Owen Seafood Restaurant

With over 60 tanks of ‘LIVE’ seafood and almost 100 kinds of seafood to choose from – chefs will prepare your meal on the spot, in your preferred style, with no extra charge – this place is a dream come true for all authentic seafood lovers!

What’s more, dine on a weekday (except PH and eve) and you will enjoy a 50% discount off the seafood, and 30% off on weekends, PH and Eves of PH.

Despite the big dining area spreading across two levels, Owen Seafood Restaurant's décor is simple without much fanfare.

Since ‘LIVE’ and ‘FRESH’ was the order of the evening, we decided to go raw that night – by that I meant the dozen Canada Oysters ($1.60 each after 50%), the Geoduck Clam ($84/kg after 50%) and the Lobsters ($52/kg after 50%) prepared 'Sashimi' style.

“Sweet”, “Taste of the Sea” and “Succulent” was some of the adjectives used to describe these dishes that evening. However for the daunted ones, we also ordered a Soup Broth ($8) for them to cook the geoduck and the lobster meat.

The next round of dishes were prepared steamed – Sea White Prawns ($34.50/kg after 50%), Bamboo Clams ($4.40 each after 50%), French Giant Scallops ($4.40 each after 50%) and Marby Goby, or Soon Hock ($42.50/kg after 50%). This is where you are able to distinguish the skills of the chef.

The prawns were straightforward, thus nothing much to comment about, but the shell dishes were rather disdain. The bean paste that accompanied the bamboo clams overwhelmed its natural sweetness – and not that there was much to begin with, as the clams were overcooked that its flesh kinda turned rubbery.

A mixture of fried and very minced garlic also fails to bring out the natural flavour of the scallops. I would prefer a stronger, aromatic tang from the fresh garlic – less chopped up of course, as compared to the fried garlic, which seeks to steal the thunder from the main lead with its oily aftertaste.

Most of us also found the Soon Hock a tad disappointing, as its meat were flaky when served – a sign of over-steamed – but otherwise we did enjoy the freshness of its flesh.

The Flower Clam ($22.50/kg) we ordered that night was a total waste of money. Fried with the pathetic minced garlic, it was very oily and very tasteless. Being a shell-food lover, even I didn’t eat much of those that evening.

The only non-seafood dish that evening, the Fried Spinach with Garlic ($12.00) was another similar case of too oily and too bland. The only positive note was that the veggies were very fresh.

The Cereal Prawns ($34.50/kg after 50%) was average to say the least. The cereal itself was not as crunchy as I thought it should be, it also lacked that bit of the curry leaves whiff. Not much complains to the prawns itself though since they were fresh and its meat firm.

We ended the night with how we started – the Lobster – with its head, legs, shells, and feelers fried with E-fu Noodle in Broth ($15.00). We all thought it was not too bad except it could have been enhanced if the noodles were simmered a little longer to entrap the natural flavour of the crustacean better.

Overall, we thought it was still kinda costly for ‘live’ seafood even with the gimmicky 50% discount on seafood items as the food served wasn’t exactly of high standard.

You can view the all photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.