Seafood Feast. Chengdu, Sichuan.

Seafood Feast Restaurant served up one of our most memorable and delicious dining experiences, ever. An upscale AYCE seafood buffet venue. Optional table service in private booths with additional special items, for a slight up charge. Here, our orders are prepared ala minute. The all you care to drink wine selection is also supposedly better.

First course was a dramatic Sashimi tower with Lobster, Prawns, Salmon and a couple of other fish. Dished out on an ice sculpture with cascading dry ice fog. A second platter with Langostino, Octopus, Oysters.

Geoduck, our favorite. We scarfed 4 orders. Live Uni. Clams so fresh, they were throbbing.

Buddha Jumping over the Wall, a “special” item. First time for me. Delicious!!! Rich broth with a mini Sea Cucumber, Shark Fin and other surely costly ingredients.

Another special, warm Papaya with Bird’s Nest. Wife had a Hasma Coconut concoction. Hasma is the dried tissue from a certain part of a frog that I won’t get into. :wink: Weird but tasty.

Fois Gras on Toast. Grilled Steak. Pan Fried Venison Tongue!! Deep Fried Chicken Knees.

Each diner has choice of Hot Pot broth. Tom Yum for she, more subtle Mushroom for me. Fish Maw? Four orders please. To start.

An ice mountain of hot pot fixin’s. Abalone(live), Prawns(three types), Lobster Tail, Alaskan King Crab and a Korean Crab.

Fantastic service! A server shelled the prawns tableside. Lovely.

Steak Tartare. Sea Cucumber. Scallop Sashimi topped w/Ikara. Toro.

Never had Starfish before, never understood how/why eat Starfish. Our server gave me a lesson. Dip in hot broth for 3 minutes. Carve open and scoop out roe. Fun, done it, no mas.

The buffet is huge, every option looked super fresh. The buffet line is beautiful with am almost bewildering amount of choices. I’m not a fan of AYCE at all. I tagged along cause the wife is a raw SEAFOOD LOVER. We are loving Chengdu, and Seafood Feast will be a strong enticement for a quick revisit.

Btw, this meal, all in including drinks, tax and serve. USD$150. For the both of us.

12 Likes

Wow!!! What a spectacular buffet. It seems like they had almost anything and everything you could ever ask for, and so fresh. What a bargain. Thank you for sharing your incredible experience.

1 Like

Very glad to share with my food loving friends!

There were so many MORE things I wanted to try and retry. Three hours was just not enough, and there’s that stomach capacity thing.

Hope your back is recovering well. I had back problems that started migrating down to my upper thighs. Doctors had no solution, I’d even resorted to acupuncture.

About four years ago, doc told me to get an X-ray. Turns out I had arthritis. Some prescription pills fixed me right up. Catching up on my travels, now that I can suffer 14 hrs plane rides again. :slight_smile:

Best of luck for your speedy recovery!!

1 Like

Who would think that 3 hours would not be enough to eat :slightly_smiling_face: I guess the next time you go you will know what foods to concentrate on (although it is hard to decide when everything is so fresh).

I am making some nice progress. I had tried 3 epidural injections and they didn’t help. It’s now about 3 1/2 weeks since my laminectomy. I walked 2 1/2 miles on the treadmill today. The pain that was shooting down my leg is gone and I no longer have the numbness in my toes. However, I still have some annoying pain in my right glute and hip area, which I suspect might be arthritis. I have a followup with my Dr. in a couple of weeks and will mention it to him. Thanks for asking! I’m so glad that you found a solution to your pain. May I ask what type of medication you are taking for your arthritis?

The prescription was Nabumtone. I switched to Costco Acetaminophen after a month or so and been good.

Your description of current symptoms very much like what I was experiencing. Fixing the problem is like being born again!

1 Like

Looks amazing. Inclusion of sashimi is a relatively “recent” innovation in Sichuan, and reflected Japanese influence. Amongst locals, it’s seen as “prestigious” to have fresh, raw seafood as Sichuan is a landlocked province where seafood was previously seen as expensive.

You are very right about the seafood situation here. I had commented to my wife a couple of days ago about the scarcity of Japanese Sushi restaurants. We’ve seen a couple of Hong Kong style live seafood houses, but those are also few and far between.

This makes our experience last night all the more unusual. The freshness and execution was beyond reproach. Not quite at the actual Japan level, but then, as good or better than most of what we’ve sampled outside the Japan home islands.

1 Like

Thank you! I will have to look into that.

1 Like

Medicating with some liquid painkillers as we speak. :wink: 50% abv Chinese White Lightning. (Bai Ji).

3 Likes

:grinning: Wine therapy seems to work best for me :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

This is totally ridiculous lol. In nyc you would have to take out a home equity loan to get this! Nicely done!

1 Like

No Shit, Sherlock. :wink:

It’s ALL YOU CARE TO EAT! Walked away after three hours sampling less than 10% of what’s offered. Server URGED us to double/triple/quad down on anything we wanted. Live abalones, uni, Lobster, all of it.

We had table service and could avail ourselves to the huge buffet spread as well. Wife asked if I saw the wall of 25+ craft beers on offer. All you can quaff. Next time around.

You’d mentioned before wanting to come to Asia. I think you’d love it. Btw, 4+ kinds of crab on hand. AYCE.

RIDICULOUS!!!

3 Likes

Wow, that’s an impossible “sashimi” overdose!!

1 Like

Thanks for sharing but I must say, the shark fin dish makes me sad. That’s a particularly cruel fishing practice. I can’t imagine that sustainability is at the of many Chinese restaurants (but that may just be an uninformed stereotype I’m propagating).

Of course, we Americans just ate 46 million turkeys (I looked that stat up) for Thanksgiving. I’m sure not many lived happy, fulfilling lives.

3 Likes

Doesn’t seem the country is heading towards the vegan movement soon. Just read a few local comments on this restaurant, some complained about the lack of varieties in the fresh seafood supply, sounds like they feel bored already. LOL!

2 Likes

I agree. We can breed turkey and they grow relatively quickly. Breeding sharks is not an easy task, impossible for many species. I’m guilty of a bunch of things that harm the earth so I can’t judge

2 Likes

Epic fail :unamused:

1 Like

Actually kinda miscalculated about <10%. To be honest, more like <5% . Didn’t get around to:

  • Dim sum section

  • Chawanmushi area

  • Grill area with real good looking lamb chops, steaks, among others

  • Super fancy dessert area with rotating ice cream machine and all kinds of other stuff

  • Reorders of all the good stuff like fish maw, spot prawns, geoduck…

SFO —> CTU at selective times at < $600. 3*+ Western branded hotels easily less than $100/nite. 30 minutes cab rides about USD$3.00 or less.

Already checking airfares for return trip. :slight_smile:

4 Likes

WTF?!?!?! Please hang your head in utter shame until you redeem yourself.

1 Like