August 2, 2012

Roboto San Japanese Buffet Grill


Just like a good friend who listens to our woes, food fills in a unique happiness we need. And for an average earner like me who finds joy in eating, my best food trip buddies are group buying sites. So, whenever I feel down, I open all my trusted group buying sites and check out food deals worth my meager but hard-earned money. On good days, I stumble upon restaurant deals that catch my interest, like Roboto San Japanese Buffet Grill (P344), a new buffet grill in Bonifacio Global City.

Tyrone and I stepped into a dominantly purple room with white panels. They call it the bird's nest design.  I call it being trapped inside a molecule, though I'm not really sure how a molecule looks. Robot faces were painted on the back rest of the chairs just like in John and Yoko (also owned by celebrity Marvin Agustin), where the chairs have faces of Japanese people. What I admired so much was its wait staff. If John and Yoko have edgy servers in boots and mini skirts, Roboto San have chic space fighters in “spacesuits”. They wore a simple white long sleeved top and white pants paired with white Chuck Taylors. But the thick silver accents make it futuristic, galactic even.
Inside Roboto San                                                                                                                                                                                    
The futuristic ambiance has a story. I read that the restaurant is pegged in an alien robot-invaded Tokyo, Japan in the year 2089. Roboto San is the man-made robot-hero who saves humans from robot-aliens. But at that moment, Roboto San was the hero who saved us from hunger!

As soon as the buffet was ready, I went directly to the raw meat section and got a few pieces of each kind. They had pork, chicken, beef, and fish all thinly sliced. Everything had almost the same marinades of Korean sauce, spicy, lemon pepper, rosemary, and others I have already forgotten.  
My first plate of raw meat.                                                                                                                                                                       
While grilling, I made a round at the cooked section and had some tonkatsu, beef with mushroom, and fish in garlic sauce. The cooked meal were just okay although Tyrone said the lechon kawali was good. Even the tempura was so-so. It was not like the tempura of John and Yoko that I have been fantasizing. Good thing I seldom expect much from buffet grills’ cooked section.
My plate of ready to eat food.                                                                                                                                                                
The raw meat side is a different story. The selection may not be as much as other buffet grills, but I have to say the marinades were pretty impressive. My favorite was the lemon and pepper marinade. It gave my mouth a refreshing flavor I couldn't resist.

Another stand out were the skewers of Chicken Yakitori. The chicken remained soft and moist even after grilling and went well with all the marinades. My second favorite were the slices of dory fish, which were so tender and flavorful. The beefs, meanwhile, were unexpectedly soft. My least favorite were the pork slices because they easily became dry and tough.
My second plate of raw meat all set to be grilled.                                                                                                                                
I also got shrimps. They were nothing special, though. I thought that where there are shrimps up for grilling, there must be squids, too! I looked and waited but there were no squids served. Instead, there were street food mainstays like fish balls and squid balls and corns and white onions but decided that they did not deserve a space in my cramped tummy. They also served dimsum, where I got a piece of good siomai, and a sushi bar that I did not touch.
Grilling                                                                                                                                                                                                        
For desert, I had a shot glass of strawberry mousse in between my first and second batches of raw meat, and ended my big meal with six scoops of Big Scoop ice cream showered with colorful toppings. I came from a nasty tonsillitis so my appetite was really huge for ice creams. 

Clockwise: Strawberry mousse, 4 scoops of Big Sccop ice cream + 2 more scoops [ :) ], and Tyrone's halo-halo.                  
I was not able to take pictures of everything Tyrone ate because we were busy eating, talking (gossiping), catching up, and laughing about anything that crossed our minds. Everything becomes better with good company, am I not right? [ <3 ] But I am so proud that his appetite that day was unusual he was able to eat a lot. 

Pig out sessions together? Sweet! [hahaha] Click here and know why we were so happy that day.

Overall, Roboto San was a nice experience— from the ambiance to the food, all were good. I guess Roboto San, the hero robot, would be happy to rescue you whenever your personal alien robots (e.g. bosses and frenemies) ruin your day. OR, to make it positive, whenever you just feel like eating a lot [wink].





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