Food review 2007 #8 - Jumbo Seafood Restaurant

We had some close relatives who came over for a good 1 1/2 mth stay in sg. And as a farewell dinner, we decided to eat out. Known to many Singaporeans, the stretch of seafood restaurants at the East Coast Park, has many singaporeans (and tourists as well) flocking there to enjoy the food. Another benefit was being able to enjoy the sea view and breeze at the same time. And me, like many food-loving singaporeans, decided that that venue will be a good choice for a farewell dinner. After many discussions, we finally settled on Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, out of the many restaurants there. I had eaten at Jumbo Seafood Rest on one occasion, and it was many years ago. The food and ambience left a rather good impression.

I had called and asked for a reservation, asking for a table in the air-con environment on the 2nd level, but was told that that level was fully booked. So in the end, I was allocated an outdoors table. However, when I finally reached that place, I was rather taken aback. the place is rather huge and it was really really packed! The table was located at the side of the bldg and the tables are really close to each other. Still I decided to make the best out of the nite and have a good meal... afterall, the dinner was held in honour of my relatives, wishing them a good and safe journey home.

The menu looked pretty impressive. There was a huge variety of food and the photos looked really enticing.

We finally settled on 10 dishes..... Steamed bamboo clams with tang hoon, garlic, spring onions and some sauce. This is the most expensive item in the meal. The clams were of a good size but a pity tho'... they were a tad overcooked.Deep-fried beancurd and braised with mushrooms. This is a child-friendly dish and everyone love the mushrooms. The beancurd itself tho' soft, tasted rather bland.Satays. We ordered the beef and mutton ones. The meat was rather well-marinated. But's nothing out of the ordinary. Oh... and I wanted Ketupat but they don't have it. *pout* Stirfry venison with ginger and spring onions. This dish was rather well-done. Love the tenderness of the venison slices. But some pieces are rather chewy.
Some vegetables... this is stirfy baby kailan. Main reason we ordered this was 'coz my relatives can't take spicy food. Did not really enjoy this veg.Know what dish this is? It's cereal prawns. When the dish was placed on the table, I could not figure out what it was! The amt of cereal! My goodness... the prawns were literally drowned in it. The prawns were rather small and also overcooked. Cereal pranws are supposed to be fried first and then butter added and then curry leaves and finally the prawns and cereals. But the fragrance of butter was apparently missing here. The children enjoyed eating the cereals.This is the prawns... haha... I had to dig into the pile of cereals to get to it!Scallops in yam ring. I was captivated by the photo in the menu and had to order this dish to try it for myself. However, it's quite a disappointment. While it seemed a rather good idea and the appearance of the dish looks really nice, after tasting it, it just did not deliver. The scallops were grossly overcooked while swimming in the oil waiting for the yam to turn a good yellow. It tasted oily too.I guess this dish is my favourite. Deep-fried baby squids. It was done rather well. The crispiness of the squid and I really love the sauce! The use of har-zheong (prawn paste) was a nice addition and made this dish stand out from the others I tried. I can really taste the prawn paste here.Remember my mention earlier abt my relatives not being able to take spicy food? Well, chilli crabs was out of the question and we settled on a non-spicy way of cooking these crabs. This is butter crab. And it turned out very different from what I imagined it to be. Sadly, the butter fragrance is not distinct (and so, why call it butter crabs???). The waitress screwed up and gave us 1 crab, instead f 2 which we had ordered. *relief* Basically the crab was deep-fried after being coated with a very thin batter than had contained VERY LITTLE butter. And the crab does not taste sweet... in fact, the flesh tasted rather bland. Overall, I think Jumbo had not delivered. I don't think I'll patronise this restuarant again. Altho' the bill did not come up to alot, but I seriously think that there's many restaurants out there that can do a much better job! It really makes me wonder why they are enjoying such good business... Do we singaporeans have so little choice? *puzzled*