Sunday, April 18, 2010

Palm View Seafood Restaurant

After a whole day of sightseeing, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for a bit before dinner. My parents and Ashley went down to the beach for a swim and also to redeem their welcome drink from the poolside bar (I believe it was some Lemongrass drink). Kevin, who was still trying to recover from jet lag, was totally knocked out cold and I spent the remaining afternoon surfing the net in our nice A/C room (the jet lag didn't really bother me but I was having a tough time adjusting to the heat). It was good just to relax! :D
By the time we finally got ready to head out to dinner, it was pretty late in the evening. We decided to return to Pantai Cenang and try another one of the seafood restaurants there. There were quite a lot to choose from but we ended up going to Palm View Seafood Restaurant. I guess we were attracted by the bright lights and red lanterns :PJust like all of the seafood restaurants along Pantai Cenang, Palm View Seafood has a host of different live seafood to choose from. Since we didn't get our crab fix from Orkid Ria the night before, we were really looking forward to some yummy crabs that night. The lady told us that a new fresh batch of crabs just arrived and she brought us to a back room to pick out a few. I guess that was the first mistake of the night. When the waitress brings you to a 'special room' to pick out seafood, you know that it wasn't going to be cheap!
The waitress also kept on 'promoting' the mantis prawns. She said that it was very fresh and they just brought in some new stock earlier that day. So we agreed to go take a look at it. While we were out there choosing our seafood, we changed our minds about the mantis prawns and said that we would like regular prawns instead (cos the only way they would cook mantis prawns is to steam it and we wanted butter prawns). The waitress wasn't too happy and gave an excuse that the kitchen was too busy and they won't have time to make butter prawns, so we should just get the mantis prawns instead. We know that it's just an excuse because, A: how can the kitchen be too busy? The restaurant wasn't even half full and B: mantis prawns cost about 3 times more than regular prawns! So, if she were to sell us regular prawns, she would make less money. In the end, we didn't really want to argue with her and picked out a few mantis prawns. Check out the size of the prawn!
So, apart from crabs and mantis prawns, what else did we order? Well, we ordered a plate of sea scallops cooked with shark fin (yes I do eat shark fin and I'm not ashamed of it!), shitake mushrooms, garlic and superior stock. It was pretty good actually. The stock was really sweet and yummy.
We also shared a plate of Hokkien Fried Noodles. It wasn't as nice as the noodles from Orkid Ria but it was alright. They used a lot more dark soy sauce and there wasn't as much shrimp and meat in this noodles. I guess it could have been worse, so no complains here.
Ahhh the controversial mantis prawns :P It was steamed with Chinese herbs and topped with cilantro. It's funny that they should call it a prawn. In my opinion, the meat tasted more like a lobster instead of a prawn. This dish was pretty good too. You couldn't really taste the Chinese herbs (it just enough to compliment the prawns) at all and the meat was firm and fresh.

Here we go. The piece de resistance! Sweet and Sour Chili Crab. Mmm mmm mmmmm. We have been waiting to eat this for the longest time and boy, I'm glad we were not disappointed. We finally got our dose of crabs! The crabs were indeed very fresh and the sweet and sour sauce was good too. Definitely worth the wait. Generally the food in Palm View is pretty good and the seafood is fresh. You just have to be careful when ordering. If not, you will end up with a really big bill at the end of the night.The waitresses would just try and push the most expensive dishes. So, do not get swayed by the waitresses, order what you want to eat and not what they try to 'recommend'. With that in mind, I'm pretty sure you will have a good meal in Palm Ville Seafood.


Palm View Seafood Restaurant
Lot 1584 Pantai Cenang,
Langkawi 07000,
Kedah
Tel: (604) 955 9008

No comments: