Red Kimono Buffet - not worth it

Since my boyfriend is treating me to the Fallout Boy concert, I decided to be a good girlfriend and treat him to dinner. We didn't want to squeeze in with the rest of the love birds during Valentine's Day itself so we had our dinner early on the same week. We had our pre-Valentine's Day date in Red Kimono, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

Having decided that we were going to have sushi, I asked my friends which restaurant they recommended. We wanted to try a Japanese restaurant with a conveyor belt but forum discussions gave bad reviews about the restaurants that I had in mind. Instead, we had sushi buffet in Red Kimono - that was the plan, although that's not all the "buffet" entails.



Red Kimono buffet (currently at Php535.00 per person) allows you to order anything on the buffet menu, which is complete with appetizers, soups, chicken/pork/beef viands, maki, desserts and rice/fried rice/rice toppings. Unlike other buffets, you are encouraged to share because orders are taken 'per table' - simply put, you can all order whatever you want, share your food with each other, as long as each of you pay the buffet price. In addition to that, you are required to order at least one fried rice per person, or one Kamameshi (chicken/beef/mixed) rice for one to two persons.


The good stuff:

**The 'ala-carte' buffet service is very convenient and allows you to relax and plan your meal well because you hold a copy of the buffet menu with you. The waiter assigned to you is almost always there to get your order, and the speed of service is satisfactory.

**There is variety in the menu, at least three different kinds of every category so you won't feel like they're holding back on you.

**The (bottomeless) iced tea (Php65) is heavenly. My glass was always full because our waiter attended on us well. Be sure you don't drown yourself because you might not have enough space for the Sukiyaki.

**They serve the maki before they serve the Kamameshi rice. That means that you at least get to taste something somewhat good before the bland fried rice. Yakitori (barbeque chicken) goes well with Mixed Kamameshi rice.


The bad stuff:

**You can't control how much they serve you. An order of Crunchy Maki is always eight pieces. That means that you never get to "try" something out, you just have to "eat" a whole order of whatever it is that interests you. The Kamameshi rice was noted to be good enough for two, but it's actually good enough for three. And since there's only two of you finishing it, there's almost no space left for Sukiyaki. We literally felt dizzy trying to finish that rice.

**The rice you're *required* to order messes up the meal. When I eat in Dad's buffet, I never get rice because it's a waste of stomach space. To think that the Red Kimono buffet is only a hundred pesos cheaper than Dad's Ultimate Buffet, they should at the very least, leave the required rice out of the buffet mechanics. We'll be force feeding ourselves with four more pieces of every kind of maki anyway, so why bother with the rice? That's a cheap blow.

The terrible stuff:

*****After stuffing myself with Sukiyaki - because left overs meant each of you pay double, I was too full and too dizzy to have dessert.


What you should do:

If there's only the two of you, you might want to skip the buffet and just order ala-carte. You can review the menu and try to estimate how much it'll cost you to have single orders of whatever you want. This is good because you won't have to worry about left overs and you can even take them home if you wanted to. If you're into the kind of buffet where you eat small quantities of everything, then skip Red Kimono and hop back to Dad's Ultimate Buffet.

variety is the key to any successful buffet and Red Kimono killed its variety by serving too much of anything for one person. Red Kimono buffet is generally good for at least three people with normal appetites. That will ensure that you don't get tired of one order because there's three of you sharing eight pieces of maki, or a bowl of Sukiyaki.

All in all, it was a good experience that I will never repeat.

Just in case you were wondering if what we ordered was good enough for the buffet price:
1. Crabstick Rolls.............................Php160.00
2. Crunchy Maki..............................Php180.00
3. Spicy Tekka Maki..........................Php160.00
4. Mixed Kamamechi Rice.................Php190.00
5. Beef Sukiyaki................................Php150.00

Total.......................................Php740.00