Seafood Empire

This Chinese restaurant in an obscure North Brunswick location lives up to its name with at least 40 Hong Kong and Beijing style seafood entrées.

By: Pat Tanner

   THANKS to Seafood Empire, I can now respond with conviction when asked to recommend a Chinese restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, there are several good ones in the area, but Seafood Empire stands markedly apart and above. You would never know it from its obscure location in a shopping mall on Route 1 or a quick glance at the menu, which at first seems to be cookie-cutter Chinese. Upon closer inspection — especially of the daily specials and Chef’s Specialties section — you’ll find the interesting and the uncommon, all of it very, very good.
   The seafood-and-bean-curd soup ($7 for two) was delightful in an unexpected way. (Although listed on the sheet of specials, it appears to be regularly available.) Awhirl in a broth light in color and body were tasty small shrimp, cubes of silky bean curd and, surprisingly, threads of egg, à la egg drop soup. The combination was light yet satisfying. Soups on the regular menu include the standard won ton, hot and sour, velvet chicken corn, et al., but I suspect even they rise above standard. Other special appetizers consisted of escargot — how unusual is that in a Chinese restaurant? — and grilled clams stuffed with bacon.
   Seafood Empire lives up to its name with at least 40 seafood entrées, including rainbow conch, grass carp, abalone and sea cucumber, alone or in combination. Even these exotic specialties are priced at no more than $15, and many shrimp and scallop dishes are only $10. We sampled seafood via the Angel Hair Hong Kong Style ($13), a popular dish of mixed shellfish and vegetables tossed with pan-fried thin noodles. I invariably find this dish boring and greasy, or at least I did until I encountered it here. The pasta was lightly coated, not bogged down with oil, and although big, snowy scallops held much more flavor than the shrimp and mussels. The whole dish came together expertly, helped along by crisp snow peas and Chinese broccoli.
   We enjoyed a special of two-dozen clams nestled in their shells and blanketed by a lively black bean sauce ($13). Spicy dishes are marked with a star on the menu, and the faint of mouth should take notice. The clams have a pleasant tingle to them — until, that is, you bite into fiery chili pepper bits the size of confetti. Then the dish becomes a three-alarmer.
   Despite the myriad seafood temptations, we were intrigued by Lamb Double Feature ($13). For this, a large platter is divided down the middle by decorative orange slices, one side mounded with bite-size pieces of thin, boneless lamb stir-fried in the most aromatic of sweet basil sauces. Its mirror image has the same cut of lamb stir-fried in a spicy garlic sauce with spears of tender Chinese eggplant. Sweet and spicy; yin and yang — I loved every morsel of it.
   Ditto the chicken and eggplant with garlic sauce ($10), whose boneless white-meat chicken prompted our group to conjure as many synonyms for light as we could (buoyant, ethereal, weightless).
   Such deftness in the kitchen is the work of owner-chef Tom Chu, who earned his stripes at Princeton’s popular Sunny Garden. His other specials that evening included soft-shell crab in any of three ways (including my favorite, with ginger and scallions) and globetrotting dishes like Shrimp and Chicken Bahamas served with pineapple fried rice ($15).
   The menu also features a few Thai workhorses (curry and pad Thai), an avocado salad and at least one Westernized dessert. Fried ice cream ($4.25) begins as the usual ball of vanilla ice cream coated with crushed cereal, but here it arrives at the table aflame with rum and sitting in a pool of chocolate sauce. Fresh, perfectly ripe pineapple ($3.25), a perfect ending to a meal here, is carved into a pretty boat shape.
   Seafood Empire’s décor is what I call New Chinese Restaurant: bland and inoffensive. Fish tanks stocked with striped bass, tilapia and lobsters provide the only decorative interest, which is preferable to the old-style red-flocked kitsch. Our servers were kind and helpful, but it took unconscionably long between placing our order and receiving our appetizers even though the room, which seats about 100, was not completely full on the Sunday night of our visit.
   I was surprised to discover that Seafood Empire has been around for more than three years. That’s three years I could have been recommending it to one and all.
Pat Tanner’s reviews can be heard on Dining Today, Sat. 9-10 a.m. on MoneyTalk 1350 AM and 1040 AM.
For directions to Seafood Empire, click here.