Nagomi Shabu Shabu Buffet @ Menara Hap Seng Review

I was looking for a nice shabu shabu place to go with my wife and decided to look around some of my favourite blogs for some food reviews. I found what I was looking for at kampungboycitygal blog. The pictures posted there made me decide to visit this place right away.. Well it was around 1am.. so I would have to wait a few more hours to try out this place for lunch. Let's hope the lunch buffet is the same as the dinner.. *fingers crossed*

Took the LRT to Dang Wangi and had a nice healthy walk to build up our appetite :p We reached Nagomi around 12.30pm. You can't miss the sign when you walk into Menara Hap Seng.

Nagomi is located on the 1st floor of the building. There aren't that many shops around so it wasn't hard to find.  Finally we were here.

Actually this photo was taken after we ate :D

We stepped in to the restaurant and strangely nobody attended to us. This was worrying (since the restaurant looked empty).. maybe they don't have a lunch buffet :| Luckily a waitress finally came and showed us to our table where we gladly found some fellow diners having their shabu shabu. The waitress was very polite and even gave us a tour of the buffet line, wow.. talk about great service! Well during our tour I started snapping away at the buffet line.

Veges

Seafood - shellfish, squid, salmon

Processed food - fishballs, crabsticks, tofu skin

Soup paste and sauces

 Sadly, there seems to be less choices of sauces during lunch. Compared with kampungboycitygal we did not have:

• Shoyu Dressing (Soy bean based dressing)
• Kyuri Dressing (Cucumber based dressing)
• Thai Chili sauce 

Well not really a big deal, we came here for shabu shabu experience and not for the sauces. 

Sushi and sashimi

 I'm not really into raw food so i'll be staying away from this section.

Mushrooms, scallops

Fried stuff - prawns, mini promphets, etc

I noticed that there weren't any fresh promphets around as what i saw in kampungboycitygal.. only fried ones. Hmm.. wonder if these fried promphets were recycled from fresh promphets from yesterday's dinner buffet.. Speculating.. Don't think too much about it but take one to try later..

Desserts - Redbean soup, cakes, jellies and fruits

Cooked "lobster" and Live "lobster" in the aquarium

I wouldn't really call them lobster although they are probably from the same family. The name lobster tends to have some expensive feeling to it. Mention lobster in a restaurant and RM150-200/kg comes to mind, well these definitely do not cost that much.

Sliced meats

Whats shabu shabu without thin cuts of meat? Beef, lamb, chicken and duck are available on request. What.. duck? that's a first for me.

Don't waste food

There's a nice little warning at the buffet line to remind people not to waste food. Normally this sign is around but isn't practiced unless someone really wastes a lot of food.

Ok time to eat..

Live "lobster"

The chef behind the buffet line was kind enough to recommend us to try the live lobster. A word of warning, if you can't see anything live being killed, better grab the dead and cooked lobsters instead.
When you order this, they will give you a lid to cover your shabu pot so that your lobster will not be able to escape. I didn't understand why till we tried to pick up the lobster and put it into the pot. Boy.. could it fight back.. note to self.. keep fingers away from lobster claws.. I guess I would put up a fight if I were gonna be soaked into a hot boiling broth of water. Eventually, these critters turned red and their innards were devoured. Nice.. but tasted the same as prawns to me but with a lot more work.
Cleaned my fingers and start to snap some photos again..

First round

Sliced Beef

Sliced Lamb

Sliced Duck

Man.. if you visit this place.. please please please.. try the duck! It tasted so good! the chef said its roasted duck. I couldn't stop eating this. Remember.. Try it!

We were happily enjoying our shabu munching away at the duck till suddenly the waitress approached and said that it was the last call for the buffet line at 2.15pm.. what? I thought the buffet ends at 2.30pm.. ok ok no matter. Suddenly there was a mad rush from most of the tables to grab what they needed to be full (There was only about 5 tables so it wasn't as chaotic as I would have put it).
We grabbed the desserts before they closed the buffet line. Pity the soft serve had to slowly melt while i finished the rest of my shabu.

Jelly shooters, chocolate cake, bread pudding?

 Chocolate cake was dry, jelly shooters yum! and I think what looked like bread pudding was absolutely delicious! I wished I grabbed more before they closed the buffet line.

Green tea and very melted vanilla softserve

This was really good. This is supplied by DessertBar and they have an outlet in KLCC. Never been there but would be willing to try it. Taste was not too sweet, just nice (Bad news for sweet tooths).

Red Bean soup

The soup was too diluted. Try, but don't take as much as I took.

It was now 2.30pm and the bill came automatically. Fair enough its closing time.. Paid up and quickly finished of the food and left.

Overall, this place is definitely value for money. A wide enough variety of food for the price, very good service (hard to find nowadays in Malaysia) and definitely above average in terms of taste from my limited shabu experience. I will definitely be back (maybe for dinner next time) again.

I'd say the only drawbacks are:

• Lunch buffet appears to be missing some items from dinner although they are of the same price
• Closing the buffet line before the said end time of the buffet session

The opening times are listed below:

Opening Times

Remember to buffer 15 minutes before closing time to finish up hehe..