Yanagi at Midas Hotel: Food of the Golden Man

If you haven't already noticed from my previous posts, Japanese cuisine is my favorite. A full Japanese buffet at a hotel is an exciting idea for me. Hotel buffets often go for above a thousand bucks. But thanks to an online voucher, we were able to get a Japanese buffet at Midas Hotel for Php995. Me and my officemates had this for lunch. Yes, buffet lunch on a mid-week office day.

I got around two plates of sashimi - which means that the quality is good.

The maki choices were not that varied but there was this one with rice and roe inside then topped with tempura breading resulting to a wonderful play of textures and taste. The tempura sushi, rice topped with a whole tempura with torched cheese on top, was also one of my favorites because of the crunch and flavor.

The tuna and salmon carpacio is the group's common favorite.

The tempura served upon request had a good balance of shrimp meat and breading, but nothing very special.

Freshly grilled beef with a buttery aroma and taste was served upon request and was also a group favorite. It was more tender and tastier compared to the grilled beef/steak at other buffets I tried but beef wt other steakhouses are still better.

The takoyaki was just normal takoyaki while the beef curry had tender beef chunks.

You can also have sukiyaki or soba.

There were also a number of salad options from the traditional salad greens to a heavier potato salad, and even seaweed salad and jelly fish salad.

Dessert another tale in itself. Let's start with ice cream. I loved all the flavor options which were the milky sweet red bean, deep matcha, bold black sesame, and hot wasabi. Wasabi. Yes, Wasabi ice cream. Compared to the milky creamy texture of the other three flavors, wasabi ice cream had a texture similar to ice shaving but with a mix of cream.

The usual mini pastries are present, along with Japanese inspired azuki (red bean) panna cotta. My favorites are the meringue and the chewy deep chocolate mini dome.

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Banzai: Teppanyaki Theater

When we heard of a Japanese Buffet place, we just had to try it. We visited Banzai: The Great Teppanyaki Theater with a discount voucher from an online deals site that gave us about a 20% discount.

Here are photos of some of the buffet stations:

We arrived a little before opening time for lunch so the buffet plates were still full when we started. The buffet is not limited to Japanese cuisine. They had other Asian offerings like Filipino, Korean, Thai, and Chinese food. They also had assorted salads, desserts and unlimited drinks. They have tea, a coffee dispenser, and various types of cold drinks and lemonade to choose from.

On my plate: [top] okonomiyaki, shrimp tempura, kaniyaki/takoyaki, [bottom] salmon sashimi, tuna sashimi,tamago (egg).

As usual, I had salmon and tuna sashimi. I did not get the ones with rice so that I won’t get full easily. The kaniyaki is like a takoyaki but has a crabstick in the middle instead of a slice of octupus. The flour mixture was chewy, soft, and tasty. 

On my plate: [top] chicken gyoza, chicken skewer, [middle] fish teppanyaki, tuna teppanyaki, salmon teppanyaki, squid teppanyaki, shrimp teppanyaki, [bottom] chicken teppanyaki, beef misono, Japanese hotdog, beef teppanyaki

Since “teppanyaki” is included in their name, I got a sampling of all their teppanyaki. My favorite was the squid teppanyaki. The squid was tender and not at all rubbery. I also liked the shrimp teppanyaki.

I also had tried some of their salads, some hainanese chicken, and some korean appetizer.

According to my fellow gastronomers, the beef stew and lemon chicken were great (unfortunately, I didn’t get to taste them).

We were already quite full and decided to have some nachos to munch on, topped with bacon and cheese of course.

Their crepe is not only eye candy, but it is also filled with real fruit. This one had mangoes in it.

This other one is mango crepe ala mode (I just added the ice cream). They also had a lot of pastries which were pleasing to the eye.


At around 1:30PM, the “theater” part of the place’s name began. Actors walked around in full costume and in character while a background music plays on.

After their routine, it was the chefs’ turn. They had a knife-juggling exhibition which culminated with a blast of flames. These shows, added to the buffet experience.

They also have a trick art gallery where you can pose with ninjas or get into a sumo fight. Costumes are available too.



This lantern filled aisle is one of the many Japanese themed interior decorations in the buffet place.

If we visit again, I’m still going for the salmon and tuna sashimi, squid and shrimp teppanyaki, and kaniyaki, then maybe try a bowl of ramen (though I suspect the noodles will make me feel full quickly), and taste more of their viands like the beef stew and lemon chicken.

Branch visited located at: SM by the Bay, Mall of Asia, Pasay City