Entree Kibbles: Red Lantern Live Seafood Restaurant near Bukit Panjang MRT Station in Singapore

Saturday, May 06, 2023

Red Lantern Live Seafood Restaurant near Bukit Panjang MRT Station in Singapore

Back when I still owned a car, I remember passing by this building whenever I needed to evade the jam along Bukit Timah Expressway. From memory, I think it used to house Buckaroo BBQ & Grill that moved from Sembawang.

Buckaroo had since ceased operations and our visit was to patronize Red Lantern Live Seafood Restaurant, which received rave reviews from the Great Kon and his recommendation would be the lobster porridge!

Adorned with red lanterns along with red stickers on the glass windows / doors, even the chairs within the restaurant was covered in red; that's a lot of red even coming from a typical Singaporean Chinese like me!

Anyway, live seafood which translates into higher pricing for the freshness. Oh well, not a frequent indulgence and this meal was a birthday treat! ❤❤❤❤

Ordering time! A piece of advice, come slightly before the dinner peak as the restaurant was renowned for its long waiting time (more than an hour). We arrived at about 6.00 pm and our food was served after a comfortable wait of about 30 minutes.

A lot of food for just the three of us!

Doesn't help when Alex was known for his small appetite.

Western Style Shredded Egg Prawn Balls - you can't deny that the name of the dish was a main contributing factor for choosing this over the other four prawn dishes.

A total of seven prawns were sacrificed; the shredded egg that covered the prawns had traces of salted egg but it was the prawns that we found to be overly salty. We should have gone with the safer salad fruit prawn balls.

Stir-Fried Qing Long Vegetables - after trying it for the first time at JB Ah Meng Tze Char Restaurant (which is in Singapore, and not JB), I will ask to order this whenever I see it on the menu! Seldom disappoint; I love the vegetables for its crunchy lightness that screamed the word "healthy"! Those brown stuff were shredded fried yam that added a layer of sweetness to the dish.

Signature Golden Chicken - caught a whiff of the aroma and after the first look; our guess would be that this should be similar to the stevens chicken at Orchid Live Seafood!

Some differences exist; the skin wasn't crispy and it was a lot more saucier; meaning a bowl of rice would go well with them! One bite and it was a given that our guess was right. However, the taste of this golden chicken was more savory than the ones at Orchid Live Seafood, and spicier, without any crispy skin.

Lobster Porridge - served in the same earthen pot as the lobster porridge from Orchid Live Seafood, this was the main reason for our visit. As some of you might know, I have the biggest love for the lobster porridge from Orchid Live Seafood and had yet to find a comparable competitor.

Although not yet to the level of Orchid Live Seafood, I must admit the soup was more flavorful despite lacking the tasty seafood sweetness that we could find in Orchid Live Seafood!

Another thing we noted was that there were a ton of grains! For someone who is trying his best to cut down on carbohydrate-heavy grains yet couldn't stand wasting food, it was an impending nightmare as I sure ate way beyond what I usually ingested.

What's better than Orchid Live Seafood's lobster porridge was definitely the lobster at Red Lantern. As it was all chopped up, I didn't know how many lobsters were inside even though one thing was confirmed; it was bigger and flushed with meat that tasted absolutely yummier than Orchid Live!

=====

We tried our best to finish the porridge! With a branch that's located much nearer to me at Sembawang Country Club, I am sure I would bring my parents to check out the Red Lantern Live Seafood Restaurant to ascertain if they share the same sentiments as I did, when compared with Orchid Live Seafood.

Address