Seafood Cravings at PJ Seafood Restaurant, Tropicana

PJ Seafood Restaurant is located at Kampung Cempaka just off the road in front of the Tropicana Golf Club before the tunnel. It took us some time to reach there as the roads had changed, there was a traffic jam as usual and plenty of U-turns had to be made to even reach the place.


Since time immemorial, PJ Seafood Restaurant had always been famous for its "Lai Yao Hai" (butter crab) and "Ham Tan Hai" (egg salted crab, and yes, my Ping Yin is still crappy as usual. =P ). My memories of this seafood restaurant extended as far back as six years ago. I've always had a great time eating here on numerous occasions years back when they still had a fishing pond that actually allows its customers to catch their own meal of the day. My usual favorites then was the steamed cod fish and the sweet sour crabs with fried mantao. The dishes were always fresh, crabs a good size, prices reasonable and service good. 

It was however, a big big letdown during our recent trip there. Our list of complaints were really long:- Firstly, the lady was pushy in recommending her more expensive dishes; the steamed rice served was probably leftovers; the order for "ku loh yok" came in as a sizable medium which we thought was way too much as we had ordered 5 dishes for a company of six girls; the steamed tilapia fish was way too small; and the famous butter crab had shrunk in size. Taunted as a medium, it seemed more like a small. Is it me?!!! Or has food in Malaysia decreased in size except for the price tag. And the worst was that the sweet and sour crab wasn't at all fresh. We could distinctively smell the staleness under all the sauce. Exercising our consumer rights, we had it changed at the price of a pretty sour face that gave no apologies. 


Being a typical Malaysian crazy about food, I usually would have my face stuck in my food especially seafood. But our experience left me with little appetite. The only two saving grace was that the thai coconut water was just nicely matured with some thicker amounts of meat to chew (pointed out by my friend which wasn't even made by them) and that the fish was quite fresh. 


Luckily the damage was not a huge amount - RM25 per person. But our unanimous verdict from the girls for the day was an unfortunate resounding "Never Again"!!! Visit at your own peril.