Rocku Yakiniku • 1 Utama — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

This is going to be a long one. I have mixed feelings about this place - both this particular outlet and the business model in general.

For starters, this is not an affordable location, even measured based on where I come from (Singapore). With or without conversion, it is slightly pricey. RM49.90 per adult on a Friday buffet dinner.

What do you get for the price? A relatively pleasant ambience. You are serenaded by a live band (most of the time), otherwise drown in Korean pop music. If you’re looking for an intimate BBQ session with your loved ones, this place is absolutely not for you. If you seek a happening dining experience, this place is spot on less live soccer matches. You also get a buffet meal. Anything expensive (i.e. all meats, seafood) are served, whereas side dishes, sauces and some cooked food are self-serve.

Quality of the food are fresh in general, especially the seafood. Serving portions are not large, so it’s good for small eaters or those seeking to try all. However, food does take some time to arrive, meaning you spend more time waiting than cooking if you don’t time your orders well. The dishes are generally hits and misses. There were some good dishes and some really meh. The sauces and cooked food were mediocre at best. Fruits were limited to two options - how sad.

Do note that drinks are charged a la carte. I ordered two bottles of green tea (RM3) and iced lemon tea (RM6) each and they were disappointing. The drinks were absolutely watered down I thought tea flavouring was spilt into a bottle of water.

Service was average at best. The crew were not fast enough and were not able to pay sufficient attention to their tables. Orders were also missed out on a few occasions.

What I appreciate was the large tables to accommodate all the food and sides I ordered, and the strong exhaust system that keeps the smell of carbon off my clothes and hair.

If you wish to give it a try, come off peak to enjoy a better experience (possibly). If you intend to dine during peak hours, make a reservation (they follow the reservation time closely) otherwise expect a long wait.

Overall, it wasn’t good value for money for me and will definitely not return. I’m sure there are better Japanese BBQ restaurants around that are less gimmicky and...

Try the buffet lunch today and having the Buffet with Beef and Seafood . Greeted by the service staff and led us to the table . Environment looks great except for it’s very hot and stuffy during meal and don’t have any exhaust .

When placing order I just wanted to have 1 bottle mineral water and the other order is the free flow drink . They say I have to order 2 free flow drink package and order an extra mineral water . I keep saying I don’t drink soft drink but the service lady staff keep insisting . Rules can be flexible and I think it’s ridiculous to stop diners like this . Maybe some diners abuse order 1 Free flow but we did order a la carte drink . In the end we order 1 bottle mineral water and a jug of green tea .

As for the food

Beef taste ok but can feel it’s some frozen cheap cut . Taste was plain Octopus is another cheap frozen stuff and tasteless . Should use better quality supplier even if it’s frozen Pork taste good and well marinated Prawns is another frozen cheap stuffs though it looks ok for the size but after my grilling and try to peel the prawns and the shell stick to the meat . I ask the service staff and he mention I have overcooked it . So I try to grilled again not to have the charred texture and slightly almost cooked . Same thing I peel again and the shell is stuck to the meat . I feel like asking the person in charge to help me grilled and peel to understand my feeling . I am in the culinary industry and I know exactly what kind of inferior product they are using . Please go try and grill it and peel it for yourself .

Advice is please quality check your food suppliers and have a food tasting experience . I don’t really wish to rant but it’s a really bad experience. And also do consider changing your policy for the free flow drink if people cannot take sweet drink and order a mineral water

Head down straight from Airport to eat your buffet but end up I probably won’t step into your restaurant again unless changes are made .

Hope the management review on...

We really enjoy going to buffets, but we don’t expect every dish to be great. We like to try a little bit of everything and then keep ordering the most delicious dish. However, at this place, it’s hard to decide what the "most delicious" dish was. We ordered and tasted a variety of things, but none were memorable or worth ordering again. The beef was tough and dry, and the gochujang pork belly—well, it was all fat with no lean meat, causing a flare-up on the grill as soon as we put it on. If I had to pick something, the chocolate ice cream and the marshmallows we grilled at the end were not bad. Today was our last visit to this place.

If there’s anything special about the atmosphere of this restaurant, it would be the live band. However, they only sang Chinese songs and, for people who don't understand the Chinese language, might not enjoy it as much. The volume was also loud enough to make it hard to have a conversation with the people I was dining with. Personally, I would have preferred soft background music instead.

182rm for 2 pax. At this price point, it would be much better to go to a Japanese seafood buffet that offers tastier food with a similar price range. Also, charging separately for drinks at a buffet restaurant wasn’t very appealing.

Compared to other buffet restaurants where the staff quickly clear empty plates on their own, here we had to press a bell to call the staff every time to clear them, which was a bit inconvenient. Still, it's nice that they at...