Today, I went to Capital City Mall to try what might possibly be the cheapest buffet lunch in JB (just $9.90rm only!). The buffet has lots of food, drinks, desserts and even live cooking station. Feels somewhat like a hotel buffet, but it’s located at a shopping mall and functions like a normal restaurant.
The restaurant is located inside Capital City Mall, on the ground floor. It’s the only shiny star within a mostly dead mall. I parked on the 5th level, took the escalator down, woah.. see the fourth and third floor of the mall, total darkness no shops open. Abit scary for me.
Scary but still need to brave the darkness for the buffet lunch! ( Later when I spoke to some JB folks, they tell me they just park alongside the road beside the mall. Don’t need to drive all the way up the long and windy road up to the level 5 carpark in the mall… )
Long escalator will take you all the way down to ground floor, where Riverside buffet restaurant is. The restaurant has no actual logo, so I’m not sure what the actual name is. There’s an electronic signboard in the front, which sometimes displays Riverside Buffet, but if you search on facebook, the name is actually Capital Buffet Ramadhan. If you need more visual confirmation, it is to the right of Pizza Hut.
If you’re still unsure, it’s the only shop in the level (or even mall) that has people inside it, especially during meal times.
I was slightly early today, reached the restaurant around 12:10pm, there was not much of a crowd. The process is simple, pay at the counter to the left of the entrance, rates are clearly stated on the counter desk, here’s a shot (Breakfast buffet at $6:90rm!):
After paying, you can pick up a plate, pick food from the buffet spread on the right and sit at any empty table. Free seating, you can even share tables with other people. By the time I’ve picked my food, there were huge crowds of locals (working people, mostly) coming in.
Seating is not an issue though, there’s ample tables for groups of 4, 6, 8 and larger tables that can accommodate 10 to 12 people. The restaurant had also bought additional space at the back (previously the mall corridor) and cordoned it off.
Let’s do the usual buffet spread run through. It’s malay dishes, with two chefs manning live cooking stations, a dessert and drinks section. Right in front of the restaurant is the main buffet spread. This consists of four main types of dishes: Carbs, chicken, vegetable and special.
Carbs include fried rice, mee siam-like bee hoon, mee goreng.
Vegetable looks very much like chinese style cooked vegetable. Any vegetable dish here is nice by the way.
The stars of the buffet are the chicken dishes cooked in various styles. They make a totally colourful spread. Fish, beef, lamb, pork lovers, sorry nothing for u guys here. My personal favourite, recommended by the locals here too, is the fried chicken. It’s always the first dish in the buffet line.
There’s also other dishes like sweet and sour, cereal, curry and redang chicken, you can see these below:
Occasionally you might chance upon some special dish, like fried egg, thai chili style fried tofu or even la-la. Here’s something interesting: other than the fried chicken, every dish changes to a totally different one once it’s cleared by the diners. So you’ll definitely come across totally new dishes when you go for your 2nd or 3rd round.
Beside the buffet line is a smaller setup consisting of nasi lemak, white rice and porridge. I tried the nasi lemak, the rice is delicious and since it’s in a thermal container, it’s hot. The nasi lemak chilli is also pretty good!
The drinks station is next. Again, I’m satisfied because there’s hot coffee. Plus it’s not that sweet. The dispenser also has hot water which is always a plus point. Lesser selection for cold drinks, just 2, but hey, it’s already a steal for the price.
Past the drink station is the desserts and other snacks. There’s two trays of cakes, I tried all and the best I think is the green pandan cake.
Over at the other corner are three jars of crackers and some bread and spreads below it. The bread items are more for breakfast (there’s even a toaster beside it!) but I do see lunch goers taking a couple of slices. Maybe it’s a JB eating culture?
Next down the line is a small fruit section, there’s only watermelons, cut in generous slices. Not sure if they rotate the fruits everyday, since the staff didn’t change out to other fruits.
Past the bread counter is the live cooking station manned by one or two chefs. They’ll cook a variety of food for you. There’s steamed chee chong fan, with the two standard sweet sauces available. I had a plate, it’s so-so. Shouldn’t have eaten it though, since it’s pure carbs and pretty filling.
Beside the chee chong fan is the prata live station. The chef there is friendly and will heat up the pre-made pratas for you. Hot prata is always good but the curry, or dal, is slightly cold.
After the prata station is traditional steam malay kuehs (cakes). I tried the brown one, it’s really good! If you’re not going for the cakes at the dessert section, this is a pretty good alternative.
Last in line at the live station section is mee soto. I didn’t have enough space in my stomach to eat that, so if anyone tried it, do let me know how it tastes.
There’s an ice-cream box beside live cooking station. This was unfortunately covered up during the lunch buffet session. My guess is that ice-cream will only be available during dinner buffets. Or I could be wrong, they could be setting it up for future use.
I picked some food items from the buffet spread and this is my first round. Pretty simple, I went for the different carbs and tried out various chicken dishes. Went for round 2, with different dishes plus a prata and chee chong fan. Rounded up lunch with some cakes and hot tea.
So that’s Capital Buffet Ramadhan, do give it a try if you’re around the Tampoi area or visiting Capital City Mall. Here’s a shot of a Singaporean family in front of the restaurant wondering if it’s worth a try.
Definitely worth it. $9.90rm restaurant style buffet leh. – what I told them.
They went in and gave me a thumbs up later after I bumped into them again in the mall 🙂
Lastly, here’s a video walkthrough of the entire buffet setup. Watch if you want to have sense of what’s it like. And if you have time yeah 😉
Verdict:
- Extremely value for money. Got lots of dishes, cake, drinks, dessert and live cook stations.
- Get the fried chicken. It’s always the first dish in the buffet row. It’s the best.
- Nasi lemak rice is good, fried rice and vegetables are good.
- Pity most of the food items are not heated, only the food at the live cooking station is hot.
- Lots of seating, there’s even tables that can accomodate 12 – 14 pax.
- Unfortunately, there’s not much to do at Capital City Mall…it’s kinda dead. Only thing you can do here is eat this awesome buffet and maybe go to the Hero supermarket located on the same ground floor.
Rating: 3.8/5 ( food ) 4.7/5 ( value )
Capital Buffet Ramadhan (Riverside steamboat buffet)
Capital City Mall
FG-072 Jalan Tampoi,
81200 Johor Bahru, Malaysia
+60 16-7211 319 | 16-7428 855
Fb. Capital Buffet Ramadhan
Breakfast 10am – 12pm ( $6.90rm )
Lunch 12pm – 4pm ( $9.90rm )
Dinner 5pm – 10pm ( $19.90rm ) ( $12.90rm, 4-12 years child )
