Restaurant Review - Long Beach Seafood @ Dempsey

 resta Restaurant Review - Long Beach Seafood @ Dempsey

25 Dempsey Rd
249670 Singapore

+65 6323 2222

The Long Beach Seafood restaurant has been around for almost 70 years by now and although the flair of the original seaside establishment has made way to today's style of a modernized Chinese restaurant, the place still has some things going for it. Long Beach Seafood has a total of five outlets in Singapore, and the one at Dempsey is arguably the best. Since Dempsey in general is very crowded on the weekends and since Long Beach Seafood has a good reputation in Singapore, it is advisable that you make reservations beforehand.

As you may guess from the picture above, interior design is not Long Beach's forte, and the place is neither elegant nor stylish. So, Long Beach Seafood is probably less suited for a romantic dinner for two, but rather an evening out with friends and family where decent food is in the focus. Unarguably, all seafood served at Long Beach is fresh, as you can even pick which crab, lobster or golden phoenix fish should end up in the cooking pot. The staff is very nice, and if you want a souvenir, they will be happy to hand you a giant Alaskan king crab to take a picture with.

Long Beach Seafood claims to be the creator of the "Original and Best Black Pepper Crab of Singapore", and indeed the crab meat is very succulent and juicy, the black pepper adding some spiciness, without totally covering up the flavor of the meat itself.

 

Personally, I liked the White Pepper Crab better, though. It is a trifle less spicy, but the white pepper beautifully compliments the crab meat and creates a literal feast for your taste buds. Long Beach Seafood really got the hang of this dish, and I very much recommend gicing it a try.

The Curry Crab is probably THE signature dish of Singapore, and the Long Beach Seafood restaurant's version is quite a decent one. The dish is served with little fried/steamed buns so you can better soak up the chili-tomato sauce (or you can also just spoon it up). I like the taste of chili crab, and think it's also very well suited for people who are not great seafood aficionados, just because the chili-tomato sauce covers much of the flavor of the crab itself. If instead you prefer to taste the crab meat more intensely, I would recommend going with the White/Black Pepper Crab.

 

 

In addition to the crabs, we also ordered another of Long Beach Seafood's signature dishes: BBQ Golden Phoenix Fish. Again, this fish is served as fresh as it gets (short of fishing it up yourself and eating it on the beach) and you can pick the one you wish to have prepared for yourself. On the downside, the one we got was slightly undercooked and the waiter we asked to carve it for us massacred the fish, leaving spines everywhere.

 

Besides seafood, Long Beach also serves quite a wide variety of meat, from your usual chicken, duck and pork to even deer meat. To finish our meal, we ordered a rack of ribs, fried rice and some green sprouts. I think, if you go to a seafood place, you're usually well advised to stick with the seafood, and although the other dishes we had besides the crabs were okay, they were not as exceptional as the first courses. The fried rice was okay, the green sprouts were literally drowned in garlic (no matter how many times we ask them to put less, they always put large quantities in) and the ribs would actually have been quite good if they hadn't been so very sweet as to almost taste like a desert.

Overall, I would recommend Long Beach Seafood, also if you have people visiting you in Singapore. The crab dishes are quite a few notches above your average Singaporean seafood restaurant and definitely worth a try. The other dishes were had mostly okay to decent, and for the more adventurous palates Long Beach also offers more exotic seafood such as geoduck and tiger mantis. That said, quality has its price, and you should not go to Long Beach Seafood restaurant expecting a cheap meal.

4/5 Stars

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Restaurant Review: Tong Le Private Dining @ OUE Tower

Restaurant Review: Tong Le Private Dining @ OUE Tower

OUE Tower, Level 4 & 5
60 Collyer Quay
Singapore 049322

+65 6634 3233

As one of only two remaining revolving restaurants, Tong Le Private Dining has secured its place in the Singapore fine dining scene. Under the umbrella of well-known TungLok Group (Chinois, Humble House, Taipan), Tong Le offers select a la carte items and different set menus that change frequently. OUE Tower is special amongst revolving restaurants, as on the "inner circle" you will find Shinji and on the outer, revolving part you will find the private dining rooms and semi-private dining areas of Tong Le. Guest have the option to choose from the menus of both Shinji and Tong Le. Reservations are obligatory for both venues.

As OUE Tower’s Tong Le is located right at the bay, the revolving view includes the Fullerton Bay Hotel, Marina Bay Sands, the Art Museum and the Singapore Flyer (but also a very unimpressive view of the office building right next to it). One revolution takes a bit more than two hours, so during the course of a set meal you should have more than sufficient time to enjoy the view.

If you go to Tong Le's website, the interior decor appears quite bright, however, we found the restaurant itself was lit rather dimly and the wooden furnishing is much darker than depicted on the website (this holds true only for Tong Le, as Shinji's decor is much lighter). For my taste, they could indeed have allowed for a little more light, especially as the light intensity sometimes changes when the restaurant revolves.

As we went during Chinese New Year, we had to order one of Tong Le's set menus and decided on the following: Prosperous Yu Sheng/ Yee Sang with Yellow Fin, Tuna and Lobster; Braised Superlative Shark's Fin with Australia Winter Black Truffle in “Noble” Tanfu Broth; Steamed Wild Ocean Fish with Japanese Black Garlic in Premium Black Bean Sauce; Chilled Homemade Sorbet to cleanse the palate; Braised South African Abalone with Fish Maw; Poached Alaska King Crab with Fish Mousse Noodle in Superior Broth; and for desert Pumpkin Puree Diced Mango topped with Coconut Ice Cream and served in Young Coconut. Price per person was about S$ 200 (excluding the bottle of 2005 Chianti we shared).

The Prosperous Yu Sheng/ Yee Sang with Yellow Fin, Tuna and Lobster was definitely a few notches above the ready made CNY Yee Sang you usually get at the store. I'm not too keen on Yee Sang, as I generally find it too sweet, but the one at Tong Le was well-liked by everyone at our table.

My fellow diners all ordered Braised Superlative Shark's Fin with Australia Winter Black Truffle in “Noble” Tanfu Broth, whereas I opted for the Bird's Nest in chicken consomme. Both dishes were served on flaming platters and were equally delicious. In contrast to say Yan Ting, Tong Le's shark's fin was tender, with very flavorful broth and the bird's nest was perfectly accentuating the chicken consomme.

The Steamed Wild Ocean Fish with Japanese Black Garlic in Premium Black Bean Sauce turned out to be Garoupa. Tong Le 's presentation of the fish was also visually appealing, and it was juicy and tender in consistency, but could have used a bit more seasoning for my taste.

Thereafter, Tong Le served a Chilled Homemade Sorbet served to cleanse the palate. The addition of poprocks to the sorbet made for an interesting culinary experience to say the least. The sorbet itself was fruity and flavorful, as you'd expect. The following course was Braised South African Abalone with Fish Maw. Most people will know Abalone, but not everyone knows that fish maw is actually a fish's swim bladder. Due to the difficulty of cleansing and preparing fish maw, and since the fish itself has to be of a decent size, it takes special skills to prepare this dish, which you will most likely only find in Chines cuisine, and which the chef at Tong Le seems to have mastered to perfection. The consistency is somewhat gelatinous, but not at all unpleasant and, as you may have guessed, it tastes intensely of fish. The Abalone was decent, but nothing out of the ordinary.

When the Poached Alaska King Crab with Fish Mousse Noodle in Superior Broth arrived, most of us were already well stuffed and possibly we were unable to fully appreciate this second-last dish. Unfortunately, I found bits of crab shell crunching between my teeth as I tasted the King Crab, which made me sample the next few bites more cautiously. The croutons in the broth were very rich in flavor and the crab meat itself was decent. The Fish Mousse Noodle I found rather disappointing, but the superior broth well deserved its name. You can't see it properly below, but some poor soul at Tong Le was obviously tasked with cutting out all the CNY coasters, as we could clearly see the scissor marks on the not-quite-round circle.

Last but not least, desert was served on dried ice, which again made for a visually stimulating culinary experience. Tong Le's Pumpkin Puree Diced Mango was topped with Coconut Ice Cream and served in Young Coconut. Unfortunately, my coconut was not so young anymore, so the coconut meat was rather hard. Otherwise the desert was creamy, yummy and not too sweet, setting a nice finishing point to our meal.

The staff at Tong Le was generally nice and there were some positive aspects (they didn’t mind our extensive photo-taking requests, overall polite and friendly) and some other things that definitely need improving: one of the waitresses spoke very minimal English, which is not what I’d expect in a fine dining setting, our main waitress kept addressing us very informally as “guys” (personally I wouldn’t have minded but there were quite senior people present and I’d have expected more formality). Lastly, at the end one course, three of us were still eating while one person had already finished, whereupon they cleared his plate and immediately served him the next course, which was rather inappropriate. Even though proper attire was requested, a diner at another table was wearing t-shirt and shorts, which surprised me somewhat as I’d been told Tong Le denies you entry if you are not dressed appropriately.

Overall, a decent but not quite perfect dining experience in a nice setting. I'd recommend dining at night, as the bay view is less captivating during the day. If you fancy a drink afterwards, there are plenty of bars nearby, and Latern at Fullerton Bayside is always a safe option to finish the evening.

4/5 Stars

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