Eating in Yama @ J

By Elie - 11:55 AM

This is an extremely backdated post and...I'm pretty ashamed to be only posting it up now but I've been so swarmed with things to say and words to say that I've forgotten about this anyway. Then again when I flipped through (or rather stabbed my keyboard violently) my picture library, I noticed pictures of food I've had in Yama @ J only to realize that I've never blogged about it at all. Until today.

So what's so great about Yama @ J? Or rather, what could this peculiar shop be selling anyway? Well, located strategically in the heart of Petaling Jaya, Yama @ J sits just above the Starbucks of Jaya One along Jalan Universiti and serves really good fusion Japanese buffet. Seriously. So how did I come across this shop? To be honest, I'm not one for luxurious dining or flamboyant food tastings simply because my wallet screams at me whenever I even speak about just Plan B or The Burger Lab but my best friend from college, Callie, spoke to me about this cool place that she noticed on the Facebook page of Jaya One noting that they had a lunch special for ladies!

We cooked up a plan and headed over to Yama @ J one afternoon, specifically stating we would really, REALLY do our internship report together but not before treating our stomachs to all the goods we could find. We deserved to splurge seeing as that we've finally completed our in-company attachments. (As if we don't already splurge enough on regular days, eh?) There are two entrances to Yama @ J, one located just opposite of Brussels Beer Cafe, diagonally away from Wendy's and another opposite of Duck King and Kinnaree Thai but both require you to climb a flight of stairs so it's the same either way.

The ambiance in Yama @ J hits you first, being dimmed lit and it might even make you wonder if it really is open but later on you would realize that it creates for a much more relaxed environment while you chow down all that is served. Seating appears ample for the moment, probably not so when it becomes extremely famous! Talk a walk inside and you'll be first laying your eyes on what appears to be fresh sushi and sashimi straight out from their kitchen all into your stomach.

We were served by this really nice lady who told us that we just had to pay 50% of the RM 48++ lunch special because we were girls! Say what? No kidding the special I mentioned earlier is that ladies only have to pay about RM 27 including taxes for the lunch buffet while men (ahem) would have to pay the full price. The power of women, woots! We even got to select a variety of dishes off their menu asides from their regular buffet spread so that was a complete bonus to us. We never expected it, really. I guess fate plays this huge role in our eatery adventure this time around! Enough talking, more seeing. Let me bring you on a short foodie tour!

An array of sauces and wasabi for us to dip our sushi into. The red one tastes a little like Tabasco while the brown one has a sweet tinge to it though I'm not very sure what it really is. Really yummy though!

Fresh sashimi! Looking at the white tuna, red tuna and salmon spread available!

Fresh sushi up for grabs! Salmon, white tuna, red tuna, maki sushi and what appears to be a type of fish sushi as well. Superbly fresh!

Fresh oysters with chilli dip! Nothing gets better than this!

An array of sushi rolls! Yum!

Avocado rolls! Something you hardly see, no?

Tuna rolls with sesame topping!

Salmon rolls that you just cannot miss out on!

Tuna and tobiko rolls. Yummers!

Baby octopuses. I used to avoid this dish when I was younger but as I grew up this just became something I would die for. Extremely fresh and delicious here in Yama @ J!

Seaweed! I swear to you, this seaweed is so freaking good I could just eat it all day and never get bored!

The girl with a name almost similiar to mine. My Callie! :)

This was our first round's haul. Everything in small portions just to try out. The edamame platters were really good though!

As a whole the buffet spread was pretty good and everything came fresh, possibly because we were there early but I remember seeing them replenish on dishes every half hour so I'm sure it's all very good to taste after all. Before getting out to our buffet craze, we had picked out 4 different dishes from the menu that we were offered and everything was at such a value for money point, we just couldn't make up our mind! Why would I say so? Well, each dish on the menu would have already cost a minimum of RM 29 but we were only paying RM 27 and we could order everything in pink highlights!

The Lisa Crunch

This was the Lisa Crunch on the menu and it's priced at RM 39 per serving. Packed with shrimp tempura, cream cheese and avocado on the inside and drenched with homemade eel, wasabi and mango sauce, the Lisa Crunch was easily one of my favourites for the day. Picking on a sweet start on the first bite and a crunchy gnaw on the second, it's seriously one of the dishes you should get while you're there in Yama @ J!

Japanese Lasagne

We also had the Japanese Lasagne; a dish with snow crab meat mixed with avocado on the inside and drenched off with a baked layer of cream cheese and the chef's special sauce, the Japanese Lasagne is indeed a special dish to have. The only complain that both Callie and I had was that it was a little too sweet and there was too much sauce in the dish making it a little heavy on flavour and later on difficult for us to swallow.

Art Of Maki

An array of salmon, avocado and crab meat wrapped with tuna and splashed with the chef's special signature yuzu sauce, the Art of Maki dish tips off at RM 43 per serving and was seriously good to taste. The downside; again had had to be the overwhelming dashes of sauce that made overpowered the dish a little too much and we felt all filled and disgusted towards the end anyway.

Mango Waikiki Roll

I specifically died for this simply because I loved having mangoes and the Mango Waikiki Roll, served at RM 29 is quite the right choice! Packing in fresh salmon, avocado and crunch on the inside while topping off with mango and red tobiko with the chef's signature mango sauce, it's seriously one of the yummiest combination in sushi dishes anyone could have imagined. It's pretty sweet though so maybe it's not something for those who prefers a savoury palatte.

And with that, Callie and I had the time of our lives; paying only RM 27 each for a great choice of all these fresh foods and delicious fusions! If you're considering a good splurge fest with your friends, Yama @ J is a really good place, opening up for lunch at 11.30am and serving up to 3pm so you have all these hours to digest and go wild again! No pressure here but I wish I could go there again. Callie, if you're reading this, I want to go again. And again. And again. Until the ladies special ends. And then I'll think about it. Just because I'm Chinese like that.

Yama @ J

M-6-1, Jaya One

72A, Jalan Universiti,

46200 Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03-7931 7372 / 016-381 8896

Yama @ J Facebook page