Lai Huat Seafood Restaurant

We have always enjoyed our meals from this simple coffeeshop but since they started shifting from one place to another, we have lost touch of their location. We chanced upon another outlet with the same name at Guillemard Road but the food was average even though they kept highlighting that their fried sambal fish was the original version. We tasted and confirmed it was below the standard because the fish was over-fried and the meat was dried and hard. The sambal was also burnt and tasted bitter.

Sambal Belachan Fish – Highly recommended as this was their signature dish. The dried shrimps, belachan and sambal chillie made a perfect match for this dish. Although the fish ( usually pomfret but not available on this day ) was lightly coated with flour and deep fried , the meat did not turn up dried but instead very moist and crispy. We scooped bits of sambal to go with the rice and it was so appetitsing that we ordered additional bowls of rice.

Baby Kailan – Simple dish but vegetables tasted fresh and crunchy. Although it was only stir fried with garlic, there was good control of fire as the vegetables did not turn up soggy.

Black Pepper Crayfish – Another highly recommended dish. Unlike some places where the crayfish were overly coated with black pepper sauce, this dish only need some finely mashed peppercorns to give it an aromatic taste. The meat was also juicy and can be easily removed from the shell.

Price was also affordable and we had a brief chat with the lady boss. She mentioned that there are many outlets using their name but she cannot do anything as it is not a “trademark“ issue. She also confirmed that they have another outlet at Rangoon Road which was also managed by their own immediate family member.