Ikoi Japanese buffet

We went to Ikoi for the a la carte buffet lunch which I'd heard so much about, mostly about the fresh sashimi that's good value-for-money. We didn't eat a lot, but I felt so full after eating most of the sashimi, and a bit of everything. The staff also gave out free soup, perhaps to fill up our stomachs faster? Kekeke...

It was about 12pm, so the lunch time crowd hasn't arrived yet.


Anyway, it wasn't a full house during the lunch, though I was told it's wise to book at least 2 to 3 weeks in advanced for dinner.

The complimentary appetiser - sake sashimi in a slightly sour (plum?) sauce.


I didn't know what that crispy stick of vegetable was (maybe mung guang?), but it was nice and the slightly bitter taste of raw dou miao contrasted well with the sauce...yum!

All tables were "decorated" with a bowl of edamame (Japanese green beans) and soramame (broad beans) that we could eat while waiting for our orders to arrive. Well, we sure don't want to eat too much of these at the start, since they're apt to create gas in the tummy.



The first dish I ordered - mixed sashimi, which has sake (salmon), maguro (tuna), mikajiki (swordtail), tako (octopus) and a dark fish (right next to the octopus) which might be hamachi (yellow tail)? I couldn't be sure coz I'd never had yellow tail before this.


The above is one person's portion. The sake was sweet and tasted great with just a teeny dip of soya sauce. The fish sashimi was generally quite soft, and everything was served cold, which is good.

Then came the yakitori (skewered chicken), tebasaki (mid chicken wing) and california handroll.
Perhaps we could have skipped the chicken wing, and I think I didn't taste any avocado in the california handroll ?


By the way, everything came in 1-piece portion per order, so if you want want more than one, you'll need to specify.

Then came the saba shioyaki (grilled mackerel) and agedashi tofu which came in a tiny piece - about 1 square inch each. These were good, except the tofu was a bit over crispy / hard at the top.



They started serving us the complimentary sake/miso soup. It has salmon, toufu and bits of vegetable. I guess it wasn't too bad except that it was too salty, so we hardly drank the soup.



Mixed tempura with prawns, shitake mushroom, sweet potato, brinjal and ladies finger...generally ok, though I think the batter was a little hard and too thick.


I guess if the batter mixture is too thick, i.e. not enough water, too much of it will stick to the vege, making the fried product hard, instead of light and crispy

The potato croquette was nice, with a curried layer in the middle. These 2 tiny pieces are considered 2 portions.



Ahh...more complimentary teapot soup which had a prawn head inside. The squeezed lime was definitely needed.



I ordered this by mistake, thinking it was soft-shell crab (which wasn't available). It's just one piece, but look at the way it's presented!



California maki, but as one can see, there was no avocado. :-(



Of course, I had to have another portion of sake and tako sashimi. It's just one portion but look how generous they are!


They were very good, but as we get more and more full, the law of dimishing returns sets in and my level of satisfaction per mouthful goes down somewhat...

The SO had the yaki udon, which was not bad.



Stewed meat and potato dish (niku jaga) - the dish that I want to learn to cook!



Broiled tofu (Atsuage tofu)



There were no desserts but there was free flow of hot green tea - all at a price of $33++.

While Kuishin-Bo has more variety, dinner there costs $46++ and it is impossible for anyone to eat everything from the buffet table, and I'd barely eaten one-third of the food the last time I was there, so I guess this smaller Ikoi buffet at a cheaper price is good enough for me.