Red House Seafood Restaurant (East Coast)

Yet another place we went to during S's last trip back. We actually wanted to check out the Jackson Centre Kopitiam, but found out when we got there that the whole place was closed! So we ended up here instead...

Was quite odd coz we saw at least two Caucasians having a seafood feast on their own, not sure if they were tourists or locals. And when I say feast, I mean FEAST - we saw them order like five dishes EACH :O

Which made our two dishes seem really sad, but how much can two tiny girls like us eat? :D

Can't remember how much the Sri Lankan King Crab in Red House Chilli Stew cost, I think it was about $35++ per kg?


Fresh, meaty crab... sauce was pretty mediocre though, not as spicy as I would like it. Despite the elaborate name, it's really just chilli crab.

What we both loved was the Sambal Kang Kong -


The hae bee hiam (dried prawn sambal) used to fry this was really good! The sambal was tasty and super spicy. Yums.

Service was pretty good, they changed plates relatively fast without being intrusive. Not cheap but then all the restaurants here are around the same price range. Good place to bring out of town guests.


Red House Seafood Restaurant (East Coast)
1204 East Coast Parkway
#01-05 East Coast Seafood Centre
Tel: 6442 3112
http://www.redhouseseafood.com/Default.aspx

Century Village Seafood Fish Head Steamboat

YAY! Blogger is up and running so I'm back in business :D

Realised I haven't had fish steamboat since one of my first few posts on this blog so we went to try out this one.

They ran out of the fish we wanted so we ended up with garoupa (i think) with the steamboat for $38 -


Wasn't as great as the one I blogged about the last time but it's such comfort food that I couldn't help tucking into more than a few bowls of soup... soup was pretty flavourful and the fish was fresh.

Other dishes we tried here were pretty good too. The Home-style Tofu $12 was really soft and tasty -


The Prawn Rolls $8 were just ok -


A last minute addition was Cereal Sotong $10 which we just had to try coz it's the first time I've seen such a dish -


And it was pretty yummy! Didn't think cereal sotong would be a good idea but it surprisingly works... and of course I picked endlessly at the cereal bits.

An industrial park is a bit of an odd location for a restaurant, but that means parking is plentiful especially on weekend :)


Century Village Seafood Fish Head Steamboat
Blk 3014 Bedok Industrial Park E
#01-2152 S489980
Tel : 6445 0972

Fin Seafood Café

And so my journey of rediscovering fish and chips continues... we were looking for a place to have a quick lunch before watching a movie and settled on this place (coz we knew for sure there would something for Gerry the Pescatarian to eat here :).

We ordered the Calamari to share -


and I had the Fish and Chips Set Lunch which consisted of a soup...


Fish & Chips...


and dessert, which was tiramisu...


The fish and chips here was quite good! Again it makes me wonder why I stopped eating fish and chips. If I remember correctly, the set lunch was pretty cheap too. Service staff is a bit laid back but was prompt so no complaints... Good option for food in a mall where every other food place is pretty non-descript.


Fin Seafood Café
6 Raffles Boulevard
#02-226A/B Marina Square
Tel: 6338 2207

Eng Seng Restaurant

Have you heard of the crab place in Joo Chiat where you have to start queueing at 5pm? Nope, it's not an urban legend - I was actually there!

It's located in a pretty old and run down coffeeshop on the corner of Joo Chiat Place and Still Road. My sis, brother-in-law and I got there just after 5pm on a Saturday evening and there was already a queue :O Luckily we got a seat pretty fast... unfortunately it was right next to the BBQ seafood stall which meant that we were overwhelmed a few times by the smoke from the BBQ fire... Aiyoh, the things we Singaporeans do for good food!

As mentioned on many other blogs, the Auntie who takes the orders here is quite fierce. You can try and order what you want but she will tell you what you actually get to order. When we placed our order for the infamous black pepper crab, she told us that we'll have to wait 2 hours coz the delivery of crabs were late and haven't arrived yet. 2 hours!?! We were unconvinced it would take 2 hours so we went ahead to order 3 Black Pepper Crabs, with Fried You Tiao :


and Veggies :


which helped to keep us occupied while we were waiting for the crabs. The you tiao was actually not bad... While we were eating these two dishes, we saw the crabs arrive - YAY!

By the time we got our Black Pepper Crabs, it was about an hour after we placed our order. Wah, the auntie very good at managing people's expectations! Ok enough talk about everything else, I'm guessing you wanna know how the crabs were...


Doesn't it look yummy? It certainly was :) After having had so many non-descript, indistinguishable black pepper crabs, this one was quite different - it was very peppery but had a sweet tinge at the same time. The crabs were quite meaty and very fresh. Of course we ordered some bread to eat with the pepper sauce :)

Worth the wait!! Come here early so you don't have to wait too long for your food.... and don't be too afraid of the fierce auntie, she's actually quite nice.


Eng Seng Restaurant
247/249 Joo Chiat Place
Singapore 427935
Tel: 6440 5560
(Closed on Wednesday)

Jumbo Seafood (Riverside Point)

Alicia and Stefan were back for a visit in December... and Stefan loves our local food, especially seafood. Alicia, despite being a pescatarian, is not a big fan of seafood - especially those that change colour when cooked :) So we always organise makan outings just so that Stefan gets to eat his favourite Singaporean (seafood) dishes. Which is how we ended up at Jumbo Seafood - for the Black Pepper and Chilli Crabs!

The Black Pepper Crab $39.60++


and Chilli Crab $39.60++


were both pretty average. Like I said before, I haven't had a really good pepper or chilli crab in ages and would welcome any recommendations...

We also had Drunken Prawns $32.50++,


Steamed Soon Hock $39.00++,


and Baby Squid $15.00++.


Again, all very average. The soon hock and prawns were quite fresh though...

The Beancurd Special $12.00++ was pretty yummy, but not vegetarian (which we thought it would be).


We requested for the Hong Kong Noodles $12.00++ to be cooked without meat for the pescatarian in the house -


It was still good without meat - but really I always like Hong Kong Noodles :)

We were all terribly amused by the bib so I just had to take a picture of Stefan wearing the bib -


It's on request only so do ask for it :D

Always a safe option when craving the old favourites but really very average food.

Thanks for the treat, Alicia and Stefan!


Jumbo Seafood (Riverside Point)
30 Merchant Road
#01-01/02 Riverside Point
www.jumboseafood.com.sg
Tel: 6532 3435

Ming Kee Live Seafood

The trip here was at Sandy's request - she read about this place on Chubby Hubby's blog. This place is supposed to be famous for it's crab bee hoon but Sandy was leaving for the UK and just could not leave the country for a year without having Chilli Crab one last time -


At $38 per kg, this 1.3kg crab cost $49.40. It was fresh with lots of flesh so can't complain... the chilli sauce was unremarkable though. But we still had it with fried buns (man tou) :)

We also had Sweet and Sour Fish $12 -


and Home-style Tofu $8 -


Seemed a bit of a waste to deep fry such fresh fish to make the sweet and sour fish... the beancurd was pretty soft and very tasty. Way way WAY too much food for two girls, but we did a pretty decent job of finishing up most of it :)

The food was pretty decent, but after reading Chubby Hubby's post on how good the Crab Bee Hoon was, I think I'll have to make a trip back here to try it soon...


Ming Kee Live Seafood
556 Macpherson Road
Tel: 6747 4075

Melben Seafood (Ang Mo Kio)

My sister raved about the Butter Crab from this place some time back - it's always so crowded that she and her friends normally order the food to go... so it seemed like the perfect thing to have when Gerry & I decided to visit new mummy, Daphne, and Baby Jonah one evening - mainly coz Daphne lives just a few streets away...

On my sister's advice, I called up the restaurant at 4pm to order the food. Told them I would pick it up at 7.15pm but they called up at 6.45pm to say that the food was ready for pick-up! So the food was a little cold by the time we settled down to eat but everything was still yummy...

The Butter Crab was surely the star of the day -


The gravy was so good that we ran out of mantou (fried buns) to wipe up the remainder of the gravy.

The Cereal Prawns were just ok -


Definitely a dish that does not travel well, the moisture from the steam made all the cereal soggy... Note to self : do not order cereal prawns for take away. Ever.

Another of their signature dishes is the Claypot Crab Beehoon -


So we opened up the container and pushed the crab around looking for the beehoon, but there was none. I told my sis about it later and she said the beehoon is packed separately and the auntie probably forgot to give us the packet of beehoon. Just as well, seeing how we were quite stuffed and beehoon would probably have pushed us over the edge :)

The soup was quite good, it's got a bit of a lemak taste to it... oh, by the way, this is my first time ever having Crab Beehoon.

A bit of an expensive meal at around $30 per person. But the crabs were quite big and very meaty so I think it's quite worth it.

If you ever want to try this place out, I highly recommend calling and ordering in advance, even for dining in. But take note, this place does not take advance orders on weekends. Definitely a must try!


Melben Seafood (Ang Mo Kio)
Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
#01-1222 Singapore 560232
Tel: 6285 6762
Operating Hours: Daily 4.30pm - 11.30pm

Hua Yu Wee Seafood Restaurant

I am guaranteed a trip to a seafood restaurant whenever G & B are in town... our initial intention was to check out the very famous Eng Seng Restaurant Black Pepper Crab. The crazy thing about Eng Seng Restaurant, is that to be able to eat this apparently delicious black pepper crab, you have to get there at 4.30pm. Yes, I'm serious. And while we were making arrangements to meet there at that bizarre time, I found out that the place is closed on Wednesdays, and it being a Wednesday, we had to find somewhere else to indulge B's seafood cravings.

So we ended up here. This place seemed vaguely familiar... I probably came here to eat when I was a little kid, but it's still quite popular - even on a weekday, the place had a reasonable number of customers, including tourists. We sat outdoors where the lighting was less than desirable so the pictures are all pretty dark - apologies in advance!

We had Chilli Crab $39.60+ :


It was not bad but unspectacular. I was a bit surprised when the bill came and the crab cost more than what it would usually cost at the bigger establishments like Jumbo. Didn't make sense to me seeing how this is such a out of the way location... and the dish wasn't all that great...

We also had Baby Squid $12.00+ :


which again seemed to be a bit on the expensive side. B thought this was way too funky for his foriegn taste buds so G and I ended up having to eat all of it.

We tend to go overboard with the food coz B loves to eat seafood so much... we also had Black Pepper Crayfish $14.00+ :


and Sambal Mussels $8.00+ :


The food was only mediocre at best... actually, for these prices I would probably rather eat at Jumbo. Hmm, have to try to make another attempt at eating at Eng Seng...


Hua Yu Wee Seafood Restaurant
462 Upper East Coast Road
S466508
Tel : 6241 1709 / 6442 9313

Roland Restaurant

This restaurant claims to be the founders of Chilli Crab... It's located in the multi-storey car park next to Parkway Parade - I would never have guessed there was a restaurant here! Roland (the son of the original owner) put a caricature of his face on the company logo... and he's actually works at the restaurant. We were there on a weekday evening and he was busy going from table to table talking to customers.

We ordered a lot of food... to be honest, I felt a little sick later that night from over-eating... but apparently I was not the only one :)


Started with You Char Kuay - kinda weird that we had to ask for mayo, isn't it normal to serve this with mayo?? But it tasted pretty good - crispy and lots of filling.



One dish that this restaurant is famous for is the Black Sauce Prawns. It was a very simple dish but quite delicious. *Someone* ate up lots of the sauce with the Fried Mantou :)



We also had the Tofu with Baby Kai Lan and Gingko Nuts - an attempt at having a balanced diet? :)





The best thing about eating out in a big group? You get to order Peking Duck!! It's not the most photogenic food, is it?...


And of course, we had to have Chilli Crab and Pepper Crab... with lots of Fried Mantou! Out of the three times I had Chilli Crab recently, I liked this one the best. The level of chilliness was just nice and best of all, there was lots of egg and crab roe in the sauce - I probably ate one too many mantou here :)



I didn't really like the Pepper Crab here - it was the sweet peppery-type of Pepper Crab and I much prefer the peppery peppery-type :)




We also had the Beef Kuay Teow, very similar to the famous Beef Kuay Teow at Geylang. Huge pieces with tender beef with lots of sauce. Not bad!




And believe it or not, we had dessert... I had the Tang Yuan in Red Bean Soup but it was nothing fantastic. The Guilin Gao apparently wasn't too good so best to avoid the desserts here.

All in all a good meal! Definitely worth coming back especially for the Chilli Crab... but after crabs three times in one month, probably best for my health to avoid it for a while :D

Roland Restaurant
89 Marine Parade Central
#06-750
S440089
Tel : 6440 8205
www.rolandrestaurant.com.sg

Long Beach UDMC Seafood Restaurant

This is the second time this month that I'm having seafood... and, erm, I'll be having seafood again one more time before the month is up :P

Someone told me that crab is high in cholesterol and I was bit concerned with the excessive crab consumption this month, so I checked out the Health Promotion Board website for the actual nutritional value.

One whole crab served Black Pepper Style has 114mg of cholesterol... half the amount of cholesterol in a plate of Char Kuay Teow! So not that high really, considering I eat Char Kuay Teow more often than I eat Black Pepper Crab. Just slightly depressing knowing how unhealthy most local foods are so check the website out at your own peril!

In any case, it's all about moderation right?? :P

So anyway, back to the food... of course we had Black Pepper Crab - the must-have dish at Long Beach.

It was nice and peppery, but really not that different from the one I had at Jumbo...

We had Chilli Crab too and the sauce was really yummy. What I was really happy about was that the Fried Mantou were not like the dinky little ones they have at No Signboard and Jumbo, but they were bigger ones that were much better to wipe up the sauce with.

And my other favourite seafood dish - Deep Fried Sotong Kia! Hmm... what is it called in English... Deep Fried Baby Squid? I love the crunchiness of the deep fried sotong and the black sweet sauce it's fried in goes amazingly well with it.

Was going to say that I've had more than enough crab to last me a long time but my sister was just telling me about this place in Ang Mo Kio that has the most delicious Butter Pepper Crab :D


Long Beach UDMC Seafood Restaurant
1202 East Coast Parkway
#01-04 East Coast Seafood Centre
Tel : 6448 3636
www.longbeachseafood.com.sg

Jumbo Seafood

Realised it's been a long time since I've had seafood so was very glad when an opportunity to indulge came by recently... it's been even longer since I've been to the Seafood Centre at East Coast! Was very surprised by how crowded Jumbo was - tables spilling out of the restaurant and a (short) wait for a table despite a reservation...

Boy, did we have a feast! Here's what we ordered :

Drunken prawns (300g) $19.50 - I was a bit worried that it would be served the old school way where they bring a bowl of jumping live prawns and mix it up with the liquor in front of you (just slightly disturbing, if you ask me), but it came fully cooked. Quite yummy, but not much of the liquor taste so I don't quite see the whole point of the "drunken" bit. Or maybe I should have drank up the soup...

Black Pepper Crab (1.1kg) $36.30 and Yu Tiao $8. I haven't had Black Pepper Crab in literally years! Have fond childhood memories of my favourite Black Pepper Crab at Long Beach... The Black Pepper Crab here was pretty decent - but I remember Black Pepper Crab being much hotter when I was younger, or maybe my tastebuds were not used to spicy stuff then :) The Korean couple sitting next to us were so intrigued by the Yu Tiao that they pointed it out to the waitress and ordered it too!

We also had Garlic Fried Dou Miao $10 and 10 sticks of Chicken & Beef Satay $6 but somehow still found space in our stomachs for Sambal Crayfish $16 and 3 Fried Man-tou $1.20... I didn't try the Crayfish but couldn't stop myself from dipping the Man-tou into the Sambal sauce - one of my favourite parts of eating seafood :)

In case you were wondering, there were *only* three of us eating all that food... apparently I'm not the only person who eats a lot :D It came up to about $34 per person - much less than I expected. There's an upcoming post on more seafood at Long Beach :)

Jumbo Seafood
1206 East Coast Parkway
#01-08 Seafood Centre
S449883
Tel : 64423435
www.jumboseafood.com.sg