It has been quite some time since I last visited Jumbo Seafood restaurant, as some foreign visitors were in town so we decided to have dinner at Jumbo Riverside Point. I didn't know their business had become so successful. On a weekday night, we almost couldn't secure a table. The restaurant opens at 5.30pm for its alfresco section, 6.00pm for its indoor section. At 5.30pm, there was already a huge queue, for people with reservations! We waited for about 15 minutes before we were seated.
We ordered a very expensive set menu, which is not shown at their website.
The first dish that came was the PingPang (拼盘), a combination of appetizers of roast duck salad with mango, crispy fried baby squid, bacon wrapped sausage, and fried seafood beancurd. We had motley crew of people that night, 3 Americans, 1 Italian, 1 Korean, 1 Japanese, 1 Mexican, 1 Indonesian and of course 1 Singaporean. The Italian didn't like sweet dishes other than dessert, so he didn't like the fried baby squid. I don't like sausages in general. The rest of the guys somehow finished all that appetizer in no time. For the next few dishes, they were gone before I could take a photo!
The next dish I managed a photo was steamed bamboo clam. Vermicelli was strategically placed underneath the clam meat, and minced garlic was placed on top the clam meat. When the clam was steamed, all the richly flavored juice was absorbed in the vermicelli. At first, I was a bit concerned that the clam meat may be too tough to chew. As it turned out, it was good. Fully cooked, but it was crispy, easy to bite it off, not the rubbery type. The chef did a good job. Other than one Italian American who doesn't like garlic, all the bamboo clams were gone in an instant.
Our expensive set menu offered Alaska crab. We decided to have half to cook with black pepper, and half with chili. I must say that Alaska crab itself was very good, but the black pepper was really too strong and overwhelmed the taste of the Alaska crab itself. In my opinion,
The chili crab somehow still managed to retain the original taste of the Alaska crab itself. Alaska crab itself was sweet, the chili sauce added an added layer of complexity to the taste, while not overwhelming its original taste. The Italian, Indonesian and Singaporean like the chili crab, while one American favors the black pepper crab, while the rest like both, so chili crab had a small edge.
Having had two strong flavor dishes of black pepper and chili crabs, we savor something less spicy - steamed grouper. It was done in typical Cantonese style, steamed with nothing but some tiny pieces of ginger, topped with some spring onion and parsley for decoration, and seasoned with boiled soy sauce. This way of cooking is an ultimate test of the freshness of the fish. If the fish is just a tad less fresh, the dish will stink! In our case, we got a really good fish. And to the chef's credit, he didn't over cook it, the meat was just nice, fully cooked yet still tender.
Our meal finished with a grand finale of desserts. They offered mango pudding and chilled jelly with mixed fruits. The mango pudding was excellent. Fragrant but not too sweet, helps you to digest that abundance of food that you just had.
The staff there were worth a praise. The place was crazy busy at night, there were really so many customers there. I can imagine their work load must be damned heavy, yet they could still manage to have a smile on their faces. In all that chaos, they didn't make mistakes, and still manage to meet my requests, although trifle.
I very much enjoyed their food, although it was quite expensive. For the 17 of us, we spent a total of ~$2100. The food was good but still has room for improvement. The downside is the huge crowd, you can't really have a very relaxed meal. Well, is this the curse of the winner?
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