龍彬海鮮餐廳

Item: 龍彬海鮮餐廳
Rating: 2
Author: 一刻又一嗑

嘉義縣 • Seafood

about 2 months ago

Lunch3 pplNT$433

📍Location: Chiayi. Budai
Personal Summary: The food was quite good, but the serving times were very inconsistent, making the dining experience quite unsatisfactory. Additionally, I dislike restaurants with opaque pricing, so I cannot give a good review.

This time, we specially came to Budai for seafood!
The more famous Heipi Seafood Restaurant next door only offered set dishes for a group of people during the Spring Festival and did not provide a la carte options, so we looked for another seafood restaurant next door (although there aren’t many nearby, we just searched randomly).

🙂‍↔️Let’s first discuss the negative aspects:
I personally care a lot about transparent pricing. The restaurant didn’t provide a physical menu and only had a printed menu on the wall, which indicated prices for large, medium, and small portions. However, I think it’s difficult to have a "uniform price" for different types of seafood. When it came time to pay, the owner listed the prices for each dish, which indeed did not match the menu.

Furthermore, we asked the owner how "large, medium, and small portions" were determined. The reply was, "I decide based on how many of you there are."
While it sounds considerate for the owner to recommend portion sizes based on the number of people, it actually felt somewhat coercive in deciding the portions. For those who have a budget for a meal, it’s almost like unboxing a surprise box.

Regarding the seafood, the owner also strongly recommended a dish with two preparations of one fish, so we ordered a fish. Choosing the fish on-site seemed great, but how the fish was priced was only revealed later.
A small fish for two preparations cost $630. To be honest, I don’t know what the average price range for that fish is. Could it actually be an expensive fish? (We just wanted to eat fish, not to be foodies indulging in delicacies.)
The owner only talked about the texture and quality of the fish, but didn’t provide a price upfront (it was only known at checkout). So, how big was the fish? I couldn’t take a picture as the owner quickly whisked it away, but the steamed fish in the photo was basically just the body without the head or tail.
What happened to the fish head, tail, and bones? They were all made into miso soup.

🍲Regarding the serving time:
The sequence of dishes was as follows:
Oyster Omelet ➡️ Stir-fried Water Lily ➡️ Fried Noodles with Oysters ➡️ Steamed Fish ➡️ Fish Soup

But the feeling of waiting was:
Oyster Omelet ➡️ Stir-fried Water Lily ➡️➡️Fried Noodles with Oysters➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️➡️Steamed Fish➡️Fish Soup

Basically, we finished the first three plates before the steamed fish arrived, and even the empty plates had been cleared away.
No matter how tender the fish was, it felt dry to eat... (The flavor was very plain with nothing to pair it with). At one point, we even thought if the dishes didn’t arrive soon, we might as well not eat and urged for the dishes, which took a while to arrive afterward.

🐟Regarding the taste:
My family praised the taste of the dishes, but personally, I feel that "as long as the seafood is fresh enough and cooked properly, it can taste good." The fish market is nearby, and we are at the harbor, so if the seafood isn’t fresh enough, this restaurant would probably get a negative review.

🥘This time's meal cost:

Fried Noodles with Oysters $120 * 2 portions
One Fish Two Preparations (Steamed1 + Soup1) $630
Stir-fried Water Lily $150
Oyster Omelet $280
(No extra rice ordered)

Three people were quite full after eating, but personally, I felt full from the soup rather than the actual dishes; without soup, it was about 70% full.
The taste was passable, and the establishment was relatively clean, so if there weren’t really other options nearby, I might consider it again. (Budai is indeed a rural township, and there aren’t many shops around).

🅿️Regarding parking:
Since there’s a public fishing market nearby, there are both free public parking and paid private parking. The private parking isn’t too expensive ($10/visit).
We were originally worried that there would be no parking space due to the crowd, so we parked at a private lot as soon as we saw one. There were quite a few parking spaces; even though there seemed to be a lot of cars in line on the road, it was mostly just people walking slowly to park.

The nearest parking lot is a 3-minute walk to the restaurant.

Oyster Fritters $280 In terms of taste and portion, this dish is rated slightly higher. After all, Budai also produces oysters, so the oysters are relatively plentiful and on the larger side. As indicated on the menu, this portion is considered "medium."

Oyster Fried Noodles $120*2 "Fried noodles" are quite rare in themselves, and there are plenty of oysters, so my family has a high opinion of this dish. However, I am still very concerned about the lack of price transparency. When we ordered, we obviously approached it from the perspective of "let's have one portion of oyster fried noodles," and the boss's wife said we should order two portions based on the number of people, so we agreed to get two portions. But how much is one portion? The boss's wife only informed us when we were checking out. At one point, we thought that one portion of fried noodles was missing, so we asked the boss's wife about it and learned that apparently, this plate was already two portions.

Stir-fried Water Lily $150 This dish is one of the more reasonably priced options at a stir-fry restaurant. The water lily doesn't have an unpleasant smell and is stir-fried to a nice taste.

After the first three dishes were served, there was a long wait... We even forgot that we had ordered a fish with two preparations. (The reduction is because we ate some first.)

The cross-section of the oyster fritter is about this big. As far as I know, it is not currently the season, so the oysters are actually on the smaller side.

The steamed fish ($630) that can be enjoyed in two ways. This picture shows the fish cut in half and spread open, with the central part of the fish. The cuts on both sides are where the fish head and tail were removed. Looking at the cross-section, you can imagine how small the fish is 😨. I was shocked when the owner quoted me the price at checkout. I'm not familiar with fish, so if anyone knows what type of fish this is, please feel free to share with me 🙂‍↕️.

"A fish, two ways ($630) fish soup I chose the miso flavor, and I remember the other one was made into clear soup. Although I know they use the same fish for the soup, to be honest, the price is still a bit hard to accept. I won't mention how I ended up eating fish scales while enjoying the steamed fish and the fish soup..."

The part about the soup is actually very simple miso soup. Take the leftover scraps from the steamed fish (fish head, fish bones, shredded meat, etc.), add a bit of tofu and scallions, and boil them into a soup.

The freezer under the menu When ordering, aside from looking at the menu, there are many dishes that aren't listed. You can go to the freezer, take a look, and choose for yourself. The "two dishes from one fish" is also something the owner described; you select the fish yourself.