Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant

Ever since I stepped into the working society, time passes by extremely quickly. I barely have enough time for myself, let alone say for my loved ones around me. So weekends are my most precious days where I truly get to sit back, relax, and spend time with important people in my life.

Last Saturday, I met up with L and his family for seafood feast at Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant.

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant is a place where you can be assured to have fresh seafood. Why? Because you are serve only what you choose! You go to these tanks, observe these living sea creatures, and then you indicate which particular one you set your eyes upon.

Unqiue Seafood Market located just outide the restaurant

Tanks and tanks of living sea creatures.

Prices (by weight) stated clearly.

This is damn disgusting.

That's not all. The stall owner will then pick up the creatures you'd selected, put into a huge plastic bag, and then indicate for you to go over to the weighing scale.

Thats our crabs being weighted!

So that's it, no fear of them exchanging your goods for an inferior one. So you literally eat what you see/choose.

When you first step foot into the restaurant, wear a jacket. No, I am not kidding. Or maybe we arrived before the crowd, so the temperature were beyond comfort. But when one of the waiter saw me rubbing my arms to keep myself warm, he initiated to switch off the air-conditioner which we were sitting in front of. This thoughtful gesture scored 10 points for me.

Interior of the Restaurant

But if you are looking for a nice place to give a treat, skip this place. I will just be blunt, the decor is nowhere near the standards of a high end restaurant. There is a permanent, oily smell that lingered in the air the moment we stepped in. My whole jacket reeked of the smell after the whole dinner. Throughout the dinner, we were served by this grouchy waitress. And okay, enough said. Let's move on to food.

First dish of the night, Peking Duck!

Peking Duck

Always have a soft spot for this dish ever since I had the first ever bite at Szechuan Court, Fairmount Singapore. And that particular Peking Duck was the best ever, even better than the authentic Peking Duck I had in Beiing. In most restaurants, the duck will be sliced in front of the customers by the cook, the skin and little meat is to be eaten separately from the rest of the meat, For the latter, you get to choose what kind of dish you want them to cook the meat with, for example noodles, or you can choose to eat it plain.

Peking Duck

Nothing particular special about this dish. The skin was thin and crispy, though a bit too oily for my personal liking. Wrap it with thin pancake slices, dab a little of the sweet bean sauce and add in a slice of cucumber or two. Not bad at all. Just not special enough to create a long lasting impression. The meat, however, wasn't tender enough for me to want more than 2 slices.

Next on the list, Oysters.

Fresh Oysters

First, you have to squeeze lemon juice onto the oysters, to kill whatever bacteria left on it. Then if you fancy, add a small amount of Tabasco sauce for a little spice. Then you pick up the meat using a fork and throw the whole thing into your mouth. The conclusion is either you love it, or hate it.

It's the latter for me. I cannot accept the after taste that lingered in my mouth. Too fishy and raw for me to like it. Swallowing it was a struggle for me. But this is definitely personal, because I don't have a liking for raw stuff. Both L and his parents did comment that the oysters were fresh and sweet though. In fact, L's mum went on to order two more. So I guess, if you like oysters, you will like the ones here.

Cereal Prawns, one of the top listed food item on our list.

Cereal Prawns

It is difficult to cook this dish well. The cereal must not be dry, yet it can't be too oily. You have to fry the prawns well, but take note not too over-fry the prawns which will make the meat tough. Ensure that a right amount of cereal are mixed well with the prawns, and a dash of spice should be added to complete this dish.

If you are a fan of cereal prawns, I'm guessing you will be disappointed here at Ah Yat, because I've certainly tasted better ones elsewhere.

Abalone

People gasped at the sight of this expensive little palm-sized fortune. To be honest, I'm indifferent towards them. I have never taken a fancy for abalones before. They are good, but not awesome. One will be enough, next dish please.

Okay this is probably the main highlight of the whole meal.

Crab with Salted Egg Yolk

I can feel myself drooling now. This dish is good! Even though I was disappointed to see that the crab wasn't drenched in a golden-yellow gravy, which is still hot and runny. However, this suffices too, somehow. The half harden salted egg yolk was a terrible mess of heaven, I can't help but to lick them off the crab shells before cracking them open for the tender meat which lies beneath. At least this is better than any gravy which was too buttery, or lacking in salted egg yolk flavour.

Bill turns out to be over $300 for the 5 of us.
Not cheap at all, but for the fresh seafood that one can get, why not?

Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant (Turf City)

200 Turf Club Road #03-01/02

Main Grandstand Turf City

Singapore 287994

Tel: 6883 2112