San nin faai lok! There is a bit of a 1990s Golden Century vibe to Beverly Hills 888 Classic Chinese Seafood Restaurant, which inclined me to like it right away. The interior is a clean, bright white with splashes of colour. Down one side, a series of small private rooms are filled with Chinese family groups: two-up tables like our own are very rare. Down the front there’s a grand, backlit marble counter and bar lined with Lunar New Year themed red boxes of Penfolds 389. Despite the fancy wine, you are also welcome to BYO ($10/bottle).
We were greeted and seated very quickly, supplied with peanuts and a mostly-translated plastic sheet of specials plus a photographed menu book that wasn’t so large as to be overwhelming. Beverly Hills 888 is a live seafood specialist—the market price menu is right by the tanks—with its large open-plan dining room accessible from both front and rear. Out back there’s a dedicated free parking area that packs in a lot of cars but is serviced by an attendant to help you enter and leave.
Mongolian lamb pancakes ($28.80/6) arrive on a trolley with a staff member to plate them up. The resulting half dozen pliable pancakes come well stuffed with shredded shallots and tender meat. Curry king prawns ($38.80) have that golden Keen’s Curry Powder hue, with crisp broccoli and capsicum dotted throughout the silky, thickened gravy. The crustaceans have good bite over pineapple fried rice ($28.80) that impressed more with wok-fried cabbage than bright fruit. Like the large tables, the dishes here are predicated on group dining, so we ended up taking home a fair amount of Sichuan wok-fried steak ($33.80) with dried and fresh chillies, ginger and ma la spicing (hot and numbing). I’m not complaining, the tender hunks of beef were spicy and delicious. Fortune cookies and fruit are a given. Next visit: live pipis and steamed ginger-soy abalone…
