Marine Live Seafood
- Near DC Mall and Lucky Plaza, GPS : N 1°8'24.3528", E 104°0'15.6636"
- Exactly behind Pagoda Hotel
- Denny - Chief-Cook and Boss : +62 811 697778
- Fresh Seafood replenishment : Fridays and Tuesdays
- 11 months of operation at time of this post
Food : 4/5
Ambience : 4/5 (clean, bright)
Value : 4/5
Conclusion : Strongly recommend due to value (Batam-standards) and
location. For me, better value than Red Crab and for sure those HarborBay (wey-wey / hawaii) nonsense. *Much* shorter commuting (from touristy areas) than to Rezeki and that holy-grail one at Tg Piayu.
Went there, yesterday evening. Dinner for 2. Denny is really the down-to-earth-humble-cheerful boss. Give him the courtesy and respect and you will get his passion in his food and attention to your particular/peculiar culinary needs. This alone is a huge plus.
Told him "John Recommended" , he scratched his head, and thereafter a 15min discussion about foodies in a forum and how we got to know his resto, the 3 girls (Missvamp) etc etc. Asked which forum - couldn't tell him it is a sex forum LOL.
Asked him for his recommendation although I told him about what John recommended. He went ahead and prepared his signature dishes.
Dishes ordered :
1 x Black Pepper Crab (RP125K)
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As John said, try to get the really big ones. Unfortunately the big ones gone and replenishment is the next day (Friday). Really ... all the effort to peeling off the shells and yielding small amounts of meat is "not worth it". LOL. He suggested just steam crab at first, but my partner wanted black pepper. Taste wise, as expected from live fresh seafood - meat was sweet. No complaints. Sauce is normal as with other restos.
1 x Drunken Prawn (RP 75K) (MANTAP!)
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I LOVE IT. The herbal-tonic-wine soup base was fantastic. I drunk the
entire crock-pot bowl. Kid you not. The prawns were tender and sweet* (fresh and cooked
just nice, not over-cooked, shells peeled off easily from the meat). My partner, having a serious allergy to prawns, can only take very live healthy prawns (not semi-dead, about to die, or chemically-reared) - she ate them ALL with no allergic reactions whatsoever. She ate them like a BEAST. This fact sealed the deal. She couldn't take prawns from Rezeki, Red Crab, etc - except the TG Piayu resto one. And now got a much closer resto (Marine Live). She was happy beyond words.
6 x Crayfish fried with butter and salty-egg (RP160K)
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Nice, tangy, flavorful (from the butter/salty-egg) and sweet*. No faults. It's the same quality as with Rezeki.
1 x dunno-what-fish in custom-made chilli-soy-tomato-spices sauce. (RP100K) (MANTAP!)
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Denny recommended this dish , we said ok. Asked us what fish to use - I told him he would know best. He smiled and confidently said OK. What came was *beautiful*. The meat was so tender and soft yet just.. JUST firm enough to chew. He cooked that fish to
perfection. And with that sauce-base - it was truly truly wonderful - felt like what I experienced at Kez's resto.
1 x Vegetable dish - Pakis Polos (his top recommendation) (RP22.5K) (DISTINCTION!)
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AIYO!! It looked so simple, so "common", so plain, so "uninteresting". But when I put in my mouth... gawd almighty ... phhharkk... I gorged on the dish, and when the veges and that ikan bilis gone - that sauce base... I called another bowl of nasih putih and poured all that sauce in the rice and ate as is. Cleaned that whole plate. PS : go with rice for sure. Denny was beaming when he saw that, and I told him that most nutrients and natural tastes of the vege or seafood are gone to the sauce/soup - and that's where it all is. Will always order this dish whenever I patronise. Absolutely.
5 dishes + 3 bowls of rice + 1 plum juice
Total bill : RP504,000
This is exceptional value in a touristy-area for such quality.
Denny confided he added just a little bit of mushroom-MSG (vegetarian MSG). Cause he never tried cooking without MSG. After noting my positive observations in this meal - he got very confident and will cook without any MSG whatsoever (for me).
Denny himself admitted that his resto still can't beat the one at TG Piayu (yes he knows) in terms of price, and in terms of supreme-freshness (bcs the one at TG Piayu - the customer picks it directly from the sea). But I told him - it beats driving 1 hr there, eat/drink/talk, drive back 1 hr - and thereafter immediately feel hungry again. LOL.
When we wanted to order more dishes - he said "no enough enough.. its already alot for 2 people" . A sign of sincerity
This resto is by far the best in terms of value in city/touristy area. That said, for only 2-4 people - this resto is great. Bcs no point to travel so far to just order a few dishes even though its better value. But for a bigger group of at least 6 - I would still go to that one at TG Piayu and all of us gorge ourselves silly at amazing prices/quality.
*Sweet : The natural-sweetness in the flesh/meat is testament to the freshness. Some restos do keep dead/frozen seafood inside the kitchen away from customers' view - and they cook those instead of the live ones - and if meat not sweet is a definitely indication.
Denny in the kitchen with windows for customers to see what's going on
A very important TIP : When there, tell Denny to serve the dishes *SLOWLY*. The dishes came too fast. He said local customers are impatient, but foreigners did mention dishes came too soon - and his customers are 50 local - 50 foreigners. So inform him not to send the dishes too soon else one will be too busy with everything.
ENJOY!