Tung Lok Seafood Review

I seemed to have "kou fu" (lucky to be able to eat) as I've been dining out lately. Not that home cooked food is no good, sometimes we just need to have a change. There are many foods which I can't cook, and so is my helper. For example, chilli crabs. When it comes to cooking, the most efforts are spent in preparation. The same goes true for baking too. The actual cooking or baking is very short, perhaps about 20% of the total time spent only. Do you agree?

We were going to celebrate one of my friend's birthday. As usual, I'll be the one entrusted to come up with the venue. As the birthday lady doesn't like other cuisine except Chinese, I decided on Tung Lok Seafood for her. Tung Lok Seafood in Orchard Central is situated at the rooftop, 11th level. I suggest you go up from the street level escalator as it was quite interesting. You'll have to take a few long escalators to reach the 11th level. The last escalator to reach 11th floor was extremely long. You almost cannot see the top, especially when it gets dark.

Tung Lok Seafood offers a-la-carte dinner buffet daily. It's $39.90++ per person. A minimum of four persons are required to have the buffet. Generally, the food is rather good (because it's Tung Lok). However, there are some dishes which I like very much.

Salmon Sashimi. The sashimi is very fresh. I share half of this portion with another friend as the other two don't take raw sashimi. What a pity!

 

Sautéed Chinese Spinach with Three Kinds of Eggs. This dish had been my favourite since the day I tried it. You just can't go wrong in ordering this!

 Crisp Fried Baby Squid. I saw the other table ordered this and insisted I had to have this. The baby squid was fried till very crispy. It wasn't chewy like some other places. The sauce was sweet, not spicy though. I just love them to bits!

Crispy Fish Skin with salted egg yolk. This is a must try! Must eat! Must indulge! The fish skin was coated with some flour and fried till d****d crispy! You can hear the crispy sound when you bite into it. The salted egg yolk was finely mixed with the fish skin. Curry leaves were also used in the frying. So can you imagine the taste? Crispy, curry leaves and salty! Ultra tasty! I happily volunteered to finish this dish!

Deep-fried Marble Goby (Soon Hock) with Chef’s Special Sauce. I will usually go for this fish if I see it on any menu. My dad told me this kind of fish is fresh when it's alive. You usually don't eat it (in the restaurant) when it's dead. The marble goby served was very very small! It's a baby! However, I still enjoy it as it was crispy, combined with the tasty sauce, it was perfect for me!

 

Barbecued Salmon Fish Head with Salt. This is another "must order" dish! The salmon fish head was beautifully barbecued with salt. I can smell the "just bbq" aroma when it was served to us. Immediately, I squeezed a wedge of lemon juice on it and can smell the fragrance of the lemon juice on the piping hot salmon skin!! The salmon meat tasted a little salty and melted in the mouth. I've never tried barbecuing the salmon fish head before. Usually my helper will fried it. I shall ask her to replicate this dish next time. The lemon really made a lot of difference to the taste of the salmon!

Finally, my favourite dessert had to be Herbal Jelly served with Honey. The herbal jelly is bitter and nice. The honey is watery though. I didn't add too much honey as I like the bitterness of the herbal jelly. My friends found it too bitter for their liking. I can't help, but to order two bowls of this! :P

 

There were more many more dishes that we had. They were considered standard restaurant food and not that special though. Have a visual enjoyment!

Clockwish from top left corner: Crispy Eggplant with Pork Floss (this is rather special and tasted pretty good), Fried Carrot Cake with Sausage in Spicy X.O. Sauce, Braised Ee-fu Noodles (I didn't eat this to save stomach space) and Pan-fried Shrimp and Pork Dumplings.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Salted Pepper, Seafood Salad with Fresh Fruits (I don't know where is the seafood, I only ate the raw prawns), TungLok Meat Roll with Five Spices (this was very soft, I thought it was toufu) and Mini Octopus.

TungLok Black Pepper Crab (The black pepper was quite spicy. The crab was so-so only) and Crispy Prawns with Butter and Cereal (I preferred this to the crab actually).

Glutinous Rice Balls with Sesame Filling (served warm and yummy with black seasame fillings) and Ice-cream Puff (it's actually cream puff. Give this a miss!) Insert is Chilled Almond Beancurd with Longan.