This seafood restaurant is a short drive away from Lover’s Bay on Neipi Beach, and is a popular destination for lunch or dinner after a stroll along the beach.

This is recommended by our driver, 李大哥 (Brother Lee), and we went with it as we have learnt to trust the choice and reviews of local residents.

It’s a very old school traditional seafood restaurant, and only about half the restaurant was filled when we arrived. Other than our table, all the other patrons were locals, so we were at least comforted that this is not some over-hyped tourist trap.

Another telltale sign is the fact that the menu was handwritten in traditional Chinese, and the name of this restaurant is not available on Google maps in English.

When we were there, the shop appeared to be manned by a local proprietress and her foreign staff (our guess is she is a Myanmese lady) who spoke pretty good Chinese.

The staff communicated with us and the kids in Chinese only, despite the fact that our kids were speaking in English, so there is a good chance that they don’t speak much English.

Other than the handwritten menu, there is also a picture menu, but we quickly learnt that neither of these are the actual menus, and we observed no other printed menus.

You could point to any item on these boards and request for the dish and they probably will be able to make it for you, but their actual menu is really the seafood on display.

When you are ready to order, the proprietress will bring you to the front for the shop, gesture at the fresh seafood on display for you to take your pick, and then she will note down your preference on how you want it cooked on a pink slip of paper.

I don’t cook Chinese cuisine much, hence I was not able to match the fishes in their raw state to the cooked forms even if I have eaten them before, so I took some wild guesses, but mostly just went with the proprietress’ recommendations. The proprietress would gesture at some fish, and then suggest the cooking style, and I just nodded along.

Once the order is placed, the proprietress will then pick up your choices and weigh them, and these will be charged to your bill accordingly.

The fresh steamed prawns were among my two favourite dishes here. The prawns were plump, sweet, and juicy, and I enjoyed the taste enough that I did not reach for the dipping sauce. It’s the first time I’ve been served wasabi in soy sauce with prawns, although I’m skeptical about this combination.

Omelette is a must order with kids – you can choose to have it fried with prawns, spring onions, or just have it plain.

The clams were sweet and fresh, and because we asked for it to be non-spicy, the children had most of them. I would have liked to try it in a spicy sauce.

I’m afraid I cannot remember what fish this was, but it was a bunch of tiny fish coated in batter and deep fried. The proprietress recommended this dish because of the children, and it was a good call because they enjoyed it, particularly with the salt and pepper dip.

You might notice a metal bowl of rice on the table – unlike what we see in most restaurants in Singapore, they don’t serve/charge for rice by the bowl here. They serve you hot steamed rice in a large metal bowl, which is passed around for everyone to scoop as much or as little as they want. I think it’s a great way to reduce wastage and ensures that everyone is able to eat their fill!

Full steamed fish – freshly caught from the sea! Again, unfortunately I did not catch the name of any of the fishes – the proprietress blabbered away at many fish names while I mostly nodded away. The fish was nicely cooked, hence the meat was tender, and not tough.

This was another time of fish, cut into slices, coated with batter, and deep fried. This was again a recommendation of the proprietress, but I found it a little too fishy for my taste.

Today was the day I regretted not being more specific or asking more questions when she suggested seaweed soup. This was just a tad fishy – I don’t think the problem lies with the seaweed – it tasted exactly how it was supposed to taste, but I was expecting a flat sheet type of wake typically used in miso soups and has less of a fishy taste.

Very surprisingly, our favourite dish at this seafood restaurant, was the grilled pork belly slices. The proprietress was overly enthusiastic about her range of fresh seafood that she neglected to recommend the other items her shop offers.

Luckily my eagle eyed sister spotted it on the picture menu and requested for it. It had a grilled, slightly charred taste, and was generously seasoned. I don’t know if it’s the quality of the meat or cos it’s cut into thin slices or the way it was grilled, cut it didn’t leave behind the feeling of oily discomfort I get when eating very oily foods. This is the first dish I would order if I were to come back to this restaurant.

📍 紅龍活海鮮

No. 59 Yugang Rd
Su’ao Township
Yilan County
Taiwan 270