For Mother’s Day, my mom of course wanted Chinese food. She suggested we try Ningbo Seafood Restaurant since it is fairly new and we haven’t had Ning Bo cuisine before. The restaurant is located at Parker Place and you can enter from inside the mall or outside.

Even though we made reservations, we still needed to wait a while. We arrived at the restaurant and there wasn’t a hostess to greet us for more than 5 minutes. Service definitely lacks at the restaurant and they seemed to be understaffed on this busy day.

Chinese Mushroom with Bean Curd Roll

First we got the Chinese Mushroom with Bean Curd Roll. This was decent, but also quite typical. Nothing too special. The bean curd was cooked tender and the mushrooms inside gave it a good chew and flavour.

Dried Bamboo Shoot with Mushrooms

My mom wanted to try the Dried Bamboo Shoot with Mushrooms. Although the flavour was good, the texture of the mushrooms was way too tough to chew on. Only the dried bamboo shoots were chewable, but the mushrooms which were long and stringy were way over cooked.

Deep Fried Fish Sticks

We wanted to get a dish of fish, so my sister suggested the Deep Fried Fish Sticks. These are made of a batter made with seaweed, hence the slight green colour. The fish inside was extremely tender and was really delicious! We all agreed that the dish should have some sort of sauce to dip with, but it didn’t come with it. Or they just forgot. Overall, this was one of my favourite dishes.

House Special Chicken

We also saw on the menu the House Special Chicken and my mom immediately wanted to get it. However, it said that you must reserve the chicken in advance as they only have limited quantities each day. We asked the server and after a while, she said that she had snatched us an order! Apparently another table said they didn’t want it anymore, so she quickly reserved it for us.It came sizzling in a large pot.

Then our server cut up the chicken for us. The meat flaked off easily. The chicken was marinated in a soy based sauce and was actually quite sweet instead of salty. The skin was cooked so it was a little crispy as well. Not bad to go with rice!

Pan Fried Braised Pork with Veggies

The Pan Fried Braised Pork with Veggies is a famous Ning Bo dish. It is basically pork belly that is braised in a very flavourful sauce. I found that the pork was a bit too tough, probably because it was overcooked. There was lots of fat attached to it, but because the meat was tough, the texture overall wasn’t that good. I’ve had much better at other restaurants before. Plus, the dish actually didn’t’ have any veggies in it when it’s stated on the menu. The sauce is great to eat with rice though.

Sesame Dumplings and Osmanthus with Rice Gluten in Wine

Lastly, for dessert, we got the Sesame Dumplings and Osmanthus with Rice Gluten in Wine. This is one of my favourite desserts because it has tons of little mochi balls! They actually don’t have sesame dumplings in this dessert, so I’m not quite sure why it’s stated in the name. The alcohol isn’t very strong in it, so it’s definitely much more sweet with the osmanthus. A large bowl, which is plenty to share with 5 people!

Overall, we all agreed that Ningbo Seafood Restaurant was just average. Service was lacking and the food wasn’t superb.