Rarely Ordered | Adventurous dining made safe!

Chinese Seafood Restaurants are nothing new to those who frequent Binondo (Chinatown) and other places that have Chinese communities near them. Most being quite expensive but worth it – as only the freshest sea food is used. An established one is the Annapolis Seafood restaurant – probably mainly catering to the Chinese living nearby such as in Greenhills and Wack Wack Village. That being said, this restaurant is quite high end. But as the Chinese are known to be keen businessmen – the food and the excellent service here gives you the value for your money. We ordered quite a number of dishes here – but we chose to review the more novel ones to fit our standards for what is rarely ordered!

Soup – Spinach and Seafood

Fiel: The taste and aroma of spinach and shrimp fills your nose as it comes out steaming hot from the pot. When I tasted it, its light flavor and slightly viscous texture together with the stimulating aroma really fired up my appetite. The greenness of it really looks fresh and inviting too. I am usually not a big fan of soup – but I’d make an exception for this one. It does its job well as the start of our meal. An 8/10 for me!

Ren: I had tasted something similar to this, back when I visited China, and even now I still find it good. The main attraction of this dish is the fact that you can’t seem to taste the spinach! (though its all over the soup) I’ll give it a 7/10 as much as the dish tastes, I felt that it had that generic Chinese soup taste.

First Main Dish – Scallops on the Seafood Platter

We chose only to review the scallops here as the crab and shrimp seen here are steamed – the traditional way of cooking them. Don’t get us wrong though – they were absolutely good and fresh. Its just that we stick to our theme of reviewing novel dishes.

Fiel: At first, I could not believe these were scallops! It had a blend to it that seemed like the texture and the faintly the taste of chicken relleno. As I started eating more, I realized that the chewy texture indeed belonged to scallops but cooked in a new way for me. With the onions and the perfectly seasoned rice, it was heaven to eat it. Pity there were only a few pieces as you can see here. If you go here, order it as it is without the crab and shrimp and you’ll see what I mean. Highly Recommended at 9/10.

Ren: This is the first time I had scallops this way. The dish was marinated very well, as you can still taste the sauce through the meat of the scallop. The texture of the meat as it melts in your mouth makes you think that its not scallops! Over all this dish gave me quite a surprise so I’ll give it a 9/10!

Second Main Dish – Dragon Eel in Blended Soy Sauce

Fiel: If you have ever had the fantasy of eating fresh bangus without having to manage the bones – well your wish is granted here! Cooked in the traditional Chinese style of steaming then adding the blended soy sauce, no wonder they named this in reference to the mythical dragon. It was even served swirling around to really give it the “dragon on a plate” look as you can see here. The difference between eating eel and bangus though is that eel has more chewy skin – which made it taste even better. Overall, it is an excellent version of a Chinese classic but using a main ingredient novel to me and probably to most people. Highly Recommended (Also!) at 9/10.

Ren: Admittedly this is the first time I have had eel and this is a great way to do it with a bang! With the soy sauce and bean soup it’s a very good first, for first time eel eaters. The meat is cooked thoroughly and was very soft all through out. Also, I didn’t have problems with fish bones. Definitely different from regular fish meat. A pretty interesting taste for my first time trying out that kind of meat! I’ll give it a 8.5/10

When we went: Saturday, around 8PM on June 28, 2008.
Where it is: Annapolis Street, Greenhills Complex. Coming from EDSA turn right into Annapolis street, pass Choi Restaurant on your left and you will see the white banner of Annapolis Seafood Restaurant on your right.
Budget Range: A bit high end. Normal dishes are about P300-P500 each good for 3-4 people without the rice yet. Maybe you’d be brave enough to try their HUGE aquarium-grown lobster at P3000 per kilo. The biggest one there probably weighed in at 3 kilos.

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