The Buffet at Daimaru (Hokkaido)

I love eating buffets- from Singapore to Las Vegas to Japan- if the buffet is value for money, you will find me there. Despite the long queues at this buffet  located on the 8th floor of the Daimaru shopping centre (possibly indicating a good buffet), the food was disappointing.  

You have 90 minutes for the buffet and it costs 1490 JPY (around SGD$19).

They have a clock on the wall to subtly convey the message that you have to finish the buffet within the stated time.

It might look pretty appealing at first- till you realise that there is neither quality nor quantity. There were different stations including a small Japanese food station, salad station, Chinese food station, Italian food station and a dessert station.

The Chinese food section looked totally unappetising. Even the Japanese food section which I assume should have been their forte, looked rather pathetic- the deep fried onion has been left in the open for too long, the sushi was non-existent.

The queues for the Italian food kept forming. They were probably the most edible of the lot. The pineapples on the Hawaiian pizza were really sweet.

The pasta in tomato sauce was accompanied by little chunks of sausage (I think). It was pretty much what an amateur chef could come up with.

The number of desserts you could take at one go was limited to three at one go.

The overloading of mascarpone for the tiramisu totally destroyed the joy of eating tiramisu.

The chocolate cake was dense and good. Another good dessert choice is the waffles where you can add your own syrups and canned fruits over it.

Sure, this buffet is cheap and therefore I shouldn't harbour any expectations. But I think there's a certain bottom line to how food at a buffet should be like and the fact that locals were actually snaking around corners to queue for this buffet made it extremely queer that this buffet is so popular. Not worth the wait and money.

The Buffet
Daimaru
〒060-0005 札幌市中央区北5条西4丁目7番地
8th Floor