Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant
91 Defu Lane
10 Swee Hin Building
Tel: 6487-2429

I think I just discovered another weekend hideout for Singaporeans. Located deep in Defu industrial park is this 200+ seater restaurant called Seafood Paradise…the seafood phenomenon. The older sibling of Taste Paradise, this place has found success with its live seafood and its signature creamy butter crab, which sauce is best mopped up with deep fried man tous… in other words, it got Singaporeans excited about their rendition of bread and butter.

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Creamy butter crab

This was my first visit to Seafood Paradise and it was introduced by my cousins. My brother on the other hand had been there with my cousins, and his first reaction upon his return visit was, “it was a lot crummier the last time we came here!” In fact, even the menus have had an upgrade from a laminated piece of paper to a proper full colour print menu.

There is an air-conditioned section of the restaurant, but most dine in the alfresco area under the stars along a wall lined with palmed trees. The waiting time for a table will be brisk, an estimate of 15 minutes, but once you are seated, brace yourself to wait for your food. We were prepared for a half hour wait, which the waitress confirmed with us when asked, but the actual wait was closer to 45 minutes, so be prepared to wait. During this time, you should either engage in conversations about politics, weather or whatever that will keep you occupied or you visit live fishes, frogs, crabs, prawns and lobster that are in the tank on death row. To have a good indication of when your food is coming, observe the tables next to you—especially if they had placed their orders before yours, once they have been served, your table should be served in the next 10 or so minutes.

As for the food, it was good value for money, but if you asked me about the whole experience, I don’t think the food was worth all that waiting and the anticipation skewed my judgment. The crab signature dishes such of creamy butter crab was too rich and sweet for me, but it comes with a sprinkling of deep fried crab roe that is wonderful to enjoy with the fried man tou, but I couldn’t stomach a lot of it without feeling je-lat. The crab in superior broth was good. Served with vermicelli, which does a doubly good job in absorbing flavours and giving royal appearance as if it were covered with shark’s fins. The broth was tasty and was initially met with glee but was a little overpowering after five spoonfuls. My favourite dish of that meal was its homemade beancurd in mini wok and pork floss, was soft and silky smooth and heightened by the pork floss on it. The other dishes that we had were ok, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it was ok, I might come back, but I will first have to figure out how to beat the crowd.

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*See the whole set here.


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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

agree with u that most of the dishes aren't much to shout about. Maybe it was the anticipation cos the person who recommended this place to me was raving about it.

I liked the honey pepper ribs though and I do agree that the butter sauce is great with the mantou although one can't have too much of it.

12:43 AM  

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