San Ai Cho (or Sanaicho) again – Glen Waverley – great value all you can eat Japanese fusion

Having visited Sanaicho when it first open (you can read about it here), the second visit still resonated with me. The buffet was excellent, great value for the quality and options available. It’s more expensive than Okami, but it’s much more worthwhile because Sanaicho offers more interesting seafood, pork and bao dishes.

As with my first visit, I made sure to reserve a table and at least this time around my daughter was more manageable (being older and all). My daughter was free and enjoyed the Udon noodle soup and Fried Rice dishes. The restaurant is still a very popular destination and was packed on the day of my second visit.

I recommend ordering everything you want early, because the food takes awhile to come to the table. There is no restrictions on what you can order (as long as it’s not over the maximum as specified on the menu, which is still plentiful), so there is no need to order a bit of everything, just order what you like.

If you want to drink something other than water, Sanaicho have an extensive bevy of exotic drinks with different colours of the rainbow from $7 to $15. Their Lychee Lemonade was particularly refreshing and just enough sweet.

The menu is double sided with plenty of Japanese dishes, from sushi, tempura and teppanyaki style dishes (as well as Chinese bao, where you can choose stewed beef, pulled pork, chicken karaage or eggplant). When you order, you select what you want on their paper form and hand it to a server. Since opening, they have now increased their prices for each customer by a few dollars, instituted maximum orders on certain dishes, added/removed some dishes, and introduced some new surcharges for public holidays.

Expect to get full on some delicious Japanese fusion dishes

I tended to go for the meat dishes, but couldn’t help avoiding the many carb-heavy dishes like sushi, fried rice, tempura and noodles.

My favourite dishes were their LA Galbi which is a delicious marinated pork rib with barbecue sauce. My first visit left me disappointed with how tough the meat was, but this time it was superb once the meat is cooked through.

I also enjoyed their Braised Kakuni, Scallop and Spicy Mayo, and the Soft Shell Crab Rolls.

Since I visited before, I avoided dishes like edamame, tofu, spring rolls, chicken teriyaki and steamed rice.

At the end of the meal, each person can order their own ice-cream from matcha, vanilla and black sesame.

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