Happy 10th birthday Fiji!

Last sunday, Feb 24, 2013, was my favorite nephew's 10th birthday. In honor of that momentous occasion, his ever loving parents treated the Mendoza and Galecio clans to eat-all-you-can dinner celebration at Sambo Kojin.

Yes, that is a paper napkin. My sony xperia mini pro phone started acting up and this was the only shot I was able to take for my first trip to Sambokojin. I pity myself.

So after getting my nephew a gift (it was a remote controlled flying ball, which was basically, the rotors of an RC helicopter, in a plastic ball cage, which was pretty cool), we headed to Sambo Kojin, West Avenue for the 6pm get-together.

I envy today's kids with their hi-tech toys.

It's my first time to eat at Sambo Kojin although I've eaten at their other sister companies.

Their branch at West Avenue had around 6-10 parking slots at front (can't remember), but they have valets that can park for you, so parking won't be an issue. Just drive along their small driveway up to the front doors, and their valets will do the rest.

Once inside, the interiors are pretty modern. It's very well lit, tables are adequately spaced for a person to walk between them, and the chairs are quite comforable.

At the middle of the table is a grill, which you can turn on just by flipping a switch on the side of the table.

You get a plate, chopsticks and a napkin (which is the only one I was able to take a picture off, thank you Sony for my buggy phone). A rectangular condiments dish with partitions so you can pour in the different marinades you can dip your meat before grilling. And then there are the jars that contains the different marinades and the sesame oil for cooking on the grill.

There were basically four food stations. One held the different japanese delicacies like sushi rolls, sashimi, maki, etc as well as some Korean items,  which I profess I do not know much of. But it's there, so that means it's edible, and that's good enough for me.

The other station has the meats for grilling (yakiniku), which has beef, fish, pork, chicken, and some vegetables as well.

They also had a dessert station which had some creme brulee, mini cake rolls, chocolate mousse, cream puffs, cup cakes, ice cream and others.

I never had the chance of going to the fourth station as most of the time I was at the tempura station and the yakiniku station. I do love me some grilled beef.

The only time I wandered away from these two stations was when I sauntered to the dessert station to grab an eclair, a creme brulee, and a few (but hard worked) scoops of mocha ice cream.

And since it was my nephew's birthday, the staff sang him a birthday song and gave him a cupcake with a candle to blow out. The staff are really accommodating: Almost all the tables had a 'birthday celebrant' among them, which made the staff doing the rounds and singing the same song over and over again, yet, they belted them out with the same vigor.

I'm not a big eater outside of home, so I rarely go to buffet restaurants. The only time that I do go is when I get invited, or when I treat my team to a very well earned dinner or lunch. My wife and I usually just go out for set meals, even with my parents since they're not big eaters as well. Most of the time we always end up taking food home since we're unable to finish them.

But as far as eat-all-you-can restaurants go, Sambo Kojin is pretty good. The price is affordable, the staff are very accommodating, the place is clean and everything looks in pretty good shape. If  I had any complaints, it would probably be that beverages are not included (Although I'm not sure since I didn't pay for the meal. I'll probably just ask my sister sometime).

All in all, a pretty good first time at Sambo Kojin.