on the plate - KAMPACHI!!!

Kampachi! After so many years of hearing about this place, I finally get to go, on a Sunday lunch buffet... Kampachi is located in Equatorial Hotel in KL and Bangi, and also has a restaurant in Pavilion KL.

but we went to the one at the Equatorial KL. I guess they don't have buffets all the time, only on Sunday lunch apparently.

first impressions was that it was rather messy. The dining area spilled out of the actual restaurant (due to demand, I guess) and just outside Chalet (their Swiss restaurant) and all the buffet lines were also located outside the actual restaurant.

to be honest, I had heard good things about this place many times and (probably unwisely) had high expectations of this place. Honest to goodness though, this place didn't disappoint!

starting off with some lovely fried chicken wings and corokke (croquettes), the chicken wings fried to juicy and crispy perfection while the corokke was, well, juicy and crispy too!

and then there was sashimi...
and some sashimi it was. Nice, fresh, smooth sashimi. The tuna sashimi was a little rough though, but the salmon and butter fish were absolutely lovely. Don't mind that black looking thing on the slice of butter fish, it looks like a fly but it's not, it's actually a stray piece of teriyaki sauce from some teriyaki chicken. No worries ;)

next we have some hand rolls...
unagi and soft shelled crab hand rolls. Good stuff, but nothing really out of the ordinary, honestly.

and the absolute star of the show, the teppanyaki counter. Most teppanyaki counters are standard fare, not very great (exception being Momo's beef teppayaki, but even that is mass-produced). This place had all teppanyaki made to order, and it was absolutely delicious!
the salmon teppanyaki was crispy on the outside with a nice buttery taste, while the inside was smooth and yummy and not even the slightest hint of fishiness. And the skin was crispy (yes, the place with all the Omega-3)
and the beef teppanyaki was done to order as well, I had mine medium. Pink on the inside, it was better than most steaks I've had. No frills, just the wonderful natural flavor of the meat with some butter for a bit of kick. Who could resist?

and the orange juice... pure, fresh squeezed orange juice with no sugar and no water added. They've got an industrial strength machine there that takes entire oranges (without needing to peel them) and voila! out comes natural orange juice, hassle free. I'd love to have one of those, but unfortunately, one machine like that would probably take up an entire dining table.

they've even got fresh dorayaki (Japanese pancakes) with red bean or peanut butter filling. Also made to order :)

so! The damage for two people was a lot less then I thought it would be. About RM172 nett for two people making it work out to about RM86 nett per person. Much better value than places like Shogun which serve up great variety but crap quality. Almost everything here was top notch and those that weren't, at least were on par with most other decent Japanese places.

Verdict? 8.5/10 and I'd definitely come back again. Definitely!