Seafood Cove Restaurant, Garden Grove

[hzrt8w]

Seafood Cove Restaurant (Chinese food)

8547 Westminster Ave

Garden Grove, CA 92844

714-895-7964

I went back to Seafood Cove Restaurant, Garden Grove, during a recent trip after 4 years from my last visit. The food is great as ever with reasonable prices.

The outside shot of the restaurant.

I haven't quite seen any Chinese restaurant with the traditional big doors like this in the USA.

After 4 years, their menu has not changed (except the prices). Instead of reprinting, just tape over the old price! Easy. New offers? Just print a new little section and glue it over the old ones.

Their menu is printed in 4 languages: English, Chinese, Vietnamese and... the fourth one is Malay I think, but not sure.

Clams stir-fried with chili peppers and Thai basils. This is very nicely done. A little Thai/Vietname touch as Chinese don't usually use Thai basils in their cooking. Taste so good!

If you ever dine at Seafood Cove, You've got to try this dish. It is one of their signature offers, which they call "House Special Chicken". (You can order beef, pork, mussels, etc.) The taste is so unique, I have not seen anything similar offered in other Chinese restaurants. I tasted a small trace of butter in it.

Sea Cucumbers Braised In Brown Sauce. This dish is okay but not as good as the other two.

This restaurant has a lot more to offer. The menu has close to 300 items listed. Many are traditional Cantonese recipes but there are also a few with Vietnamese/Thai touches - which I like. Something different.

Dinner for two, under US$30.

Edited January 8, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[savvysearch]

Seafood Cove Restaurant (Chinese food)

8547 Westminster Ave

Garden Grove, CA 92844

714-895-7964

I went back to Seafood Cove Restaurant, Garden Grove, during a recent trip after 4 years from my last visit.  The food is great as ever with reasonable prices. 

The outside shot of the restaurant.

I haven't quite seen any Chinese restaurant with the traditional big doors like this in the USA.

After 4 years, their menu has not changed (except the prices).  Instead of reprinting, just tape over the old price!  Easy.  New offers?  Just print a new little section and glue it over the old ones.

Their menu is printed in 4 languages:  English, Chinese, Vietnamese and... the fourth one is Malay I think, but not sure.

Clams stir-fried with chili peppers and Thai basils.  This is very nicely done.  A little Thai/Vietname touch as Chinese don't usually use Thai basils in their cooking. Taste so good!

If you ever dine at Seafood Cove, You've got to try this dish.  It is one of their signature offers, which they call "House Special Chicken".  (You can order beef, pork, mussels, etc.)  The taste is so unique, I have not seen anything similar offered in other Chinese restaurants.  I tasted a small trace of butter in it.

Sea Cucumbers Braised In Brown Sauce.  This dish is okay but not as good as the other two.

This restaurant has a lot more to offer.  The menu has close to 300 items listed. Many are traditional Cantonese recipes but there are also a few with Vietnamese/Thai touches - which I like.  Something different.

Dinner for two, under US$30.

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This is really an amazing restaurant. The menu is so extensive, yet everything that I tried was top notch the last time I was there. It's too bad OC doesn't have a vocal food culture because this restaurant needs to be championed.

[SiseFromm]

We're constantly looking for good Chinese food so we'll definitely check this one out. This week is packed full but we'll catch it next week.

[leviathan]

I went back to Seafood Cove Restaurant, Garden Grove, during a recent trip after 4 years from my last visit.  The food is great as ever with reasonable prices. 

Yeah, it definitely hasn't changed much but its not quite as busy as it used to be. I remember when there was no space for parking, and you'd have to wait 15-20 minutes for them to call your name. The food hasn't really changed or suffer in quality, but the customers have certainly declined and gone elsewhere to eat. Maybe, that's the problem. While new restaurants arose, Seafood Cove stayed the same. I don't know if its the same dynamic for Chinese restaurants, but with western cusine, a place needs to evolve to a certain degree. Or, maybe, there's just more competition and more restaurants. Although, now, I'm curious where all the customers go to eat now.

And, regarding 300 items, how do they do that? Wouldn't it be better to edit the dishes down to a smaller number, where you concentrate on what your best dishes are and help reduce inventory costs.

[hzrt8w]

......

And, regarding 300 items, how do they do that? Wouldn't it be better to edit the dishes down to a smaller number, where you concentrate on what your best dishes are and help reduce inventory costs.

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Well, many of the 300 items are repetition of the same style with different meat (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, scallop, fish, mussel, etc.). So there are probably 50 to 70 different styles. But, still, pretty impressive.

No worry about the inventory. The basic ingredients used in Chinese restaurants are all the same. It is the use of different sauces and the process (steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, braised, etc.) that make the difference.

Except some special dishes, such as Peking duck.

[leviathan]

Well, many of the 300 items are repetition of the same style with different meat (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, scallop, fish, mussel, etc.).  So there are probably 50 to 70 different styles.  But, still, pretty impressive.

No worry about the inventory.  The basic ingredients used in Chinese restaurants are all the same.  It is the use of different sauces and the process (steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, braised, etc.) that make the difference.

Except some special dishes, such as Peking duck.

I can see your point, but I was thinking more in terms of quality of the menu, where its better to concentrate on a limited number of good dishes rather than a longer list of mediocre dishes. This way, a customer is less likely going to encounter a mediocre dish if the restaurant edits down its choices.

I think I read in some of your older threads that you used to work in a Chinese restaurant. You should join us in this thread, and offer us some of your insights:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=98909

[savvysearch]

Well, many of the 300 items are repetition of the same style with different meat (chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, scallop, fish, mussel, etc.).  So there are probably 50 to 70 different styles.  But, still, pretty impressive.

No worry about the inventory.  The basic ingredients used in Chinese restaurants are all the same.  It is the use of different sauces and the process (steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, braised, etc.) that make the difference.

Except some special dishes, such as Peking duck.

I can see your point, but I was thinking more in terms of quality of the menu, where its better to concentrate on a limited number of good dishes rather than a longer list of mediocre dishes. This way, a customer is less likely going to encounter a mediocre dish if the restaurant edits down its choices.

I think I read in some of your older threads that you used to work in a Chinese restaurant. You should join us in this thread, and offer us some of your insights:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=98909

←

With such a long list, it should be mediocre, but what makes this restaurant so fantastic is that with such a range, they can still deliver on most of what's on their list. If they have a bad dish, I've been lucky that I haven't found it yet.

[leviathan]

With such a long list, it should be mediocre, but what makes this restaurant so fantastic is that with such a range, they can still deliver on most of what's on their list. If they have a bad dish, I've been lucky that I haven't found it yet.

I've eaten there a number of times, but I usually stick to the same dishes so I don't how well they execute all the other dishes on their menu. In fact, I remember when it was Seafood Paradise across the street that got all the business and would send overflowing customers to Cove, which I believe was its little sister station. But, then Cove was sold off, and the new owners just used the exact dinner dinner dishes Paradise used for its lunch specials and so then everybody started to go to eat at Cove instead of Paradise. Last time I went to Paradise, the dishes were different and more influenced by Thai.