This is supposed to be one of the best seafood restaurants in town. I say this based solely on the fact that a lot of people like taxi drivers in Langkawi use it as a landmark/drop-off-point. Wonderland Food Store is just one of many seafood restaurants along the waterfront in town.
There are Thai style seafood restaurants, Malay seafood restaurants, and Chinese seafood restaurants, but many of the last don’t serve pork anyway. We decided on Wonderland Seafood coz we’re never eaten there before and a lot of people talks about it so we checked it out.
It was a huge disappointment!
The mantis prawns were frozen instead of fresh, most of the dishes are unappealing with no plating considerations and even though it was packed, the clientèle seems to be mostly tourists – Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc.
To add to the list of sins, they hired an unlicensed taxi for us – which costs RM 1 more than the standardized fare – and is a highly unusual practice in Langkawi since the taxis are heavily regulated.
Kam Heong Mantis Prawn
This is deep fried since they didn’t have any fresh ones. The proprietors said that the fishermen didn’t have any catches since it was the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays. The frozen mantis prawns tastes alright but I was looking forward to fresh steamed ones so it was slightly disappointing.
Fried Squid
The squid was too chewy and just wasn’t fresh – it’s exactly the *opposite* of what I had hoped to eat in Langkawi, which is famous for their seafood since it’s a duty free island.
Soft Shell Crab
This was fried the same way as the other two dishes so it’s quite jelak to eat so much deep fried battered seafood, even if all three are very different creatures. I thought it was mediocre.
Seafood Fried Rice
RM 8 a plate and it comes with lots of squid! I suspect that the “seafood fried rice” contains whatever surplus seafood that you ordered. It’s oily and repetitive.
Steamed Sea Bass (Siakap)
This is the saving grace of our seafood dinner. I liked it so much I ate all of the fish – mostly by myself. Haha. The rest of the food we tapau and took it back to the hotel coz there were so much leftovers it was obscene.
The bill costs RM 99 which was pretty reasonable. However, dinner wasn’t what we expected – we had been looking forward to a nice seafood meal in Langkawi. It could be the lack of fisherman’s produce due to the Hari Raya holidays as the restaurant didn’t have fresh seafood and had to resort to frozen ones. Or it could be just the wrong place to eat.
I can’t say I recommend Wonderland Seafood from our dining experience but I had a lot of fun with the kids and my better half! That’s all that matters.
Yes, food is secondary where love ones are concerned..
That’s right!
It’s always the company that counts! Thanks Reana!
Hmm… that sounds like a very bad experience. Still, i find the food in Penang rules, you should come over instead :p
Overrated!
I went to this seafood restaurant in Tambun called Gee Seng – it’s super cheap and they have huge mantis prawns (live ones)!
Haha! I’ll grant you something though – the seafood in Tambun just before the Penang Bridge is REALLY good *and* cheap!
I loved it – live mantis prawns that measures 8 inches!
The bill came up to RM 250+ for just the six of us only too!
Company certainly is more important than food! Good for you that you have YL and the two babies with you to make up for the not so happening meal.
Indeed!
Yup, though the kids were so tired they didn’t eat until after we got back to the hotel.
We had a really late snack too!
Don’t know this place. Food is reasonably priced – cheap! Ya…would be good if not everything is dipped in batter and deep-fried.
Yeah, it’s indeed very reasonably priced!
I can only remember Tambun and KK, Sabah having such cheap seafood. Too bad everything is dipped in batter though, that spoiled a lot of the dishes.
They didn’t have a lot of live seafood either!
Dear, that was certainly a very disappointing dinner as I lead u to the wrong boat…ahha. Hmmm…tried edy now we know since there have been so many ravings about this place..heeh.
I enjoy the fried squid and fish the most..oh yea, i told you the coconut juice here is sweeter than the one we had on first night <3
No worries dear! <3
Now we know what the fuss is all about - not much. Haha!
I wonder why the taxi drivers and other people keep using it as a landmark though.
I loved the fish! Ate it all in the shop itself! It's always good to be with you and the kids dear! *hugs*
I guess they focus on overseas tourists. They probably just wanna try some local Chinese food and can’t tell if its good or not.
Yeah, I’m inclined to agree!
It’s a bit of tourist trap – didn’t see a lot of locals there.
We saw a bunch of tourists from different countries though – all walk ins! No tour bus, so it’s not part of any route.
I’ve heard ppl recommending this place too. Did not get the chance to try here…cos when we were there, it was closed. Mayb its overrated? That plate of Kam Heong Mantis Prawn look more like salted egg mantis prawn ^_^
Oh yeah, you’re right Mel!
It’s salted egg mantis prawn! That wasn’t on the menu but mantis prawn is all priced the same (by weight) so it was listed as Kam Heong Mantis Prawn.
However, we changed it to salted egg (an off-menu choice) since everything is getting too similar.
I would say it’s a bit overrated too!
Hvnt been to langkawi long time. The last I went there was just after my school dats.
Thanks for the warning. Will watch out for this and beware
That’s been a long time!
It’ll have been the same for me too if not for the 3 trips I made recently when I came back to work in KL again in 2008. Haha!
The guy told us that it was Hari Raya season and the fisherman weren’t working so there’s no fresh catches – which was why we could only get frozen mantis prawn. Not sure if that’s true or not though, this restaurant seems to cater to tourists only.
Thanks Kathy!
Worst experience is this shop…. very rude waiter n waitress….. food was horrible not tasty at all…… not friendly….. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND ANYONE HER EVER….