It was my son's birthday and we were looking for a place where the kids can have fun and we can enjoy good food. We decided to bring the kids to Frisk 'n' Romp @ playground and that was the only thing right with our decision. The kids had great fun and were extremely hungry by the time they were done at 7.30pm.

My hubby anticipated hungry children and so went over to Seafood International Market & Restaurant to get a table and ordered roast chicken for the children in advance. He was there around 7.15pm.

I agree with most of the reviews here regarding how grand the place looks and thought the novelty of shopping for seafood's good attraction. Was suitably impressed by the appearances. They were full-house. But with a kitchen that big, I thought they wouldn't have a problem coping. We ordered the roast chicken, the salted egg pumpkin (recommended by them), wasabi prawns, grilled sotong, deep fried baby squid, and of course chilli crabs.

We were actually looking forward to trying the food cos seemed to have pretty good reviews And looking at the crowd, we assume it must be good. But we waited and waited...no food came. The hungry children started whining. We checked with the waitress and asked if the chicken could be served since we had ordered it 45min ago. The waitress(rather senior) told us the kitchen's busy. When we checked with her again at 8.15pm (1 hour since the ordering of the chicken), she got impatient. At 8.20pm, they send in the pumpkin, baby squid and wasabi prawns; the chicken came at 8.30pm (the poor children were so hungry by then), the grilled sotong came around 8.35pm. By 8.45pm, the famished party of 9 polished off all the food...

At 9.10pm, still no sign of the crabs. The last straw was when the same waitress we have been liaising with gave us a "I checked with the kitchen already. How I know why not out" curt answer accompanied with a 'black' face. My hubby then decided we will not have the crabs anymore and asked for the check. The captain/manager was also very rude n had no qualms showing us that he was angry that we cancelled the order. Because of his rude behaviour, my husband decided to be difficult as well and insisted that we would not pay for service charge. Throughout. there was no apology from them for not being able to deliver the food despite us waiting for a good 2 hours. And the cashier, waitresses were all equally rude. Then again, with a manager that crass, what can we expect. We waited for another 15min to settle the bill.

Then I asked to get my boy's birthday cake from their fridge cos no point cutting the cake there anymore. Guess what? I had to wait again! They apparently had no idea where they had left it. I waited another 15min. This is really the epitome of BAD service. All in all, we wasted almost 3 hours - with mediocre food, lousy service, stuffy dining area, lots of waiting time and a whole lot of disappointment.

They had completely ruined the day!

Never will we go there again.

Some comments about the food we ordered:

The pumpkin and salted egg didn;t go too well together. Guess it probably is a acquired taste.

The chicken was extremely salty.

The wasabi prawns paled in comparison to the ones served at Legends.

The grilled squid was rubbery.

The fired baby squid was the only one that was ok but nothing spectacular.

The crabs? We never saw them.

Had the opportunity to partake in a media dinner at the newly reopened The Seafood International Market & Restaurant, or TSIMR for short, courtesy of The New Paper. It was a reunion of sorts as I vaguely remember dining at its former premises at UDMC some years back. It has since transplanted to become the anchor tenant of Big Splash @ Playground.

TSIMR occupies an impressive 18,000 sq ft and can seat up to 700+ people if my memory serves me right. The draw of this place is its live seafood market concept which allows you to choose your desired seafood from the tanks and it will be cooked and served to your table. This concept, though not unheard of, was pioneered in the early 1980s by TSIMC.

The live seafood section is reminiscent of a supermarket while the dining area is like your typical seafood restaurant - huge and noisy. I liked the private dining areas at the two extensions though, which offered a nice view of the park and pond in the day. What I didn't appreciate was the fact that when the sky turned dark, outside visibility became close to zero and passers by could look in aka fishtank. Did I mention that the partitions were nothing more than a facade? During the course of our dinner, I could hear the adjourning rooms' conversation and loud guffaws.

Assorted Mushrooms Deep Fried with Seven Spice Salt - Imagine my astonishment when I heard that the mushrooms were sold by weight. Its definitely a first for me and honestly, as preposterous as selling Tofu by weight. The seven spice salt was purportedly made from dried shrimp powder, curry powder, chilli, szechuan peppercorn, salt and two other secret spices. As impressive as this may sound, I found it nothing out of the ordinary, coming across merely as salty with a hint of spiciness. Ditto for the batter as well, which I personally found too thick and hinting subtly of oil residue.

Prawns Stir Fried with Chilli & Basil Leaves - Beautifully presented with ornamental garnishes, the prawns gave an illusion of being terribly spicy. In reality, even someone who can't really take chilli like me could handle it without much effort (and water of course!). I didn't quite take to it though as the flesh was a tad soft and not firm. My guess is that it was a little undercooked.

Sakura Chicken Braised with Tri - Sauce in Stonepot - I liked this dish the best even though it wasn't outstanding. Probably more of something that's close to my heart. Dished out in a huge stonepot, the chicken wasn't too dry and easy on the sweetness, carrying with it a light spice that made every bite rather enjoyable

Golden Platter - Stir Fried Pumpkin with Salted Egg Yolk - Aptly named the golden platter, this dish intrigued me as I've never actually seen pumpkin cooked this way before. Prawns/lobsters with salted egg yolk? Yes. But pumpkin? It didn't turn out to be very appealing after all as the pumpkin slices were a little too soft for my liking. Coupled with the strong overtones of salted egg yolk, it was a recipe for nausea.

Curry Crab & Bread - I didn't try the crabs so I shall not comment, but the curry tasted rather normal to me, albeit a little heavier on the coconut milk. I liked the bread that came with the crabs though, sinfully buttery and crispy. Guaranteed to increase your cholesterol!

Pad Thai - Call me ignorant or mountain tortise, but to my understanding, Pad Thai should be cooked with thin flat strips of glass noodles. TSIMR does a different rendition using thin vermicelli like noodles which I suppose are glass noodles as well. To be honest, the noodles were way too chewy and had the tendency to clump together, which made me feel like i was chewing on some kind of non sticky kueh.

Wonder Four on Ice - With such a fanciful name, who needs superheroes? Corny jokes and stunning aesthetics aside, this dessert was just red bean kueh, mango pudding, some fruits and lemon grass jelly served on a bed of ice. As normal as it gets.

A little bird told me that the above dinner for 6 pax would have cost about $40/pax, which to me is a tad pricey. Food quality is average and service could have been more attentive. With that, I would like to thank TNP for the dinner once again.

See all my pictures here

We were recommended by an ex-colleague to eat here for her farewell dinner.

We ordered the fried squid n tofu(starter), Pandan Chicken, kailan, Steamed Fish( Thai-style), Seafood hor-fun, curry crab w garlic bread & thai desserts

All in all, I must say that the food tasted great, but the crabs were a tad bit 2 small and there was no roe.

I know that we can choose the seafood, but I am really not for the idea of "choosing" the seafood and then let it be killed for food...so we just told them, we will go according to the menu which is then cheaper. as there will be a cooking charge of $9 on each dish of seafood that u choose, in addition to the weight of the seafood itself.

So next time, if u wld prefer to be more economical, just tell them that to go according to the menu. =)

As for the ambience, I like the privacy that we get on the 2nd floor, as each table has it's own space and we wun get to see the other table even when we make q abit of noise catching up. But, of course there is the alfresco dining where you can enjoy the sea breeze while enjoying your meal.

For service, the staff were pretty attentive, making sure that our tea are topped up and plates changed.

Hadn't read any of the reviews before visiting this place. Colleague wanted to bring her out-of-town friend cos her family's been going there for years. Somehow, we, her department mates also kena dragged along.

I found the idea of 'shopping' for your own food quite interesting. Got shopping trolley some more leh!

Honestly I found the place to be quite pricey. For the amount of food that we ordered, the final bill was not justifed. All of us (except that colleague) felt it was too pricey for the standard. The food was good, just not good enough for that price. We ended up paying about $40-$50 per person. We all couldn't understand it

The only dish worth extra mention was the chilli crab and mantou.

A bit inconvenient for those who do not drive

Sorry, all Seafood International fans. It just didn't work for most of our group

My family manages to have a great feast and a great time every time we come to Seafood International. Like the other reviewer, we have been coming here for years, mostly for family celebrations, as we know we won't be let down by the superb seafood and Thai desserts.

Yesterday was my first time at their new (temporary) location, their original space beside Big Splash is being renovated. Glad to see that the quality of seafood hasn't been compromised, thought their "market" section is slightly smaller here. Used to be this circular room with tanks of fish, crabs, shells of all kinds, prawns, lobsters, after all, their slogan is "if it swims we have it". You take a walk around the room with a server and tell the "fisherman" which fish you want and they catch it for you and put it into the grocery cart, so it's still flopping and jumping around 20 minutes before it appears on your dining table. Definitely not a good place to bring vegetarians.

This place seems to have a Thai influence, as seen by their sauces, the popular Pandan chicken and the wide variety of Thai desserts. But first, let's talk about the seafood.

Our default options are steamed prawns, Chilli crab (mmmmmmmmm.....), you char kway, some fried fish (dunno which type) and pandan chicken. We have these dishes most of the time, with some others added in for variety. This place has the freshest and sweetest prawns ever and comes with a wonderful black sauce and chilli sauce. We won't have it cooked any other way, as that might mask the prawn's original lovely flavour and texture.

The you char kway is pretty much like at other seafood restaurants, fleshy and juicy squid paste with bits of prawn deep fried and served with a salad sauce. Hard to go wrong with this dish eh?

I used to love the pandan chicken, Thai marinated chicken thigh meat wrapped in a pandan leaf. Oh so tasty and succulent, but sadly, it was overcooked yesterday. So a little dry and hard (in comparison with usual standards) but still pretty good.

The fish is very fresh, but fried fish has never been one of my favourite dishes anyway. Yummy dark sauce though.

The grand finale is always the Chilli crab (or pepper crab if you order that instead). Whenever the baskets of garlic bread or deep fried mantou is brought to our table, it gets deathly silent in anticipation of the divine dish that is approaching. When the huge dish of big crabs covered with the fantastic sauce is placed on our table, we never fail to go "Waaaaah!". this is my absolute favourite-st chilli crab in the world. Usually when this dish comes, I stop talking and concentrate on tucking in for the next 15 minutes until i'm done. =P

The quality of the crab differs from visit to visit, sometimes it's perfectly firm and sweet, other times it's slightly mushy and not that fantastic, but the sauce is always perfectly executed. Chunks of egg white swirled around the sweet and just-spicy-enough-but-won't-burn-your-tongue gravy make a superb accompaniment to the sweet juicy Sri Lankan crab flesh. I would enjoy it even if it were just the gravy with mantou. The garlic bread is a nicely flavoured but a little too oily, so I prefer the mantou, which is delicately soft, white and sweet on the inside, crisp on the outside.

We sometimes have the pepper crab as well, but I don't like it half as much as the chilli crab, but then again, i've never been a fan of any pepper crab.

On a negative note, we had kai lan with ginger yesterday, which I thought tasted strongly of pesticides. The sambal kangkong was good though, but goes better with rice, which we usually don't waste space on when we r there.

To top it off, we always have a platter of Thai desserts with a bowl of red ruby each. I loooooooooove the red ruby there, but I guess a good bowl of red ruby is not hard to find in Singapore. Also love the assortment of kuehs, they have all the usual durian kueh, sweet tapioca with coconut milk, agar agar etc, by this time i will be so full that i can hardly think.

AND, everything is washed down with the freshest Tiger draught beer in Singapore. I don't usually drink Tiger, but I always drink it here cos it tastes so darn good and fresh. And goes so well with the seafood.

Ok, think I have to hit the gym now.