After getting a fair amount of bad comments on Mantis Prawn Village Seafood Restaurant in Bukit Tambun from the service to food to cleanliness, I decided to visit it again to find out if the comments were true.
One particular comment that made me LOL was that I was paid by Mantis Shrimp Village to write only good review for them, haha! I kept asking myself “Mantis Shrimp Village became so bad already? Why so different from the last time I went?”
First things first, I am not defending the restaurant but merely expressing my very own experience. Lets start with their signature dish – Carlsberg Mantis Shrimp. In my opinion this is a must try if you ever come to Mantis Prawn Village. If you are willing to pay, you can choose the biggest mantis shrimp they have to prepare this delicious dish.
Why? Because mantis shrimps already do not have a lot of meat.. and the meat will shrink a little after being deep fried. I always order this dish and it never disappoints with its sweetness and freshness.
Well, I have the photo now :)
For fish, do try their special Baba Steam style – a bit sourish and spicy. The gravy is nice to eat along with rice, very appetizing.
Claypot Japanese Taufu. Nothing special about this dish.
Stir fry Abalone Mushroom with Broccoli. This dish rocks! Abolone mushrooms’ texture is really a bit similar to the real abalone.
The Salted Egg Crab was a failure as we should have opted for meat crab instead of flower crab. It was our own mistake, flower crabs are only good for sweet and sour or curries.
As usual, our drink would be a jug of dragon fruit juice. Based on this meal, I can say that most bad comments were unjustified. So unjustified I am starting to wonder if the comments were left by competing seafood restaurants nearby, lol.
And because I already knew about the bad experiences other people had before, I paid extra attention to certain details especially the service and cleanliness. Now, for the bad comments (my response in bold):
We were also driving a non-branded car, also casual wear t-shirt and short pants some more lol. I didn’t notice anything rude about the captain.. she answered everything we asked just like a normal person would.
disappointed Man said: The most famous seafood of the restaurant – mantis, it is tasteless!! We ordered medium size mantis but we were eating small size mantis. For other seafood, they are acceptable (from the aspect of taste) but not fresh.I believe the mantis shrimps are openly displayed in the aquarium tanks within the restaurant, and you can clearly see their sizes before ordering. Even the price for each mantis shrimp is very clearly stated. Having to know all these before you placed the order, I don’t understand the complaint.
disappointed Man said: Thirdly, about the price. Dear all going-to-visit consumers, this is a kindly remind to you. Please make sure you have credit cards. If you are paying cash, please make sure you bring more. Mantis Shrimp Village Seafood charging is extremely expensive!!!! If you try to compare their price with other seafood restaurants, you will find that this restaurant is charging at medium size price (in fact, they served us with small size dishes). Furthermore, if you compare taste + service Vs price to other restaurants, it is not worth to visit at all.I don’t know about you, but Mantis Shrimp Village’s prices have been fair for me. If you looked back my previous post, my meal cost a little more than RM110 including beer! Try ordering the same food in other restaurants, I am sure it’d cost much much more.
pipi said: salted egg yolk crabs = for those fans of salted egg yolk crabs, you would be disappointed, that was too less salted egg yolk but too much sugar added.Yes I do agree their salted egg yolk crabs is not a good choice already.
pipi said: calrlsberg prawns = tasteless, couldnt tell what was that tasted like.They taste sweet and fresh :) Seriously, they are not tasteless!
Quan said: NO! NO! NO!THis restau serves good Salted egg yolk crabs, but NO!! no!!! and NO!! THIS RESTAU IS SUPER DUPER DIRTY!!!! Full with FLIES!! and the waitress are SUPER RUDE!!! cannot tahan with them, must boycott!!!!
This comment is certainly a whole load of bull****. The restaurant is one of the cleanest you would find in Bukit Tambun. During my entire meal, I didn’t even notice a single fly!
After receiving so many bad comments I won’t recommend anyone to go to Mantis Shrimp Village anymore. Honestly, I don’t dare. But I would still continue to patronize them because my dining experiences with them so far have been positive!
Good investigative work! I too am suspicious of over-the-top negative reviews of restaurants which do not match up to my own experiences – perhaps it’s a case of one man’s food is another man’s poison. But it’s scary to think that unscrupulous competitors’ mudslinging is taking place in our flogging backyard… whatever next?!
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vk: Yeah, kinda surprised actually to find out so many bad comments.. I have friends working in Penang who went to the restaurant.. their feedback was good, just that they didn’t post any comments only.
Your revisit tells a different story comparing with the earlier comments that you received….this helps us a lot. Will plan a drive there. I have the Baba Steam Fish and the Mantis Prawn on my makan list already :)
Thanks for sharing.
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vk: I didn’t recommend anything ya, LOL! Scare scare……
Looks like there may be a review of another different restaurant from your previous commentators.
Overall, I think their food in terms of taste, cleanliness and service, they are very good. :)
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Vkeong, may I know what camera model are you using? I luv your photos.
I plan to buy a new camera.. but do not know what model to buy yet. Any recommendation? hehe
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as u all aware of, food tasting is very subjective…. and experience ppl had might not be the same like ours,
there is nothing to judge….
about serving, it is depend on ur faith with the person.. it is just like u feel the girl is pretty and nice.. but some may feel she is rude and looks ugly…
a lot of thing need to put into consideration sometime, don’t feel upset at all. there is nothing right or wrong at all… is depends on your own expectation
even 3 of us also having different experience when go to the same restaurant…. some can huge and chit chat like old fren… but he or she might treat u differently… see how you approach them too…..
don;t worry too much about that…..this is what we learn after the previous experience
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after reading this post, i was so anxiously wanted to go and have a try, and went to bkt tambun in the past months. we ordered all the same food as you do, and the outcome was fabulous and unexpected. My family was so happy + enjoying themselves, we even revisit again 2 wks later. Our favourties are the salted egg crab, baba steam fish and the carlsberg prawn mantis.
But true enough, the time we went for the 2nd visit, there’s plenty of flies that are death on the tables..still we are not bother of that because as long as the food is delicious and worth the money that we paid for.
Is a must to go and try this restaurant :)
I went to Bukit Tambun for few times but I have no idea the name of the restaurant, I only know to eat and eat. Hahaha.
From your introduction and recommendation, the dish seems so nice wor….. Maybe next time I will go there and try it out.
Oh, btw, people will have their own perspective or point of view over something. As long as we like it will do, right? :)
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Quan said: NO! NO! NO!
THis restau serves good Salted egg yolk crabs, but NO!! no!!! and NO!! THIS RESTAU IS SUPER DUPER DIRTY!!!! Full with FLIES!! and the waitress are SUPER RUDE!!! cannot tahan with them, must boycott!!!!
This comment is certainly a whole load of bull****. The restaurant is one of the cleanest you would find in Bukit Tambun. During my entire meal, I didn’t even notice a single fly!
p/s : VK, To be honest, i personally loves the Salted Egg yolk crabs, but, Do trust me, Go in the afternoon… u’ll see flies… plenty of them… check their kitchen.. look at the Groundnuts on their Table before the waitress grab to serve u, FLIES are hopping on the GOUNDNUTS before u got served!! and when i mean FLIES means more than 20 flies.. no joking.. try there for lunch.
vk: Hi Quan, fair enough :) I didn’t go there for lunch.. thinking back, I was never at Bukit Tambun for lunch before.
I would like to comment the pictures quite nice looking. However, after read all the post, I will be more careful to choose which kind of restaurants to fill up my stomach. Cannot get cheated by the beautiful demostrated pictures. hehe…
vk: Yes, you are right. Pictures may be deceiving, but if they look bad, then most probably they are not that nice either right lol.
Simply like the displayed of Carlsberg Mantis Shrimp.
Perhaps I can give a try on their favourite dishes.
Maybe because you’re there with your camera and they thought you’re some journalist.. hence the slightly better service?
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I agreed with Jason,
Try go there as normal person.. No camera, no journal.. Just observe by eyes..
Well. Visited the mantis prawn last Sunday. 27 ppl when there, 3 table.
Not much choice there. No scallop, lala, balitong..etc. Gred B mantis prawn cost RM12 each.
Order (each table= x3): 2 noodle. 1 <500g grouper. fried chicken(mami), 7 mantis prawn (RM12), kangkong sambal, claypot tofu, sotong goreng, 3 crab. 6 Jar fruit drinks. No alcohol.
Total cost: RM880++
Worth it? You do the math.
Vkeong, i on your side, i just visit few week back and dont have such bad experience as our fellow reader encounter. is a person with big camera will really get a better experience? i think it purely based on your luck!
One thing i notice is most food blog has the best experience compare to readers. Could it be that we need to bring huge dslr to dinner to indirectly tell the restaurant we are food blogger too? That way we will get the same service