Had dinner with some family friends yesterday evening at All Seasons Restaurant in Times Square. My mom suggested that we go Seri Kemayan Restaurant at Batu Satu but I insisted on All Seasons Restaurant despite it didn’t gave me the best impression in terms of their food taste on my first visit. They deserved a second chance since a friend of mine commented that the food served there was nice. So, we had the largest table in the entire restaurant and ordered food that could basically feed about 10 persons when there were only the 8 of us. 6 adults and 2 kids. The waitress asked if we are okay that the all dishes come in medium portion? It’s either that they overestimated their medium portion or that’s their standard portion for medium.
Let’s start with the food pictures. (Most of the pictures were taken at a rather bad angle coz I don’t want to keep our guest to waiting for me to be done with food photography)
1. Century Egg Steamed Taofu (B$16.00)
Taofu is what we called bean curd in Chinese. Instead of the usual local bean curd that you could get from the wet market, they used those packaged silken bean curd which is easily available at any supermarket in town. Honestly speaking, I am not a big fan of century eggs. As a matter of fact, I don’t really like them. I don’t dislike them but just not keen about them. My mom wanted to order Claypot Tofu with Salted Fish but I disagreed. We had it previously and it was too salty and oily for my liking. However, Century Egg Steamed Taofu is not bad at all. As a matter of fact, it’s quite nice. The combination was pretty fresh and they blend in perfectly.
2. Signature Curry Fish Fillet (B$36.00)
If you are a not a spicy eater, I wouldn’t recommend this dish unless you specifically requested the waitress for the dish to be less spicy than it should be. The amount of fried bean curds were generous with side ingredients of eggplants and lady fingers. The fish fillets however weren’t that much and I think that they weren’t that smooth. Perhaps it’s not dory fish that they used. I think I ate more of their fried bean curds than the fish fillets itself. Hahaha … The broth was thick and flavorful but the downside is that it was quite oily. But nevertheless, the curry broth is good to go with your rice.
3. Stir Fried Soft Shell Crab with Salted Eggs (B$36.00)
This was the main highlight of yesterday dinner. When I first dined at All Seasons Restaurant, I wanted to have this but my mom who is always prone to ulcers breakout refused. Hahaha … Since my mom was the one hosting the dinner with family friends for the yesterday’s dinner, I decided to seize the opportunity and ordered it. Price may be on the steep side but it’s definitely worth every penny. This dish was well liked in both blog reviews and Instagram. The soft shell crabs were deep fried coated with salted egg yolks. They were extremely crunchy. If you are looking for crab flesh, don’t bother. There is not much crab flesh, maybe a little.
4. Fish Maw Soup (B$30.00)
Wondering why my soup is dark in color? I would always add in black vinegar in most of my soups, that’s if the soup has a thick broth. This tasted pretty good. As a matter of fact, I think it’s the best fish maw soup that I have ever tried in Brunei. Their ingredients were generous. They also used shiitake needle mushrooms. What I liked is that they don’t put in frozen peas.
5. Fried Hong Kong Kailan (B$16.00)
Do you know what intrigued me to order this? We would normally have Stir Fried Kailan the normal way. The other day when I was at work, a colleague of mine cooked Kailan exactly the same way as illustrated on the picture above. The leaves were chopped thinly and deep fried. Unfortunately, the way All Seasons Restaurant cooked it doesn’t live up to my expectation. The fried leaves were a little bit too dry. But the stems were boiled properly and they weren’t hard.
Overall, the dinner yesterday was of satisfactory. Food was served pretty quick and food quality was a lot better than I remembered. No wonder my friend still recommends me the place despite I told him my experience with their food. My first experience wasn’t anything near horrible, but they are too salty and oily for my liking.
All Seasons Restaurant
Unit F7, First Floor,
Times Square,
Kampung Jaya Setia,
Brunei Darussalam.
Tel: +673-2338068
