Umai-Ya Japanese Restaurant, IOI Boulevard Puchong

Venue: Umai-Ya Japanese Restaurant, IOI Boulevard, Puchong
Occasion: Gathering with uni friends
Overall comment: I found the lunch buffet variety quite disappointing. Some of the food weren't fresh as well e.g. one of the beancurd dishes with oyster were 'sour'/has gone bad. In my personal opinion, paying RM55.20/person (RM48.00++/person) for a limited variety of sushi, sashimi, & Japanese dishes wasn't really worth-it. Service was quite slow as well, especially since we were seated in the private room.
Halal: Pork-free

Earlier this month, my uni friends & I finally gathered for a meal together. It has been MONTHS since we last met & despite the not-so-satisfying food, we're glad for the lovely catch-up :)

Umai-Ya has been around for quite some time. It's just that I haven't been the most hard-working & adventurous food blogger, especially when it comes to places where I've to pass through tolls & endure the ever-present heavy traffic in Puchong.

This simple-designed & interestingly packed restaurant opens daily (if I'm not mistaken) & offers a substantial range of Japanese dishes, sushi, sashimi, & set meals. We were there that particular weekend for their lunch buffet, which was rather popular. I had no clue how the buffet was like & so when I got there, I had near zero expectations.

My friends & I took one of the private rooms & there was a specific lunch buffet menu to order from - which was quite disappointing. It's a buffet after all! :( I didn't notice many interesting selections & to make things more disappointing, there weren't sufficient information on what the dishes contained. The paper contained no illustrations for each dish & it was lacking in description as well. Ah, forgive, forgive....I told myself to just order whatever that looks "okay" & eat without expecting much. A good time of catching-up is top priority, not the food, not the food!

My friends have already ordered several dishes & have started eating by the time I got there. Interestingly, they ordered all the variety of beancurd offered. Hahaha. We're paying RM50 to indulge in beancurds? Money aside, I selected whatever that was more "worth the price paid" like soft shell crab items (there were only 2-3 of such items) & salmon/sashimi dishes.

Frankly speaking, what you see in the combined photos were all that we ordered - it's pretty much all that they have in their buffet lunch menu (at least for this branch), which was "better". The consolation was that we get to order it over & over again...the same types of dishes.

We ended our lunch with ice cream (part of the buffet) & everyone tried out the wasabi ice-cream - clearly not my favourite, but it was quite "powerful" & gives you the "umphh" feel! I kinda enjoyed their green tea & the usual chocolate ice-cream, but it was nothing much to shout about.

Map to Umai-Ya Puchong

View PerutBesi in a larger map

So, will I go over for the lunch buffet again? I doubt it. At least not this branch if those were the only items offered in the buffet lunch menu. I may go for their ala cartes instead ;)


Umai-Ya Japanese Restaurant
A-GF-40, Block A
IOI Puchong Jaya Boulevard
Jalan Kenari 5
Bandar Puchong Jaya
47170 Puchong
Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Tel: (+603) 80751113
Fax: (+603) 80756663
Business hours: 11:30a.m. - 2:30p.m. (daily)



Ratings:
Presentation: * * *
Price: * *
Environment: * * *
Taste: * * 1/2
Service: * * *


Overall





That's all in a lunch buffet?,