Crystal Jade Seafood BBQ

More expensive than expected...

Never knew this existed until we saw it while choosing a placeat the Seafood Centre to dine with family. Crystal Jade has its reputation of being trusty on its quality of food so it was a natural decision for us.

The weather was breezy when we went, so outdoor seats was good. The indoor sheltered seats was quite warm as the place has no air condition.

The menu was bright and easy to choose from - things like prawns you tell them how many grams you would like (min. 300g) and the menu lists the different way you can have it cooked. Same goes for vegetables - they list with pictures the different types of vegetables and you choose the way you want it cooked.

6 of us ordered conservatively:

Prawns sauteed with rice wine and herb ($21 @ $7 oer 100g) - 300g gave us 9-10 prawns which was much lesser than I expected. For this method of cooking, they cook the prawns at your table side and serve immediately thereafter. The whole cooking process was entertaining for the kids, but they served it by just throwing it onto the plate without even trying to sort of making it presentable.

Baby kailan in oyster sauce - although the kailan was not overcooked, it lacked the 'wok hei' that could have made the dish stand out. I felt there was way too much oyster sauce as well, but thankfully no overdose on the salt.

Deep fried tofu ($6) - a favourite with us; this is also on the other crystal jade menus. Small cubes of fluffy tofu deep fried to be crispy outside and soft inside, dusted with pepper and salt. Very good.

Fried rice - Cant remember what fried rice this was and only took a spoonful but there were egg and cabbage in it, and thankfully not oily although lacking the wok hei too.

Chilli crab ($76) - the star of the dinner. It came in a huge bowl with the crab flooded in the sauce. It was a huge crab they gave - 1.9kg thus the price. The sauce was quite good, although less spicy than some people would have preferred. The mantou was charged at $1 per piece, a bit pricey but the steamed ones tasted really home-made which was a bonus point for them.

Other little items we ordered was beer, young coconut, lime juice, organge juice, coke etc. Nuts, towels etc were also charged. The total bill was $236, which shocked me - I was expecting between $150-$200. Perhaps because we werent told the weight of the crab before hand which I felt was something they should have done.

Service was excellent though. Plates were changed very regularly and plain water was served without asking when they saw my lime juice was finished. Staff were all polite although sometimes because the place was not very busy, a few times I saw they tend to chat within themselves and didnt see some waving of hands signaling for service.

It would have been a much better experience without the shock of the bill I guess, and because the competition is so stiff, I'm really not sure if I'll be back.