Video
Read full review
2012-11-03
1816 views
Took a group of 10 friends to celebrate a birthday together......and it was really a fine and fun excursion. Food quality mostly excellent, service friendly and efficient. (This may have been helped because we were a bilingual group, so no language barrier.)We really enjoyed the end-to-end excursion. Pickup in Central, beautiful boat ride to the restaurant (helped by the fact it was a lovely evening) and return afterwards. All efficiently booked in one (English-language) phone call. On a
We really enjoyed the end-to-end excursion. Pickup in Central, beautiful boat ride to the restaurant (helped by the fact it was a lovely evening) and return afterwards. All efficiently booked in one (English-language) phone call.
On arrival, we were given the option of the restaurant on the left (newer, apparently), and the "traditional" restaurant on the right. We opted for the left, which seemed a little less crowded, and were happy we did so. As noted by a previous reviewer, this is not "fine dining;" it is an outdoor dining experience on a remote island, but within that concept, it was a fine experience.
The kitchen seems to be at its best when doing seafood (duh....). Our Cantonese-style whole steamed chicken with vegetables was pronounced by the local experts to have insufficient taste.
But everything else was really really good:
Steamed peel-them-yourselve prawns: succulent and accompanied with a small selection of sauces (e.g. traditional soy sauce but also pepper oil and cantonese-style hot sauce). I ventured into the pepper oil and loved the contrast in flavor from the usual soy sauce.
Deep-fried squid: crispy outside and not tough (as some squid can be).....the oil used for frying was clearly fresh and the squid were flavorful.
Open-face scallops covered with light bean thread noodles and garlic sauce...ooooo the noodles with garlic and a bit of the scallop meat were to die for! I wanted four more (but couldn't have them, as we had ordered the precisely right number of pieces
Steamed whole garoupa: this was the centerpiece of the meal and also the agreed flavor champ. Not drowning in soy sauce.....this was Cantonese cooking at its best, and everyone admired the adept cooking, which brought out the fish's natural flavors.
Clams with black bean sauce.......the clams were small and tender but frankly licking the sauce off the shells was the really wonderful part.
Vegetables were fresh and cooked just right, with a bit of crunchiness still left in the stalks. Fried rice just okay. For dessert, we opted from their Movenpick ice creams (well it was a birthday party) and the restaurant threw in a complimentary fruit plate.
We brought our own wine.....the corkage charge was eminently fair, and the staff very helpful in providing glasses and a bucket.
Oh....and the toilets were clean, too! :-)
Other Info. :
There are a couple of pickups from Central and TST each evening. We found the 7 pm pickup and 9:30 return (the last one) left us plenty of time to fully enjoy our meal with no rush.
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
Post