All you can eat Yakiniku (焼肉) Brunch Buffet @ Tajimaya, Vivocity!

Yakiniku (焼肉) is one of our favorite comfort foods. There's something remarkably therapeutic about grilling (and wolfing down) slices of different meats and parts over red hot charcoal. Unfortunately, a great Yakiniku dinner (lots of super marbled, various different cuts from an A5 wagyu cow) is expensive, and sometimes we just want to burn some cow without breaking the bank.


Enter Tajimaya's all-you-can-eat Yakiniku Brunch Buffet! It's only available on weekends, and frankly the variety isn't all that great (only three cuts of beef available), but s$49.90/person is pretty reasonable for free flow meat.


First up though, some sashimi. Salmon was pretty good, fresh with a nice amount of fat, whereas the Tuna was par for the course for non-specialist Japanese restaurants (that is to say, a little rough in texture and not all that good tasting).


After appeasing our guilt with the "healthy" raw fish, it's on to the meats! We tried all three types of beef, the kurobuta pork belly, the lamb, an assortment of mushrooms and sweet corn. Oh, free flow of Pepsi and 7-Up is included in the buffet price.


Obviously the Wagyu (probably from Australia or some other non-Japanese country) short plate was the most marbled - nice fatty streaks - but short plate is really one of the cheaper cuts of the cow. It comes from the belly, outside the ribs, and tends to be a little tougher and chewier than other muscles that do less work. Nice beefy flavour though!


Of special note (to avoid) is the lamb - we don't know what cut it came from but it was tough, dry, and altogether forgettable. The pork belly, on the other hand: juicy, oily, fatty, and crispy in the corners thanks to the heat from the charcoal.


Speaking of charcoal, we're big believers of the charcoal BBQ. For starters, the radiant heat is higher than gas or electricity, allowing you to get a better sear / crust. But most importantly, there's a subtle smoke from grilling over charcoal that you don't get from the other two methods. Not from the charcoal itself, mind you, but from the fats and juices that drip off the meat, hit the coals, and combust in a flash of flames and smoke, flavouring the meat. Yummy.


Of course, while we would have preferred some additional variety - like beef tongue, or beef tripe - you can't have a buffet and have tons of variety and keep the price down. Also, there's a published time limit of 100 minutes, but we sat at our table for considerably longer and weren't chased away.


Tajimaya's Brunch Buffet is served from 11.30am-4.00pm on weekends and public holidays. We don't know how long the promotion will run for, so do head down there and take advantage of the offer while it lasts!

Tajimaya Yakiniku is at #01-102/103, Vivocity, Singapore. Non-Halal.