Seafood Paradise

SEAFOOD PARADISE RESTAURANT @ SINGAPORE FLYER 2009

When I was in Hong Kong last December 2008, both H and K brought my wife and I to the best roast goose restaurant in Hong Kong at my request and the meal was truly a delight! No one does Roast Goose the way the restaurant did~ crisp yet juicy, golden brown and fragrant (Not mentioning that it is very affordable too)! That alone has teased me numerous times to head back to Hong Kong just for this dish. Using the photo of the roast goose’s drumstick on my desktop certainly doesn’t help curb that urge and who’s fault is it? Nevertheless, can you blame me for that?

Roast Goose (4.5/5)
Yue Kee Roast Goose Restaurant
Crispy yet juicy, golden brown and fragrant.Highly recommended! It is located at
Sam Cheng ("Deep Well"in cantonese) in Hong Kong.

This time round when H and K came to Singapore, I am determined to bring them to savor some of our Singapore delights, something that we call it our own, our pride albeit some stupid ministers from other countries claiming it as theirs (*eyes rolling*). The first food that came into mind when the name Singapore is mentioned is either Hainanese Chicken Rice or Chili Crab although there are many more that are worth listing. Since yours truly has not been having crabs for a long time now, I have decided to introduce H  and K to crabs!

So which location should I go for crabs? JUMBO? Mellben? Sin Hoi San @ Tiong Bahru? After much deliberation and consideration, I have decided to go Seafood Paradise at Singapore Flyer (SF) although I do know that the one in Defu Lane is better. The reason for choosing this restaurant is due to their location as H and K spent the day shopping and sightseeing around Orchard to City Hall area so to make sure that its easy for us to meet up and to minimize the traveling time, Singapore Flyer it is!

I booked a table for 6 with the restaurant at 8pm but we only managed to reach there by 830pm as the location is a little out (Roughly 15mins walk from City Hall MRT station). It is right under the SF itself but the waiter who picked up my call didn’t have the sense to just tell me that it is right under the SF… Duh~ Anyway, to make reservation, you may call them at +65 9337 0055.

The restaurant is pretty cozy and the staffs are attentive and helpful. I don’t know why I am providing the next information but I guess once in a while it is good to have this piece of info attached. There is not a single toilet in the restaurant itself so if you wanted to answer nature’s call, you will have to go outside to the other end of the mall, just ask the friendly waiter/waitress and they will direct you there.

Scallop yam ring

Deep fried scallop wrapped with yam.
The yam is crispy savory with the scallop right in the middle.

We ended up having 5 person for dinner, as my sister could not make it on time. I ordered a medium seafood fried rice, medium scallop yam ring (6 pieces), medium stir fried asparagus with wild mushrooms, medium cereal prawn (Yes, again), 6 deep fried mantou (flour dumplings) and a 2Kg Butter Crab instead of the usual chili crab as I got to know later that the Butter Crab is a made-in-Singapore dish too and most importantly, you can’t find this dish in Hong Kong.

The scallop yam ring is the first to arrived. It looked good as it looked BIG! The scallop is wrapped in yam paste but leaving the top part of the scallop exposed while it is being deep-fried. The yam is crisp and fragrant but the scallop is a tad too small and since I mentioned it looked BIG, that also means that a lot more yam paste is being used. I personally preferred a thinner yam paste that comes with a good crisp and a bigger scallop that is juicy to balance the crispness of the exterior. Overall, this dish didn’t impress me much as I’ve got bigger better yam ring at JUMBO restaurant at roughly the same price. It scored a 4/10 as the thick paste overkills the taste of the scallop.

Cereal prawn
You should have known this dish by now...

The next dish is the cereal prawn. The waitress has suggested de-shelling the prawns so that it is easier to eat. As far as I am concerned, it is really a matter of preference to eat the prawns with shell or otherwise as not many people can tell the difference in the taste. To the experts and casual, go for the prawns in full armor, otherwise the naked version will do as well. The prawns are succulent for de-shelled ones and the cereal really gives it a great taste cum fragrance. I clear the plate till the last bits of cereal crumbs! Highly recommended at 7/10.

Next came the stir-fried asparagus with wild mushroom. Well if a restaurant can get this sort of dish wrong, it is not worth eating there, AT ALL. With Seafood Paradise, it is expected to be above average and it truly is. The asparagus are crisp yet cooked with the sweetness retained in each bite. The wild mushrooms are delectable too. A good dish to balance out the previous two heaty deep-fried/fried stuff. You can also choose other options of greens instead of asparagus namely baby kalian or edible malay morning glory. I liked asparagus better and being the typical cheapskate, it costs the most. Oh come on, if I really wanted to eat baby kalian or the morning glory aka kangkong, I could have just cooked it at home as it is so cheap I can buy a whole basket of them. If I am not cheapskate, then I would be practical. If I could get a Salmon over a chicken breast at the same price in a restaurant, why would I want chicken? I would rather spend that kind of money buying plenty of chicken and experiment on my own, but definitely not the higher priced stuffs. OK, enough of that, the asparagus scored 8/10.

In the Chinese eating world, the yardstick used to determine whether a restaurant or chef is good or otherwise is through their fried rice. The reason? Fried rice is a staple and many people would order fried rice in a restaurant. A Chinese restaurant sells more fried rice than any other dishes, thus if it could not produce a good plate of something they have cooked thousands of times, chances are it applied to other dishes as well. Some called this the Chinese wisdom or maybe I am the only one hahaha! The waitress helped to distribute the fried rice among the 5 of us. The presentation looked good. Generous portion of prawns, crab and prawn roe on it. Taste wise, it is pretty good but my complaint is that the rice is a tad too hard for me and the crabmeat does not taste as tasty. I of course loved to compare to JUMBO as it is a place I frequented the most and even go to the extend of having my wedding banquet there (Some of my guests told me that it is the BEST banquet they have ever had!). The seafood fried rice in JUMBO is tastier and the rice albeit looking deceivingly hard but feels just right to the bite. Yes, I used the fried rice yardstick to search for my wedding banquet venue. The seafood fried rice in Seafood Paradise only scored 6/10 in my books and my fear was for the next dish, the butter crab.

Butter Crab
Crab cooked in a creamy sauce.Tasted savory sweet.
This is a true Singapore dish! Try it!

The waitress then served us the deep fried mantou and next the butter crab. The dish looked impressive and H and K was like “It is soooo beautiful!” and the likes. Without delay, we all digged into the sauce and savor the dish in a moment of silence (reverence for the deceased?). The sauce tasted more sweet than savory, milky and creamy. K took out some leftover fries from Carl’s Jr. on a plate and splashed it with the creamy sauce (Bad idea! The fries became soggy and I think lesser than 10 sticks were consumed). As I was stung by jelly fish, I tried to eat lesser of the crab in slight fear of any allergies. I ate the crab roe though…hmm… crab roe should cause more allergy than the meat right? What heck! My wife commented that the flesh tasted a little fishy and gave me a portion of the pinchers… she was right. Butter crab was rumored to be the signature dish and also creation of the chef of Seafood Paradise but this dish albeit good, not great. I rate this dish 7.5/10 with due respect to the creator of this dish but I am still of the opinion that it could be better.

The total bill for the dinner was around S$188+ and with HSBC credit card, you are entitled to a 10% discount. As I don’t have a HSBC card, my guest ended up paying first (And last too) and that is why I couldn’t quote the exact bill amount. Either way, the price per pax is roughly S$33-37+ so it is still reasonable. Hope to try the branch in Defu Lane the next time I return to Seafood Paradise.

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