Crabs @ Pantai Seafood, Kg Sg Kayu Ara, Petaling Jaya

My friends and I are really in a crabby mood nowadays and this marks our second visit to a seafood outlet within a few weeks. It all started at King Crab when someone was trading stories about where else had good crabs and Pantai Seafood was recommended as the place for Marmite Crabs.

Braving the crazy rain storm last night, we all made it to this out of the way seafood restaurant which is accessible from the Damansara/Taman Megah road at the back of Wisma Atria, Damansara Jaya. After the first confusion on whether it was Damansara Village outside, we discovered this Pantai Seafood all the way inside a light industrial and wooden housing area.

Since we were dining right in front of the tanks filled with the crabs, fishes, clams, oysters, geoducks, lobsters and etc, I snapped some pictures of the different species. My favourite was the Snow Crab who was staring us down and threatening us if we dared to eat it. We would have risen to it's challenge but decided to let it off the hook this time round since it was too pricey. We ordered the otak tofu (RM8 for 4 pieces) as an appetiser while waiting for the whole party to arrive from the crazy traffic jams last night. Didn't think this was good at all as there was so little otak otak surrounding the tofu plus there was too much batter on the outside. It was kinda salty too but because we were all so hungry, we finished it.

With the main aim of eating lots of crabs that night, we kept the other dishes simple and light. First, we decided to try the Steamed Pak Soo Kong Fish with Soy Sauce (RM43.20 - 0.8kg @ RM54 per kg). This fish with it's whiskers is much sought after in Hong Kong. This was quite pretty good stuff but we felt they could have served it with the warmer to keep the steamed fish warm throughout the dinner.

We were recommended to try this - the Kailan fried two ways (RM12). It's actually thinly shredded kailan leaves which they deep fry and mixed with shreds of dried prawns. The stalks are then fried plain with garlic.

We ordered 2.3kg of crabs at RM33 per kg which was cooked in two varieties - claypot butter and marmite. It was absolutely sinful but we all thoroughly enjoyed trading gossip and slowly eating the crabs until we were the last table there. The Claypot Butter Crab is slightly different from the one in Wong Poh at Taman Mayang Emas as the sauce is not as thick. I detected curry powder in the sauce which my friend also concurred but the restaurant claims otherwise. We thought this variety was a bit too rich and the general favourite were the marmite crabs instead.

Their marmite crabs are excellent here - the marmite sauce thinly coats the crabs and you end up spending a long time just slowly eating each piece to savour it to the last bite. Since I had my recent visit to King Crab as a benchmark, we noticed that the crabs are smaller here. Although this means compromising the amount of crab meat you get, the smaller crabs makes it easier for the sauce to be absorbed hence it's a much tastier dish.

Overall, we concluded this is definitely THE place we like for Marmite Crabs so far. Like every seafood dinner we have, one never seems to be enough and plans are already going ahead to have another crab session end of this month for my friend's birthday. Any suggestions on where else we should give a try? Incidentally, this restaurant is part of the Unique Seafood Restaurant chain and I noticed they charge only the 5% govt tax and 3% service tax versus the usual 10% service tax here.

Pantai Seafood Restaurant

Lot 13575, Jalan Cempaka PJU 6A

Kg Sg Kayu Ara

Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7725 5099/1099

(To get there, if you are coming from the LDP, heading towards the NKVE toll in Damansara, keep left and turn into Damansara Jaya/Atria Shopping Centre, go straight all the way passing one traffic light, you will pass a Projet Station on your left hand side. U turn at the traffic light after Pro Jet and take the first left and an immediate right. Drive towards this restaurant called Damansara Village which is also another seafood restaurant. Take a left and drive straight down the road. You will pass by wooden houses and factories and cross a bridge. After this, you will come to a cross-road and see the Pantai Seafood sign, take a right and then an immediate left into the restaurant. Parking is ample at the restaurant.)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Malaysian Food + Crabs

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• Life of a Food Lover
• Jason Mumbles
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