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Joyden Seafood Restaurant | 3.5/5

SINGAPORE — The name Joyden Seafood may not be familiar, but the restaurant’s location and food are stalwarts of the West Coast area. Formerly known as West Coast Seafood, the new name is reflective of its owners’ plans to establish more of such restaurants in the future.

SINGAPORE — The name Joyden Seafood may not be familiar, but the restaurant’s location and food are stalwarts of the West Coast area. Formerly known as West Coast Seafood, the new name is reflective of its owners’ plans to establish more of such restaurants in the future.

Along with its name is, of course, a new look. There are plush fuchsia dining chairs, polished parquet floors and a couple of modern art pieces adorning its walls. New as these may be, what continues to serve as a firm reminder of the restaurant’s vintage is the musty smell of age that the renovations could not erase.

But think of this bouquet as a signal that the food continues to cleave close to the restaurant’s origins. The kitchen dishes out the old-school flavours of Singaporean Chinese-style seafood given just the right amount of twists to remind diners that it is 2014.

The good old yam ring, for instance, is filled with succulent morsels of deep-fried pork ribs slicked with a lemongrass glaze redolent of molasses (S$25). The yam ring itself was crisp and creamy, so the eating was joyfully easy. We never thought we’d say this, but as delightful as this dish was, we did miss the fresh crunch of veggies such as celery, broccoli or baby corn that would otherwise be present in the traditional rendition.

At first glance, the saffron-hued Signature Creamy Crab (S$5.80 per 100g) looked a lot like it was enrobed in a sauce made from salted egg yolk. It turned out to be a lighter (and far less artery-damaging) concoction of pureed pumpkin, milk, curry leaves and chilli padi. Rich enough to satisfy though not enough to weigh the belly down the way a salted egg base would, this tasty sauce made for the perfect vehicle to dunk pillowy pieces of mantou (fried buns) into.

One of our favourite dishes was the soul-warming Imperial Oyster Sauce Chicken (S$28) that is first stuffed with chives and garlic, and roasted till the skin is burnished and crisp. It is then braised in superior oyster sauce for three hours until the bird is meltingly soft and full of deeply restorative flavours.

Not everything we tried was as satisfying — the dish of steamed lobster with glutinous rice (S$12.80 per 100g) was a tad dry and the crab bee hoon braised with ginger and spring onions (S$5.80 per 100g) could have used a hit of acidity — but for the most part, the food is well above average and reasonably priced. That it is accessible from the centre’s very ample car park is yet another boon. ANNETTE TAN

3.5/5

Joyden Seafood Restaurant

Where:

#01-11 West Coast Recreation Centre

12 West Coast Walk

Telephone: 6779 5355

Opening hours:

Daily 11.30am to 2.30pm, 5.30pm to 10pm

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