No thanks to Manhattan Fish Market

A couple of months ago, I have actually blogged about Manhattan Fish Market before, and didn't have too much praises for them. I even told myself that I would never dine there anymore. Fast forward 2 months later, Saucer and I were in Gurney Plaza New Wing, hunting for food during dinner. It was about 6+ pm and most restaurants were still rather quiet.

Gurney Plaza new wing

In fact, we had in our minds, the place to go for dinner. Our initial choice was Fish & Co., which had one of the nicest seafood platter, in my humble opinion. Fish & Co. used to be located at the Gurney Walk, just outside of Gurney Plaza, same row with Manila Place, A&W, etc. However, with the recent renovation of the new wing, all the restaurants were rearranged and we were walking around the New Wing, searching high and low for Fish & Co. In the end, we gave up and asked the Information counter, only to find out that Fish & Co. had closed down! :((( What's more, it is now replaced with Manhattan Fish Market! *NOOO*

You couldn't have imagined by disappointment at that time, because I was really looking forward to eat their signature seafood platter. *sigh* Dejected, we just walked around again, until we passed by Manhattan Fish Market. Since I was still craving for seafood, I told Saucer to stop by just to see their menu. Needless to say, they had their own version of Seafood platter as well, and before long, a waitress came to us and started convincing us to give it a try. When we were hesitant, she even said she'd give us a 10% discount! Fine, I said. And that's only because of my cravings. :P *LOL* So we gave MFM another chance.

The place was still rather empty at 6.30pm on a weekend. But that was partly a good thing because that meant our food would be served fast.

Manhattan Fish Market in Gurney Plaza

While waiting, I didn't miss out the chance to camwhore. :P

Waiting with anticipation

Before our platter was served, there was the typical 3-dish sauces including mayonnaise, chilli sauce and finely chopped garlic. The garlic portion was so little it looked miserable next to the other sauces. Why are they so stingy with garlic, I wonder?

Typical 3 dishes of sauce

Anyway, as predicted, our food came quite shortly after our order. And one of the signature acts when you order a MFM seafood platter is that the waiter would grill the shrimps right in front of you. While that is interesting, it isn't entirely practical. In fact, when we looked at the shrimps up close, the flame was actually burning the mayonnaise on the shrimps instead of the shrimps itself!

Waiter firing away at the shrimps

This was our seafood platter for two, consisting of rice, calamari rings, fried oysters, dory fish, fries and of course, shrimps.

Seafood platter for two

Look at the shrimps just loaded with mayonnaise. Eww... If I knew it was going to be served this way, I wouldn't have ordered this dish at all! Needless to say, I scooped out the mayonnaise immediately before eating the shrimps. And what do you know? The shrimps inside were not hot at all, which meant the flame didn't serve any purpose. Plus, the meat was also not fresh! It was not succulent and very dry. Possibly one of the worst prawns I've ever tasted. The meat was stuck to the shells!

The calamari rings were OK, but I don't think one can ever really go wrong with fried stuffs, unless they are not fully cooked! Then the oysters! They were, indescribable. I don't know how to describe them other than awful. Imagine a crispy and nice exterior of the golden fried oyster, but when you bite into it, a very strong fishy smell was emitted. That's not all, upon a closer look, you could actually see black particles, just like fine sand, in the middle of the oyster. Yuck! I don't know if these black sand-like particles exist in other fresh oysters but I certainly didn't notice them before. What's worst, they left a very bad and fishy aftertaste in my mouth. :(

Moving on to the dory fish, which needs no introduction. I wasn't expecting anything great from this fish, because I tasted it before in my previous disappointing visit. Yes, that was without a doubt, the same bland fish with the same thick batter and the same -__- face from me. The only thing I kinda enjoyed eating was probably the rice and the fries. By the way, the fries were actually not that great, but because I love fries, I couldn't really resist them no matter how bad they were.

Close-up of shrimps

So there you have it, my two cents of my second and most definitely last visit to MFM! I am truly disappointed with the food there, even though the service was not too bad. No wonder by the time we left the place at 7.30pm, the restaurant was still as empty as it was before. I really hope someone from MFM would read this post and do something to improve their food, starting with the freshness of the seafood they use. Otherwise they can just kiss their business goodbye, especially with more and more delectable eateries mushrooming.