Kaizen Sushi (Seria)

Before you proceed reading, please kindly read the disclaimer on the right first.
I repeat,

The opinions expressed here represent my own and it may change from time to time. Any reliance upon information shall be at your sole risk.

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Finally, a new place to dine in the teeny-weeny Seria town.

Man, you guys have no idea how limited our choices are when it comes to think of a place where to makan. Its either WYWY, Ideal, Jollibee, Ayamku or C.A.Mohammad. And because I'm a non-muslim, I'm excused for more choices such as Soi Heng, Moi Nam, Ta Hua (which I will not step my foot in) and Jing Hua.

Deng Deng Deng Deng.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present you....

The ONE and ONLY Japanese Restaurant in Seria town.....

KAIZEN SUSHI!!!

for the location.

Kaypo SL text me just to let me know that its finally open yesterday morning because he knew I'd been wanting to try it out, after a few times of roaming downstairs and staring up wondering went is it opening.

And so I called Kiarong branch for the Seria branch's number to make reservation, and the line was put on hold for 2 minutes. No thanks to the clueless waiter who picked up the phone. I should have taken it as a hint for lamentation to be experienced later .

SMS-ed SL their number and asked him to make reservations because I malas talk already. He later replied "Eh, they only open at 5.30pm. How?". So instead of lunch, it became dinner. No biggie, yet.

We arrived Kaizen right on the dot at 7pm, went upstairs and got greeted by lots of flowers and later the charcoal-face boss.

if you get what I mean by "charcoal".

I have no idea whether he's too busy or what... but man, I certainly don't like the way he approached us, with that stern face.

"You got make reservations?"
"Yes, under the name Alex, 7pm."

Then he had a quick look at his palm... Obviously, he listed out all the bookings on his hand.

And I quickly interrupt, "We made a booking for four but now there's only two of us, so you can just give us a small table. Maybe at the bar (or train) side?"

He looked around and asked us to sit at the waiting area, more like waiting-bench actually, and got us a table at a minute.

I like their menu. I mean its all new and nicely printed. Flipping into its first page I saw two circles with the words,

"Only Polyunsaturated Oil is Used" and "No added MSG".

Now that's nice, healthy wor.
Too bad I couldn't go in to their kitchen to prove that to everyone.

Anywhoo, one for that.

While the waitress pour us some Green Tea, I immediately asked if they served "Wasabi Icecream". Sadly, they don't.

(They have it in their Kiarong branch. I didn't make it up)

Not only that, there's no Drinks and Beverages menu!!!
Ya I know, what the heck right?

-____-"

After few minutes of flipping, SL (the same person with the nick @lex who always commented) and we decided to order one bento and one side dish. And checked out their sushis on the train.

The bento set not bad lor. Got salmon sashimi, tempuras and unagi + rice and a bowl of miso soup. B$14.40.

Sounds okay right? But.. if you're a fans of "E" (*cough* Locals favorite Japanese Restaurant, not E! channel 712) , you should know they serve "Tempura Bento" at the price of $15.00 with a combination of sashimis (3 slices of salmon, 3 slices of tuna, 3 slices of sotong octopus), 2 tamago sushi, 2 unagi sushi, tempuras (usually 2 prawns + 3 vegetables if not mistaken), fish cakes, fruits and also a bowl of miso soup.

Now, which one more worth it you decide lah.

While waiting, we decided to check out the sushis on the rain out. And before we took any plates, we looked left and right for the price tag.

You know those,

Green plate - B$ xx.xx
Pink plate - B$ xx.xx
Blue plate - B$ xx.xx

But it was no where to be found. Another for that.

SL and I (still can smile at that time)

So we just simply hamtam took three plates of sushi rolls first (because damn hungry liao...), just when I was about to eat.... I realized,

"Eh, no wasabi one?"

Rupanya they put the wasabi can on the train and circulates instead of putting it on every table. So yeah, we waited for two rounds before we can get hold of the can, just for that bloody wasabi.

Maybe they think can cut cost like that kua? By saving the wasabi.

But really lor, when I finally grab the wasabi can, I was damn happy (because waited too long) but once I lifted the cap... I nearly want to throw it against the wall liao.

Left only a measly amount of it.

Damn Pek-Cek you know!!!!!

(Pek-Cek = Frustrating)

Never mind... I give you chance, and also another .

I'm sorry but I have to call them noobs because they're damn slow okay! By the time I took the above picture, it was already 7.37pm (according to my camera) and I was still sipping my luke-warm green tea... with none of the food we ordered arrived on our table!!!

We even got tired checking the train out because it was never refilled!
Don't believe. Nah, show you proof.

On that long sushi train there's only roughly 5 plates of sushis.
5 FREAKING PLATES!

And so we waited....and waited.. and waited... and waited....and waited....

and still waiting!

I evolved from a happy kid with my chopsticks all ready, into a grumpy old woman who couldn't stop nagging and complaining. Likewise for SL. Everytime the waiters and -tresses walked out from the kitchen I'll squealed with joy and yelled, "Its OURS!"

... and later saw them walked slowly away from us.

Finally at 7.50pm... a waitress came up to our table with a plate of something.

I had my smile back on my face... until I checked the plate again.

Me: Erm... we didn't order this.

Waitress: Yes mum. This is oyster cake.

Me: Er no. This is not oyster cake, this is Cheese Baked Oyster.

Waitress: No, this is oyster cake.

Malas to argue, I took the menu out and flipped it again. Pointed to her which one we ordered, and what was being served. See, I remembered their menu better than them! You know why? Because SL and I had already flipped it for more than 10times going through page by page because we're hungry and had nothing to do!

Then came the charcoal-face boss, telling his staff "No, this is NOT oyster cake."

So I smiled at him as an appreciation for his gesture (so I don't have keep arguing) and thought they'll took away the plate and quickly process our orders.

But HELL NO!

Guess what he (the boss) said,

"So, you don't want ah?"

*pengsan!!!*

Of course don't want lah! If I want I order liao laaaaaaaa idiot.
"Yes, I don't want this.", still answering with a smile. But deep in my heart, my OS was, "Kanasai.... You made the wrong order then expect me to accept it willingly hia?".



So teruk can die.

SL was quite pissed already but still made a sarcastic remark.

SL: Is that it? Are you going to refill it? *points to train* C.F.B : Huh? SL: The train. It rounds so many times already yet its still very empty. Are you guys going to refill the plates on it?

And C.F.B just walked away with an awkward laugh.
The End.

How nice...

(Oh, C.F.B = Charcoal Face Boss)

I turned my head away because I wanted to laugh yet it was such an inconvenient moment.

Then SL told me, "Let me know when you want to go because I can go anytime." Still I said, "Nevermind la, people just open. Give another chance. See the food how first."

I bu-gan-yen (tak rela) if I left the place "empty-stomached" bah.

Finally at 8.10pm.... our "expensive" Oyster Cake arrived.

Well, it took them an hour to do this. Sure "expensive" kan? Must be very "nyaman" too...
*roll eyes*

Took my first bite, it was just okay and too dry for my liking. And so I requested for some chili sauce from the waitress.

"Sorry mum we don't have chili sauce. Justnow got some customers asked also but we cannot give."

Huh? So you don't have chili sauce or you don't want to give?
Sigh.. malas to talk back.




10 minutes later....

Our MAKUNOCHI BENTO is here!
Time was 8.20pm...

Let me remind you once more, we arrived that place at 7pm.. and ordered at 7.10pm. Definitely very fast for turtle standard liao.

One hour and 20 minutes just to prepare a bento? You gotta be kidding me! Unless you tell me the salmon, prawns and eels were freshly fished from the sea and the cucumber just got plucked down lah.

Somemore... damn karit lah the sauce for the unagi. And one more thing, no tempura sauce to dip! Yes, we ate that crunchy but tasteless prawn tempura and crab sticks on its own. So sad lar. Eat till like that really feel very jit-toh.
"Well, at least the salmon sashimi is nice. But cannot give compliment also because they didn't cook it pun."

"The unagi taste like the one I go SupaSave and buy those ready-made one lar."

"And the miso soup... its not even steamy hot! Its tad cold."

I also don't know is it because we're damn unlucky that day or what.. why our food was the last to come? Even the couples who sit behind us already had their dish 15minutes after they ordered.

Damn malang laaa.

No way we're ordering more food because if we order again, really don't know what time baru can go home. SL jokingly said, "I think those who went to KB "E" eat ah, already eat till the whole table full of plates and stomach full full liao and now on the way driving back to Seria."

Right Jan?


Oh by the way, if you happen to go there, please be careful when you go to their washrooms. Because I sat facing the entrance of it, I'd witnessed a couple of customers who nearly fell down because of the unexpected step that most of them didn't notice.

The Entrance

A view from the washroom corridor

If I didn't tell you, can you notice that there's a step down along the corridor?

Dear C.F.B, make sure you go get some "Watch your step" sign to keep your customers alert before any accident happens.
And I like your wife (aka the tauke-nio), she smiled a lot and is very much friendlier compare to you. At least she knew how to treat a customer nicely.

Conclusion: There's A LOT of room for improvement, in terms of both services and foods. I thought their sushi rice was quite coarse and tasteless for my liking and their wrapping skills on the sushi rolls were pretty bad. As for service, please make sure you staffs know every single dish listed on the menu by heart so the ordering and preparation of food will be a lot faster.

The 's

• Location (for us Serians lah. But finding parking is another thing)
  
• Spacey and less crowded
  
• Healthy food
  

The 's

• No drinks and beverages on the menu
• Slow and unprofessional service
• Not much food on the sushi train
  
• ... the rest, I need SL to help me to fill in because he has more complaints than I do.
  

Rating :
(Very give face liao this score)


No way I'm going in there for the second time until I head some good remarks from trusted friends. Or maybe several months when their staffs are all fully trained and experienced. And, I WANT MY WASABI ICECREAM!!!

Okay, maybe some will say, "Aiyah.. people just open door do business, give chance mah." But still, I think there's no excuse for being unprofessional lor.

Yes, we walked out from the restaurant super beh-song. It was a really bad experience and for now, Kaizen means "Disappointing" in our dictionary.

But, I'll give it another try.. 3 months later.

Oh, I think Kaybee likes it.
Read her post too. I don't want to be too one-sided.