food
Scrumptious, fresh seafood at Alu-Alu Restaurant, Kota Kinabalu
You simply can't go wrong with the steamed hybrid grouper to class up your meal. – The Malaysian Insider pic, October 24, 2015.What's better than eating fresh seafood in Sabah? Eating fresh seafood in a breezy gazebo floating above crystal clear waters, that's what!
And that's exactly what Alu-Alu Restaurant at Gayana Resort offers, dishing up Chinese-style dishes made from seafood harvested from their own farm.
Our dinner was a quiet, tranquil affair as the night enveloped the calm sea with only a few resort guests occupying tables. The restaurant is livelier during the day, often receiving customers hungry from island-hopping during lunch time.
We started our seafood feast with a warming double-boiled whole winter melon soup with seafood. The clear savoury broth was enhanced by the sweetness of the prawns and squids with which it was made.
We liked that the winter melon still had a bite to it rather than being boiled mushy, and the light flavours of the soup were a great way to start the meal.
Steamed fish is a must at any Chinese dinner and the steamed hybrid grouper in Cantonese style was a delicious centrepiece to our meal. While I initially thought the fish was on the small side, it was plenty to feed our dining party of eight.
The fish was packed with soft, sweet flesh which easily fell off the bones. The snow white meat was complemented by generous amounts of savoury superior soy sauce which made for the perfect accompaniment to rice.
The butter prawns are a definite must-order for any meal. – The Malaysian Insider pic, October 24, 2015.Another highlight of our meal was the creamy butter prawns. The prawns themselves were lightly fried before being doused with a rich butter sauce flecked with bits of chilli and fragrant curry leaves. You could tell just how fresh the prawns were from how springy and juicy they were.
Coupled with a moreish creamy sauce, this had to be one of our favourite dishes of the night.
An easy crowd favourite was the deep-fried soft shell crab with salt and pepper. Lightly seasoned and battered, it was the natural sweetness of the crabs that stood out.
The fantastic rendition of the seafood tofu at Alu-Alu Restaurant is served with a side of mustard and sweet chilli sauce. – The Malaysian Insider pic, October 24, 2015.Thanks to the use of fresh seafood, one dish that would've usually gone under our radar, the humble seafood tofu, stood out. Deep-fried to a delightful crisp on the outside, the firm tofu paste was embedded with bits of seafood which gave it exciting textures and depth.
No visit to Sabah is complete without trying out its seafood, and Alu-Alu Restaurant is an excellent place to get your fill. The gorgeous natural environment of Pulau Gaya is a definite bonus. – October 24, 2015.
Alu-Alu Restaurant | Address: Malohom Bay, Gaya Island, Tunku Abdul Rahman Park, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah | Opening hours: 7am – 10.30am, 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6pm – 10pm daily | GPS coordinates: 6.013525, 116.048804 | Pork-free
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