Ken's Birthday Dinner at Sea King

With one of our younger cousins visiting from Toronto, a few of us got together for a small birthday dinner at Sea King. I headed to the restaurant after I was finished and met up with them (Andrew, Kevin, and Ken) there.

"Alright, what does everyone want to eat?" I inquired while getting settled into my chair. It didn't matter apparently. No one was picky. "Let's try something different then."


I knew I wanted to order the shrimp-stuffed crab claws as an appetizer. It was a special occasion, so why not? Sometimes you can find deep-fried shrimp balls during dim sum. This is the king of those -- the price reflects that too; $4.50 a piece.

The shrimp-stuffed crab claws arrived piping hot with a dipping sauce of an unthickened sweet vinegar sauce. They were super plump, bouncy, and juicy. Packed with sweet shrimp covered with fried vermicelli, dinner started off on a great note.


Kevin wanted to get the black pepper steak. I was thinking of ordering a casserole pot with veggies and vermicelli on the bottom. But Andrew said he wanted to get a vegetarian dish so we went with that.

Other than the steak being over-tenderized, everyone enjoyed the black pepper steak with their bowls of rice. The vegetarian dish had a strong canned bamboo taste. I was not a fan. This was the least favourite of our table.


The last dish I ordered was the stir-fried rice noodles with shrimp and egg sauce. I've read about the dish so often in other food blogs. I was eager to give it a try.

At first, it just looked like it was a plate of shrimp and sliced Chinese vegetables in a egg sauce. But there was rice noodles hiding underneath. The sauce was quite mild. The seasoned shrimps were the saltiest note of the whole dish, while the sliced Chinese greens added a textural crunch. I'm not sure if the dish was a true representation of how it should've tasted though. Is it supposed to taste so simple?


We wrapped up Ken's birthday dinner with some complimentary dessert of red beans.

When the bill came, I just laughed when I saw the breakdown of the pricing. The most expensive part of dinner was the appetizer. Yowzas! I'd still do it over again though. It was that good.

~*~