On a Treat to Bali Hai Seafood Market

Invited to a dinner treat by Franky, here we've chosen the Bali Hai Seafood Market巴厘海鲜市场 that is located at the Gurney Drive area. 'If It Swims We Have It', this is the motto of Bali Hai Seafood Market whereby you can find various types of creatures here; from the range of fish, prawn, sea cucumber to crab, lobster or even Mejillon. You can choose your preferred seafood from the aquariums, look at how lively they swim in the water!

I guess we're very health conscious that we've ordered 3 vegetable dishes; which are Asparagus蒜茸芦笋, Kai Lan蒜茸芥兰 and Sugar Pea清炒豆苗. All these vegetables are fried with a lot of garlic and I do like the nice aroma of the garlic itself except that they're extremely too oily. Look, the vegetable is shining!

Going for carbohydrate, Franky has ordered a plate of Seafood Fried Noodle海鲜面条 and a plate of Seafood Fried Rice海鲜炒饭. We've only 4 of us and these medium-sized plates are just too much for us. I dislike the soft noodle that seems to be over-cooked and it's not chewy at all. Oppositely for the rice, it's a little bit hard and sticky. The main disappointment that I hate the most is, the seafood is not fresh.

Time to talk about our main characters of the night, let's start with the Baked Prawn with Butter Garlic奶油蒜茸生虾. The prawns are halved and then being coated with a thick layer of garlic with butter before baking. The mixture of the garlic with butter is giving a nice aroma and saltiness to enhance the freshness of the prawns. The meat is very fresh and tender, going together with the garlic into my mouth; I just love the deliciousness!

Our next orders are the Fried 'Whole-Fish' Ala Thai and the Fried 'Whole-Fish' Ala Japanese with Crispy Ginger whereby Franky has chosen the 'Dong Xing' 东星 and 'Soon Hock' 顺壳 fishes respectively. I do quite like the Fried 'Dong Xing' Ala Thai泰式炸东星 whereby the chef has been using a lot of onion slices and lemon juices in this dish; leaving behind a refreshing taste. The sauce is sour with a little bitterness, making us not to feel too full with the oily fried fish. I feel very pity with the Fried 'Soon Hock' Ala Japanese with Crispy Ginger日式脆姜顺壳 whereby frying has destroyed the natural freshness or taste of the 'Soon Hock' fish. It's kind of wasting as 'Soon Hock' fish is the best or should say perfect just by steaming only. The sauce is too sweet that it has covered up the natural sweetness that should appeal from the fish meat itself. Well, I can only say that the ginger slices are special.

This whole meal costs us RM443, I'm not surprised as my boyfriend has been commenting that 'Bali Hai is one of the most expensive restaurant in Penang'. Honestly, it's worth to spend for fresh seafood but it appears to be disappointment when the seafood is on wrong cooking method.