Prince Seafood Restaurant (King Crab)

As much as I love King Crab, I don't really eat it that often.  It is not only the cost that is prohibitive, it is also the fact that I wouldn't order it for my family as we couldn't eat all of it.  Plus, the kids don't really prefer it either.  That only leaves one option - to eat it with a bunch of friends.  Even with that, the last time we could round up enough people, that was like 10 years ago.  However, I finally decided enough was enough as only 3 of us decided to go for the king crab dinner at Prince for $368.00.  It is only a 7lb crab, but includes a choice of 2 other dishes.

First off, we were served the Steamed King Crab Legs with loads of minced garlic and scallions.  Since these were split down the middle (as it commonly done), the meat was easy to access and completely flavoured by the garlic topping.  They really picked out a plump crab for us as each leg was full of fluffy and sweet meat.  It had a slight rebound texture and the garlickiness really came through.  Definitely had some bad breath afterwards!

So we had the legs, now the next dish was the Crab Body Meat Tou Chou stir-fried with eggplant.  This reminded me a little of a fish hot pot where the seasoning was savoury and full of umami, especially from the green onions, red onions and ginger.  Deep-fried before the wok toss, the crab body meat was still fluffy and moist.  Ironically, the best part of the dish was actually the eggplant as it was flash-fried, maintaining its integrity while taking on the multitude of flavours.

One dish that was on our hit list was the Tea Smoked Chicken.  This had many elements similar to soy sauce chicken except with more depth and of course smokiness.  We found the dark meat to be tender and juicy while the white meat to be a bit drier.  It wasn't tough to chew though as it was still tender.  It just wasn't as succulent as some other similar chickens prepared the same way.  It could've been partially due to the use of free-range chicken as the meat can be a bit more chewy.

Don't laugh, but I have this love for Sweet & Sour Pork.  Heck, I don't even mind the North Americanized version of it too.  So whenever I get the chance, I will order it.   This particular dish was presented in a half-hollowed out pineapple.  As much as I appreciated the fresh pineapple and the balanced sauce (where there was just enough of it), the pork itself was squishy.  Normally, the sauce does soften the fried exterior of each piece, but this was downright mushy.  The meat was extremely tender being the fattier portions, but the texture was off-putting.

Of course we had to get our veggies and that we did with the Minced Pork with Baby Gai Lan with belacan (shrimp paste) served in a sizzling ceramic hot pot.  This was naturally briny and a bit funky, but that added considerable depth to the dish.  The gai lan was cooked through, but still crunchy and vibrant.  The fact it was served sizzling in a hot pot, it intensified the aromas and also kept things warm.

We finished the meal with the Stir-Fried Imitation Shark's Fin with egg and dried ham.  This was all about the texture as the crunch from the bean shoots and firm vermicelli had a great mouth-feel.  Add in the dried ham and there was some rich saltiness to the dish, without be salty (if that makes sense).  Overall, this was a decent king crab meal.  Sure, the crab was a bit smaller, but it worked for the amount of people we had.  The other dishes were solid, except for the Sweet & Sour Pork.  Service was also quite good.

The Good:

- Large portions

- Generally solid eats

- Service was great

The Bad:

- Sweet & Sour Pork was below average