If you love shrimps, do give Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
restaurant a try but I wouldn’t say the same if it was two years ago.
Last week’s visit to the restaurant would be my fourth. The
first three were all done in 2010 at the Curve outlet and after that,
I made a vow never to step inside the eatery ever again. Our visits then were
marred by slow service, uncooked crustaceans, not so tasty food and the worst
of all, unwanted consistency in all of these.
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| The interior decor had a wharf or a seafood market theme (Apple iPhone 4s) |
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| American collectible car plates graced some areas... (Apple iPhone 4s) |
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| The football jersey that Forrest wore (Apple iPhone 4s) |
I had been wanting to take my other half’s visiting nephew
out for a treat before he leaves at the start of Ramadan and for some strange
reasons I thought of nothing but the said brand. He mentioned to me of his
unconditional love for shrimps and with an extensive menu on how shrimps could
be prepared, the restaurant should appeal to him. No harm in giving the brand
another shot. After all, it was a vow that I made in jest.
This time round, we opted for the newly opened one at Citta
Mall in Ara Damansara. I prefer this location as finding parking would be a
breeze. Besides, it is not as crowded.
Smack at the entrance was a ping-pong table with two kids testing
their skills. My first impression was “did they have to do this?” If you must
keep the children occupied, wouldn’t board games do the job? And it didn’t help
that it was placed so close to the maître d’ station.
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| They played ping pong... (Apple iPhone 4s) |
Once seated, Joel the affable waiter attended to our needs.
His easy-going but caring nature made our stay so much more pleasant and memorable.
He made sure that the mascot entertained my younger son.
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| My younger son's newfound friend (Apple iPhone 4s) |
There was a promotion (not
store-wide, only for a certain cardmember) of either a free dessert or a kid’s
meal where we had ordered both but he checked in the more expensive price tag
of the two as the free item. Emptied dishes would go unnoticed for long on the
table as he would quickly clear them up. It’s no wonder he was sent there from
the Sunway Pyramid branch to help open the outlet and train the newbies. And
he’s heading back to his base next week...
The one thing that I like about eating out in a big party is
the opportunity to sample food from around the table. The one thing that I
don’t is the bill at the end but that’s relative. Sometimes, my other half
picks up the tab.
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| The Cajun shrimp came with garlic bread and a lemon slice (Apple iPhone 4s) |
It was the Cajun shrimp that got to our table first, much to
my other half’s nephew’s delight. I thought it was quite fiery though just at
the right level of spiciness. Next came the Old Fashioned New England clam chowder. I had a
problem with it being runny and with too much fillings in the small bowl: both in quantity and ingredient type. The
colour was pale yellow rather than cream. It wasn’t particularly bad but that’s
not how a chowder should be.
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| The chowder wasn't bad but there should be more liquid per serving (Apple iPhone 4s) |
The Sweet home BBQ burger looked very juicy and tempting with a thick beef patty to make anyone drool. I don't know how the onion rings fared as a topping but I have a feeling it complemented the sandwich well.
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| The eater had a tough time finishing this piece (Apple iPhone 4s) |
My Yin Yang Shrimp salad was definitely worth the gamble. The accompanying grilled shrimps provided the much needed rugged
texture to the garden fresh taste. The wasabi dressing however didn’t come out too
strongly, if not evident at all. I loved the generous sprinkling of mango slices which blended in well with the other condiments.
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| Topped with shredded wonton skins, the portion was huge (Apple iPhone 4s) |
My son’s order of Shrimper’s Heaven seemed enormous at first
but being a growing child, he cleaned it up without much help from the other
diners. Consisting of garlic shrimp, coconut shrimp, chilly shrimp and tempura
shrimp, the towering ensemble was only made possible by the dish rack and not so
much the actual quantity of the food. I was shock that within few minutes of nicking a piece of the coconut shrimp, he had finished the entire dish. I knew he
didn’t gobble down as he’s a polite eater and found out that there were only
few pieces in each cone.
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| The quadruplet tower of BGS (Apple iPhone 4s) |
The Buffalo Wings were comparable to the ones in Chili’s as
far as colour and taste went. There was a nice balance between hot and sour but they shouldn't call the menu item wings when they were just poppers or drummets. But being a true lover of the Buffalo-originated recipe, I don't really take issue which part of the bird a restaurant is using! The carrot and celery sticks that went with it were sweet and crunchy but I'm still searching for the chunkiest bleu cheese dressing in town.
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| Maybe they should throw in more pieces (Apple iPhone 4s) |
For dessert, we ordered the Alabama Mud Pie to share. No problem there because the ice-cream based final number was huge in size. No one complained of not having enough. Good thing we didn't go crazy while perusing the menu for desserts.
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| We asked for a lot of spoons and Joel kindly obliged (Apple iPhone 4s) |
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| I was told the corn was not that good. This was Mama's Southern Fried Chicken (Apple iPhone 4s) |
Throughout our time there, the eatery played back the movie Forrest Gump on its multiple flat screen TVs. I caught glimpses of it in between the chomps and got it now why the ping-pong table out front. Somehow, it did not click earlier on.
The BGSC restaurant is not all about shrimps. It has poultry, beef, lamb and other seafoods too. The range of beverage and cocktail is wide with select items bottomless. Price is not that cheap for few items but you will find something that can fit your budget. I'm happy I've made peace with it.
On the way back, we popped in our local DVD store and grabbed a copy of the movie which arguably was the best performance by Tom Hanks (some say he's better in Philadelphia). It was the first viewing for my son and his cousins but I was just glad that many of their questions about the restaurant were clarified through it.
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