- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
East Boat Restaurant
Rating Details »
- Nearest Transit:
-
Spring St-Lafayette St (6)
Bowery (J, M)
Prince St (R, W)
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
10 reviews for East Boat Restaurant
My mom mentioned this place to me awhile back and I was curious, so I came here with her. I thought this place would have fancier decor or something. It was a little odd, but the house was full. The menu had a great selection of food that I wanted to order everything, but that didn't take long since the meal that my mom and I decided on nearly had "everything". The salad was okay, but there was a wee bit much of miracle whip.
When the waiter brought our food to our table it started with the appetizer. Then it was a huge metal platter with smaller platters on top overfilling, yet neatly put together. With all this food I was afraid we couldn't finish it all, but we somehow managed to finish everything. On top of that with dessert. The bill came and yea it was a steep for 2 people especially at a Chinese restaurant, but it was worth it since we did had a good share of seafood.
Before I left I asked for an English take-out menu so I can tell my friends about this place and she gave me the menu in Chinese as well. The Chinese one was long and English one seems a lot simpler. Yea it's very true if you can't speak Cantonese it will be a toughy to order here. Sure you can point at pictures, only if the pictures weren't all nearly exactly the same then I guess it would help greatly.
Almost everything I ate tasted good.
A friend and I ordered the twin lobster dinner, we were trying to save money, and didn't even realize it was meant for one person. The dishes are all meals, this was $35 and almost the cheapest option.
We had the choice of soup or salad. Get the salad! Trust me! I had what was supposedly "New England Clam Chowder." Big mistake!
The salad was so tasty, had apples in it, I liked it alot. My lobster was steamed and I enjoyed it, my friend had hers chinese style and enjoyed it as well.
Other people in our group chose to go family style and to be honest I feel like we got more food and we paid the same, but family style is good if your goal is variety. They had raw lobster and other unidentified things to try, and barely any salad, which was the most pleasant surprise of the night. I don't think I missed out not trying the spaghetti.
I did not order the shark fin soup. I believe it's barbaric. I actually decided to go here before I knew they really pushed this soup. I would probably not return simply out of principle.
Went here for a friend's birthday lunch. She ordered a ton of dishes, but I didn't try all of them, so I can't review everything. However, I can say that the chicken was delicious, as was the squid in black bean sauce. The lobster was pretty decent too, as was the cheese-covered scallops on a shell (sounds gross, but it's not as bad as you'd think). On the flip side, I did not like the shark fin soup at all. It was too bland for my taste. I also heard that the spaghetti was sweet and sour... and cold? Blegh. I didn't want to try it. It looked pretty unappetizing.
For dessert, I had the coconut tapioca, which was served cold. It was pretty delicious. Anyway, the highlight of this place came AFTER our meal. We posed by this huge fake lobster they had at the back of the restaurant and proceeded to take a million group pictures. Then the owner, awesome as he was, decided to brighten up our pictures (pun absolutely intended) by plugging a dangling cable into an electrical outlet, therefore allowing our friend in the background to light up. Nothing better than standing in front of a ginormous glowing crustacean to end the meal.
I'm going to keep this review brief. The actual restaurant is a little dated, but the food was really good. If you don't speak Chinese, preferably Cantonese, then I would pass this place up. The English menu does not tell you much of what you're actually ordering. For instance, when you order a set dinner, it gives you options of soup, entree, dessert, and other such variety. The English version, for instance, simply read "Dessert" and not "milk tea, tea, etc."
The prices were a little steep, but hey, my friend's Dad was paying and we ordered everything under the sun.
We started off with shark fin soup, followed with salad (with too much dressing), oysters, and squid. I thought they all were delicious. The food didn't stop here, next we had fried shrimp skewers, greens, and a battered fish with gravy. All of the food was delicious and tasty. I would caution you though if your palette is not attuned to oriental flavors though.
As if that wasn't enough, we had a small lobster brought out for us in a nice presentation. We did, however, ask them to break it down for us, which they did with no problem whatsoever. You had enough? Next we had another lobster, about 4 times the size of the first one brought out. It was presented to us, and then whisked away to be broken down like the first.
I left here stuffed to the brim. All the food was delicious, and I would come back here, but like I said before, it helps to know Chinese. ;-)
Weird design, pretty good food, 14 lb lobster
I was here w/ my group of meetup friends on what turned out to be the biggest gathering we ever had (20 ppl). This place has the space to fit us no problem. We got one of the side rooms that is quite long. Actually, the restaurant was design w/ these side rooms in mind, so you can't see how many ppl is actually in the restaurant when you walk in.
As decor goes, this is not fancy at all, actually, almost reminds me of a fishing boat back in Hong Kong. There's lot of wood walls, and not much decorations, as I can recall. But I guess that serves the purpose of not distracting from the food.
One half of the table did seperate orders, the other 1/2 ordered a 14 lb lobster pre-fixe dinner. It doesn't take much to guess which 1/2 of the table I was in: 14 lb lobster, baby!
For those that don't know, it takes a lobster 7 years to grow to 1 lb, and then it gains a lb every 3 yrs (acc. to WikiAnswers, I think I was mis-informed in Legal Seafoods earlier this year when they said a lobster gains 1 lb every 7 yrs for the duration of its lifespan).
Anyway, the reason why I chose to go w/ the 14 lb lobster was because I never had it, and because people say the meat is probably too rough for it to taste good.
So the short answer to the second part is: People are wrong. The meat wasn't rough at all.
Here's the pre-fixe dinner, in the order they came in:
Shark Fin and Abalone soup - delicious, although their spoon was useless in picking up the shark fin. The most tender abalone I ever had.
Lobster sashimi, tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, in a raw bar - The lobster sashimi was good, a bit chewy, but not rough at all (taste just like a cook lobster, but not as strong a taste, and a bit soggy texture), the tuna and the raw bar was average, but the salmon sashimi was top notch
steamed lobster and fry lobster - the steam version was rather bland, but you do taste the nature flavors of the lobster, but I would go w/ the fry version. Breaded, fully flavored and delicious.
sauteed lobster - lobster traditional asian style w/ the black bean sauce (I think). You can never go wrong w/ this style unless you're anti-salt.
Lobster brain omelet w/ jalapenos - I had lobster brain omelet b4, and I thought it was too fishy, but throw a slice of jalapenos, and wow, its so delicious. It rids it of all the fishy flavor but retains the chewiness of the meat in the omelet.
tofu and fake crab meat in lobster sauce - it was good, I thought (and probably hope they were still using the sauce from our 14 lb lobster, but its probably as real as the crab meat). Still an excellent dish, if you're not already stuffed by then.
Spaghetti - Chinese style, gooey tomato sauce mixed with corn and peas, not my favorite
Chinese green veggies - I would like to say they are Chinese broccoli, but I'm not 100% sure. They are good, if you still have room in your stomach at that point
Warm coconut milk w/ tapioca - no room left, I tasted it, it didn't wow me for me to attempt to eat more
The total came out to $60/person for 10 ppl. A bit spendy for Chinese restaurant, but it is a 14 lb lobster after all.
One of my friends say he will come back and attempt to finish a 10 lb lobster by himself. Let me know if anyone is willing to sponsor that challenge.
I can probably ding the rating down to a 3.5 with a few other quips (1 bathroom for male, 1 for female), but I was entirely satisfied that I won't.
Most asian "lobster house" ever.
It's kinda pricey but for the amount of food you get it's worth it. I always leave here wanting to take a nap.
An awesome restaurant in the community! The roast chicken is AMAZING and comes with this to-die-for dipping sauce. It's weird fun that they give out plastic gloves that you wear to pull the little chicken apart and eat with your hands. The fried rice is atypically good since they put preserved meats in, which other restaurants usually find too expensive to put in fried rice. The steamed razor clams are always fresh and delicious (although you may want to go early as they run out of the clams later at night.)
DO AVOID the fruit salad and spaghetti...it will most likely come with the meals you order, but it's really not what you want to go there for...just pretend it's not there and wait for your delicious metal platters of chicken, lobster, crab, shrimp, clams, etc.
BUT REMEMBER that since this is a Cantonese community restaurant, please don't expect hand-holding from the waiters; the service isn't there to make you feel bad, it's pretty standard. It's owed by friendly and generous people, but unless you speak Chinese, don't go to Chinese establishments if you want a chatty waiter.
My friend's aunt knows the owner so we got 'hooked up'. I took my meetup there (incl Jack, Mala). Half the table did a la carte, the other half (incl me) did the prix fixe. This place is notorious for mix and match combos of seafood. They brought out a live 14lb lobster to show us before cooking it. That poor thing was probably at least 75yrs old. I brought 20ppl there to clean some house! My faves were the fatty salmon sashimi and the G&S lobster. That's all I would order if I went back. Still, $58 was a bit steep for Chinatown albeit a lot of seafood.
Here's what the night consisted of:
-Jumbo Shrimp - fresh and tasty, huge, good job
-Shark's fin & abalone soup - must add red vinegar to make this dish sexy, albeit seeing the sharks being abused on TV, sorry, I couldn't resist!
-Lobster/tuna/salmon sashimi over ice - lobster sashimi wasn't as good as I anticipated, it was white, I expected a grayish clear, will have to hit Sushi Seki for it now, fatty salmon WAS OFF THE HOOK!, amazing!, tuna was water logged and blah
-Ginger & scallion lobster - my favorite style, have to lick the shell after, never knew a 14lb lobster could taste so tender, YUM!
-Steamed lobster - i like the g & s more, still tender though
-Sauteed squid w/ black bean sauce - tender, good stuff
-Lobster brain omelet - AWESOME, probably the highlight of my night (along w/ the fatty salmon)
-Tofu and crab meat egg drop soup - just blah, huge cop out w/ fake crab meat encore after you whip out a 14lb lobster
-Spaghetti - wasn't crazy about this americanized way w/ ketchup
-Chinese greens - gai lan or something of the sort, steamed, healthy, good
-Tapioca w/ coconut milk - served hot, actually had coco chunks in it, a first for me, well done
Total came out to $58/pp after everything
I took my foodie meetup there:
Pics: http://www.meetup.com/...
My family always takes me here for my birthday dinner. I've always taken it as sort of a blind slap to the face because I'm allergic to shellfish, and shellfish makes up probably 90% of their menu. Plus, there's always someone else celebrating their birthday here with balloons and endless bags of presents, and my family would say "Uh.. sorry, here's a 20 dollar bill". That aside..
The menus are odd here. You can't really order a dish, you have to order an entire meal. Think of it like this - you can order a Big Mac value meal, but you can't order just a Big Mac. Smart move, because their food isn't that good.
... then again, since I'm allergic to 90% of the menu, maybe that 90% is the good part?
the food is good. the service is quick. sometimes you can get a really good deal. the only bad part is the tacky decorations. i come here all the time. they also have another location in flushing which i go to more often since its closer.
ok i'm going to be honest... this is my in-law's restaurant so of course i love it here! that aside i'm promoting this place. so now everyone should come here to eat because maybe you'll catch a glimpse of me. as you all know i'm a huge celebrity =] haha yes i'm joking... maybe.
there is also J & B lobster king restaurant which is located -
135-05 40 Rd. Flushing, NY 11354
p.s. order the fish with the cheese. i love it. and i hate fish. so there.
