Jumbo Seafood - Not All About Seafood

I thought we were going to eat seafood, but apparently there’s more to just seafood.

Jumbo Seafood is a restaurant chain in Singapore. The first outlet was opened at East Coast Seafood Centre in 1987, with an additional of five other outlets both in the city and in the suburban areas. The one that my coach, a friend and I visited was the one at Serangoon Gardens.

Going straight into the food, we ordered 5 dishes, out of which I only took photos of 4 as one of them is just green vegetables stir-fry with garlic (which you can see a little bit of it at the back of the photo on the left). One of my favourite dish out of the five is the tofu. The tofu is deep-fried quickly and then a thick sauce cooked with different types of mushrooms ranging from enokitake mushrooms to shiitake mushrooms is poured over the tofu and served immediately, garnished with broccoli. What makes the tofu special is that it has a layer of seaweed right at the top, giving the tofu a new look. Additionally, the tofu is deep-fried in very hot oil as the skin is very crispy while the inside remains soft and simply melts in your mouth. Coupled with the saucy sauce, this dish is a must-try even though this dish has nothing to do with seafood (laughs).

Then there’s the fish. I believe it’s tilapia (correctly if I’m wrong). This dish is served with the fish deep-fried and accompanied with a tangy, sour and slightly spicy sauce. When the dish was served, the waitress helped to cut the fish so that we can help ourselves easily. In my own opinion, I think the fish is served in a rather funny way. Like the fish is just sitting on top of the sauce, it doesn’t look special or exceptionally appealing. As tilapia is a freshwater fish, it has quite a lot of fish bones, so take extra care when eating. Overall the fish tasted quite good as again, the fish is deep-fried in extremely hot oil such that only the outside is crisp (but not hard) while the inside remains really soft and sweet. I find the fish tastes good just like that but the sauce does add a different taste to it.

Next is the roast chicken. The chicken is served with a small dish of salt as accompaniment, but I find the salt a little redundant as the salt doesn’t really stick to the chicken. The chicken was a little over-roasted as the meat is tough, real tough. It’s not fantastic, it tasted just alright.

And my favourite dish of all for the day is this! Teppanyaki Deer with Celery and Onion (I invented the name myself as I don’t know what it’s called in the menu). It was sizzling when served, that’s why there’s the need for the lid in order to prevent the splatter of oil all over onto us. When the lid’s removed, behold! The black peppery taste of the sauce coupled with the tenderness of the deer meat… It’s great (too bad my friend didn’t know how to appreciate :p)! I would strongly recommend this dish, even though, again, it’s not related to seafood at all.

And there you have it, a seafood restaurant does not mean that we can only order seafood (I’ve always thought that way, but I’m proven wrong today). The dishes are a above average but they have not reach that level where you go “oooh, ahhh” over the food yet. I can’t rate the service as by the time we got there they are about to close for lunch break (around 2pm), hence there are nobody in the restaurant except for the three of us. So we were very well-attended to. I’ve no idea how much this meal cost, but I believe is around the price range of $100+ for 5 dishes. From a few reviews from hungrygowhere, each person averagely spend around $30 - $50 per person, depending on the number and type of dishes you order.

Overall I’ll give Jumbo Seafood (Serangoon Gardens) a value of 7/10. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

P.S. I’m seriously lagging behind in my updates for my cooking and baking and some other reviews. Will try to get them up as soon as possible! >.<

~ by Jasline on June 23, 2008.