As was the case with its sister outlet at Sutera Mall where we had dinner before, the service was impeccable, the menu was impressive-looking and the food was priced much higher than if one had eaten at any other restaurant in JB. The variety of live seafood was rather limited on a weekday night - tilapias, groupers, oysters, ordinary mud crabs, crayfish and clams. There are three eating sections - the airconditioned area, the outdoor and without shelter area and the open-air non-airconditioned but sheltered area (for smokers probably). The second option should not be considered during dinner time because of the numerous large winged creatures buzzing about (attracted to light).
So, the dishes. The first dish we ordered and was served was lala (white shell clams) cooked in sambal chilli. There are other cooking options for this dish stated in the menu like chinese wine. Take note though that one has to order a min of 800gms for lala and given the price of RM 3/100gm, the dish below cost RM 24 (SGD 10). The Slog Reviews: 9/10. The chilli was mouth-wateringly delicious (mixed with rice) and the clams were cooked just right that one could taste how juicy and fresh each pc of meat was. As said, the staff service is impeccable and they cleared the plates very promptly. I would give this dish 10/10 cept that from the portion below, we were quite doubtful that this was 800gm worth of lala...maybe the shells which were indeed considerably large, weighed quite a bit.
We were temporarily torn between ordering kangkong and hotplate beancurd but after looking at the price of the veg which was 40-50% more expensive than elsewhere, and given my food companion's craving for beancurd, we had the hotplate beancurd with shrimps below. The Slog Reviews: 7/10. Would not recommend ordering this dish at the restaurant. Nothing exceptional in terms of taste or presentation and each toufu wasn't "melt-in-the-mouth" quality.
Now, a word of advice on the next dish below - priced at RM10/100gm (which was more expensive than crabs which were priced at RM5.80 - 7.80/100gm), we had expected the three crayfish we selected live from the tank to be of outstanding quality. The Slog Reviews: 5/10. We had asked for the crayfish to be cooked in butter and indeed it was but ah, what a disappointment the dish turned out to be for the price (total RM 30 = SGD 12). Talk about way-overpriced for the tiny little strips of meat in the shells which while fresh and sweet-tasting, was absolutely unremarkable in taste and badly presented. Give this dish a miss.
As the name of the restaurant implies, the place to have pekin/ Beijing duck in JB would be pekin restaurant of course. They also serve duck dishes like pipa duck on the menu. Anyhow, we ordered half a pekin duck (RM 23 which is SGD 10). The duck came with the thin beancurd sheets. I couldn't take a better photo as both dishes were placed on the opposite end of the menu and I didn't want to get up just to take a pic since most of the tables at the air-conditioned area were filled with working pp (middle-aged and elderly uncles) and familes.
We realised the reason for the dishes being placed so far away from us was so that the waitor could prepare the dish in front of us. He started by putting on a facemask and one side of the glove. Here is a pic of him placing the meat on each thin layer of beancurd skin along with some veg and sweet dark sauce.
The Slog Reviews: 7.5/10. The duck was cooked well enough but the meat was not tender or tasty enough and in fact slightly too dry. We asked for more beancurd sheets for the rest of the meat but were told that we had to pay for those so we declined. Still, this dish is very reasonably priced (could you have pekin duck at a nice restaurant in SG for just SGD 10?) and is worth having as a meat dish if one goes to this restaurant.
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