench my thirst that night. We console ourselves that at least we can go for the deserts and ice cream but alas!! The workers have started tidy and washing up the ice cream counters at 10.45pm and there are no more coconut! I have to satisfy myself with two last scoops of chocolate mint and coffee ice cream.

I was told by friends that Jogoya have limited the diners to only dine for 2 hours there. I couldn't help wondering how much could a person able to eat in this All You Can Eat within 2 hours. Even if you're given 3 hours to eat there, you would probably have only tasted about 10 kinds of food there per person. These are my rough calculations:

You went in at 9.30pm when the buffet supper just started. Spent 3 minutes at the check in counter where you pay and later ushered to your table.

10 to 15 minutes just to walk around to survey the place plus getting lost a bit.
4 minutes to and fro to the basin at the west end of corridor to wash your hands before digging the food.

First thing you might want to get are the drinks. 5 minutes to and fro to the drinks counter at north end, only to find out you must bring along the glass on your table with you ( they don't provide extra glass). So, another 5 minutes to and fro.

Now, how many plates can you take at one time? Unless you've trained at a circus or you're a waiter by profession, the usual answer is 2. The plates provided are not big. You chose and think what you want to take, took them and fill up the 2 plates and make your way back, got lost a little bit - 15 to 20 minutes lost.

After that, if you go to DIY Steam food, took up the ceramic pot, pour some water inside and took up the bamboo container (you can choose prawns/scallop or fish fillet) back to your place. You have to turn the Bunsen burner on your table and only then you can start to steam them - approx 15 minutes.

OK, your hands got dirty in the process, move to west end to wash hand again
Waiting for your ordered dish to be served - approx 10 to 30 minutes. Overall you wasted more than 1 hour not including the time you used to chew, talk, laugh, swallow, visiting the washroom and getting more drinks.

By the time we left, I felt tired and thirsty instead of feeling energized. This is the first and most probably the last time I will eat at Jogoya, unless it's free.

P/S : If you want to take photos, avoid being seen by the staffs or manager, as they said it's not allowed. Enjoy the photos but be warned - photos can be misleading!

I liked this apple soup.

Nice looking desserts but didn't try though.

Not a bad tiramisu.

Sushi counter.

Oysters - big but umpromising taste.

Deep fried soft shelled crab - very oily and tasteless.

Only the grill fish belly (1st from right) is worth the try.

Wasting my time.....

The lala have sands in them. Yucks!

Steamed scallop, not good.

To 'eat' back the money we paid, we keep on ordering this red steam fish. Forget about the white pomfret, they can be bought cheaply at Tesco.

Hardest cawanmushi that I ever have!

Baked mussels that turned cold.....

Cold tempura .......

Only the scallop wings (top right corner) are worth the try.

High-class 'pasar'.

If not that I thought of the poor starving children in Africa, I would have throw this plate of food away...