Ikoi Japanese Restaurant, Hotel Miramar

I had heard about this place a few times in passing (401 Havelock Road #01-01, 6887-3788), but had never actually eaten here, so we came by tonight to give it a shot as we were in the neighborhood anyway. It wasn't until we sat down did it occur to us that this place was running a buffet (crap!). That was not a good sign. Well, we were tight on time tonight, and if all those celebrities' photos were hanging on the wall, maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked.

Wishful thinking. Most of this was pretty lousy, be it the coarse tempura batter or the tough yakitori. The staff was kept wanting to push certain items on us (for instance, I wanted hiyayakko, but she kept trying to suggest agedashi tofu instead). To make things worse, they kept bringing so-called "complimentary" items (it's a buffet...how could it be complimentary?) that were largely vegetable or soup-based, suspiciously seeming to just want to fill our bellies with lower-cost food so that we wouldn't be as prone to ordering other items (and no, none of these tasted very good - we didn't even finish some of them).

To be fair, they were very generous with the sashimi, and while it wasn't anything special, it could have been much worse. I did like the crispiness of the sanma shioyaki, but being a buffet style, they cut one little piece off rather than giving the whole fish. Value for money? Sure, but as with most buffets, it was about quantity over quality, and this will definitely be one that I'd like to forget (it just reminded me of other bad Japanese food). So what was it that drew so many celebrities here then? I don't know. Maybe it was the a la carte menu. Hopefully those items are a lot better than this.