Seafood: Kampung Nelayan Floating Seafood Market Restaurant

Status: serve no pork (Serve alcohol)

Venue/landmark: near a psychiatric hospital (Hospital Mesra), Bukit Padang in Kota Kinabalu city. You can see a huge red prawn neon signboard from the round-a-bout.
Time open – close: 12.00 pm – 10.00 pm
Reservation: available
Contact no.: 088-231003, 231005
Website: http://www.kampungnelayan.com/

Expected RM per meal: RM 60 - 70 (2 pax, rice, 1 fish x gram, 1 vege, w/o tax)

Floating: yeah it's floating alright on the lake, open air and air-conditioned. Take your pick.

Seafood market: quite, since they have everything that is legal swimming in the tank. Tthere are also frozen ones, but for this if you are taking AirAsia then Terminal 2 has their own seafood shop selling frozen and dried seafood too.

Fresh seafood, yes indeed. Everything is still swimming and squirming in the large tanks and you pick what you want to eat and watch with glee and rumbling stomach as the workers scoop out the catch. Take your pick, lobsters, crabs, squids, prawns, udang lipan (they really look like centipedes, squirming and rolling around in their individual bottles), fish, mollusks of all kinds (oyster, shellfish, some weird looking snail-look-alike that I dunno what their names are, escargot maybe)… in short, all sorts of sea inhabitants which are legal to be sold to public. Though you may ask the cook how they cook these catches, I think it’s better if you come out with your own request if you are confident of your own judgment.

I’d recommend the soft shell crabs which they deep – fried nicely. If you don't mind your garoupa steamed with soy sauce (which apparently is the only steaming method here) then go ahead and steam your fish.

Anyway, the place also offer steamboat. They offer 2 variant of this, the expensive set and the economic-eat-somewhere-at-the-back-there set. Both have the same choice of soup base, chicken base or tom yum.

So, the expensive one is RM45+. You get a platter of seafood array (prawn, shellfish, squid, crabstick), yong tau fu stuffs (fish cake, fish ball, tofu), vege, mushroom, egg and noodle. You’ll be served in one of the main halls and get to see the cultural performance.

Then there’s the economic set, RM35 w/o 5%tax (hidden charge, shrug). This is under Beijing Open Air Buffet BBQ Steamboat. Buffet style, as the name imply, take what you want from the selections they prepared at the buffet table. The stove is somewhat special, you can also cook your meat on the side hot plate. You’ll be served somewhere at the end hall where you can’t see the cultural show. Time the buffet starts: 6.30 pm – 11.00 pm

Service is good. They are polite and all, fast and attentive. The only thing that irked me is dirty table cloth. Nothing can be done with that I suppose since they can’t be stripping the table cloth every time a customer spilt something.

The main attraction they boast of, aside from the seafood, is their cultural show, scheduled at 7.45 pm – 9.00 pm. Seats in front of the stage can be reserved earlier, or you can come early before 7. The cultural show features the traditional dances of the local tribes, and you get to participate in them and blow darts to some balloons.