Come Along Seafood Restaurant 金龍船海鮮酒家 : Dinner

DIM SUM POST ON COME ALONG [HERE]

REVISIT POST FOR DINNER ON COME ALONG [HERE]

Passing Come Along on the way to Chong's for dinner, we noticed a sign outside the restaurant, "large crabs for $9.99/lb". After reading that, of course we had to come along (...) for dinner the next evening. As for my previous visits, dim sum at Come Along has always been inconsistent with more misses than hits (not horrible misses) and for dinner (actually dim sum too), the staff is not very friendly. 

Furthermore, my "personal grudges" for not revisiting is due to one of the waiters who constantly changes plates more often than needed (not in the nice offered way, more like.. it is my job, give me your plate so I can get it over with), and threw out two untouched crab legs. Sounds silly but with the dim sum experiences added up, the last straw was the loss of crab legs LOL.  Plus, it is not a loss for me if I stop coming here. Anyways, this visit was an exception though, who can pass on $9.99/lb for crab?!

The interior of the restaurant sticks to a colour scheme of red as well as gold, and white. As for the seating arrangements, the restaurant is not necessarily spacious or cramped, and there are quite a few larger tables for parties of eight to ten. Side note, from all the Chinese restaurant "finds" that I have been dining at recently, it does feel more comfortable having dinner at a cleaner restaurant LOL. 

SALTED EGG TOFU MUSTARD GREEN SOUP ($14.80). 

My first choice of soup was the soup of the day, watercress with pork neck. Priced at $18.80, it should taste pretty good because it is quite pricey, but with so many crappy experiences that I have had lately paying for overpriced dishes, I was not so sure. However, I still wanted to try the daily soup because I love slow cooked soups, until our waiter mentioned the restaurant was sold out. Up next, my second choice of soup was the winter melon, until our waiter said they never have it (sigh, why is it on the menu?). 

For my third choice of soup, it was the dried scallop with egg tofu which was sold out as well! This brings us to my last and fourth choice of soup, salted egg tofu mustard green. After the waiter ran back and forth four times regarding the soup order, he mentioned the kitchen ran out of whole salted eggs and could only give us salted egg yolk, which was fine. I will take what I can get after choosing four types of soup. The soup tastes fresh as well as healthy, and has a clear mustard green vegetable flavour along with a tofu broth. In addition, the broth has a hint of salted egg. 

2LB STEAMED ROCK COD ($23.80/LB).

I was pretty surprised that Come Along had rock cod, what a bonus. The rock cod tastes fresh and not overcooked (what a shame if such a delicious fish is overcooked, like at Kwan Luck's). The rock cod has a meaty as well as flaky texture, and tastes yummy.

3 1/4LB CREAM AND BUTTER SAUCE CRAB ($9.99/LB).

Come Along's cream and butter sauce beats the two restaurants beside them, Phekda and Chong's. The sauce tastes properly made and creamy as well as buttery, without one taste overpowering the other. The only issue is that the crab tastes slightly overcooked.

OX TAIL HOT POT ($19.80).

The tomato sauce tastes extremely heavy as well as pretty sweet, and very similar to ketchup. Since the stew tastes overwhelming and extremely similar to ketchup, we packed the hot pot and took it home. After adding some water and simmering the dish, the hot pot definitely tasted a lot better. Although in general, I am not a fan of adding water to any dishes that have been already made. However, the hot pot tasted really good with the help of water and some simmering. For those who prefer the heavy strong tomato and sweet flavour, will like the hot pot and consider it really flavourful. As for the meat, the oxtail tastes tender as do the carrots and celery. Although it is unfortunate that the sauce tastes too sweet.

CHINESE SAUSAGE AND TARO ROOTS FRIED RICE ($13.80).

Wow, this is the highlight of dinner, seriously. The rice tastes soft and somewhat mushy but in a good way because of the diced pieces of taro. The fried rice tastes properly fused and every bite of rice has a chinese sausage as well as a taro flavour. The rice has a good amount of carrot, green onion and egg which provides the fried rice look, and the ingredients are diced very small to ensure that the sausage and taro flavour stands out. Fried rice is considered a dish that can be eaten alone and this is one of the only few times where I find it true (the only other time has been Tropika's pineapple fried rice). 

COMPLIMENTARY RED BEAN SOUP AND CHINESE COCONUT ALMOND COOKIES. 

The red bean soup has a nice thickened consistency and tastes slightly sweet, I like it. As for the chinese coconut almond cookies, the cookies tastes fresh as well as warm, melts in the mouth and has a slight coconut taste. The cookies taste housemade because they melt in the mouth  and the cooks actually heated them for a bit before serving. Remember the reason why I did not want to come back for dinner? LOL I just remembered another reason… we were not served red bean soup or cookies on the last visit, when every other table had them (I think we ordered more dishes that time too).

POSITIVES

- Chinese sausage and taro fried rice tastes pretttttty good

- Cheap crab promotion!

- Friendlier staff compared to previous visits

NEGATIVES

- Service is random (either good or none at all)

- Food is inconsistent and can range from good or average to below average

LITTLE THINGS

- Dim sum post on Come Along [here]

- Revisit post on Come Along for dinner [here]

- I prefer their dinner over dim sum

- Sea cucumber and abalone prices are slightly higher than comparable restaurants

Food: 3/5

Service: 2.5/5