Let's Seafood: Fishing for perfection with large portions and a cold toilet
Recently opened as a sequel to the Let's Burger restaurant in the Sanlitun area's Nali Patio, Let's Seafood is a great place to find big portions of seafood cooked to perfection, though prices can be equally big.
Taking orders by customers ticking off items with a pencil and a slip of paper is perhaps an ingenious way of making them think items like dim sum don't really cost that much, but in fact most are 65 yuan or more.
The salmon steak (85 yuan) was delicious. Two large pieces of Norwegian salmon came pan fried and served on top of creamy spinach, drizzled with white wine sauce.
Cooked just right, it was moist and tender on the inside and just slightly crusted on the surface.
Dishes are served with unlimited helpings of bread and serve-yourself sauces ranging from pesto to garlic.
All the main courses come with a hearty, yet spicy, seafood soup and a weekly special side dish.
It turned out the "special side dish" was plain old steamed rice. In answer to our question, an employee said side dishes were either rice or baked potato, but she never requested our choice when taking the order.
The grilled seafood combo (88 yuan) was huge and came with kabobs of scallops, king prawns, octopus, marlin and cuttlefish over a bed of green herb green salad - too much for one person and best shared.
Grilled seafood items in Western-style restaurants are often flavored with plain butter and lemon, which can become a chore to eat after a few bites. However, since these items on the Let's Seafood menu had minimum oil and butter, they made for the perfect low-carb and tasty meal.
The tossed herb salad with tiger prawns (78 yuan) tasted fresh and came with naturally sweet fresh water lily that made each bite crispy.
If Let's Seafood can get its main dishes to come out at the same time, and subtract one of the three to four employees that came to the table to serve a single dish, they could be on their way to the Nali Patio Hall of Fame.
Yet the bathroom situation might put some customers off, especially during these coldest weeks of the year, as many would dread climbing back into their heavy coats and walking outside to the second floor.
There they find only one bathroom with four stalls for both sexes.
Walking outside to the bathroom may sound similar to other restaurants on the third floor of Sanlitun Village, but it could hurt Nali Patio more because it is literally empty during these winter months.
Let's Seafood
Add: Shop D110, Nali Patio, 81 North Sanlitun street, Chaoyang district
Tel: 52086038
