South Sea Seafood Village Restaurant Review, Millbrae

South Sea Seafood Village took the place of Fook Yuen Seafood Restaurant in Millbrae in February 2010. Fook Yuen was a long standing Chinese restaurant in Millbrae that acquired a good reputation over the years. South Sea Seafood also has a location in San Francisco’s Sunset district. Millbrae is home to many fine Cantonese Chinese restaurant including Asian Pearl Peninsula and Zen Peninsula. With such high powered competition we wondered how they would position themselves. We came for dinner last in early 2012, and returned for dim sum Lunch last in 2011.

Be sure to read our Introduction to Chinese Dim Sum.

Decor, Vibe – South Sea Seafood Village’s interior has been totally redone and looks like a classic upscale Chinese restaurant with slight gaudiness. Very fancy Chinese tables with ornate carvings, and lots of artifacts on the walls. The restaurant was full mostly Asian and mostly large tables of folks. No doubt people curious and drawn by the location’s past.

South Sea Seafood Village Menu Pictures (Click to zoom into any picture)

South Sea Seafood Village Menu contains classic Chinese Cantonese food with an emphasis on fresh seafood. Their lunch menu features a wide variety of dim sum including some more exotic items not available elsewhere. They have servers running around with trays of dim sum plus you can order off the checklist.

We notice many tables had ordered lobster two ways for lunch.

Full South Sea Seafood Village Picture Set

Website South Sea Seafood Village Menu

Lunch Picks:

Steamed shrimp dumplings ($3.90) four very good sized balls of wonderness with very good flavor and solid ingredients. One of the better ones locally.

Spinach shrimp dumpling ($3.10) had three good sized dumplings with a balance of shrimp and vegetables. Nicely done although one split open when served.

Fried Meat Pastry (Ham Soi Gok) ($3.10) – Also Fresh and hot out of the fryer. Crunchy, greasy. Good meat filling.

Shrimp Rice Noodle (Shrimp Chung Fun) ($3.90) – Good, large amount of shrimp, a bit on the oily side.

Steam Sticky Rice Wrapped in Lotus leaf ($3.90) – The 3 were fairly large and filled with not a lot of stuff. Average.

Sesame Balls ($2.50) – Very Warm, not straight out of the fryer. Filling was not too sweet. Pretty solid version.

Pumpkin puff ($3.10) had 3 cute and very tasty balls filled with soft pumpkin filling, and coated with a crispy layer on the outside.

Lunch OK:

Steamed Pork Buns ($2.50) – 3 reasonably sizes ones to an order. Texture and meat were okay. Not a lot of meat.

Scallop Rice noodle ($3.90) was not as good as the shrimp version. Although there was a lot of scallop, its flavor was masked.

Lunch Pans:
Dumpling in Zhu Zhou style ($3.10) was totally botched and smelled sour after we took a small bite, forcing us to send it back.

Dinner Picks:

House Appetizer BBQ assortment ($18.50) was decent, good quantity on all item, very nice roast duck, roast pork or char siu was fair, pale looking yet very good roast pork.

Westlake soup ($11.50) Minced beef, cilantro, green onion, egg drop, and mushrooms was a solid version.

Combination Dry Scallop soup ($14.50) was decent with some solid flavor, shredded chicken, and lots of sliced mushrooms.

Peking Duck 2 ways ($29.50) was pretty good. First course was the usual skin with steamed buns. Lots of fast but that’s what makes it good!

Second style were minced with pine nuts and served with lettuce cups. Excellent implementation with good flavors. They actually charged us $0.50 for additional lettuce cups. Pretty bad policy for folks that have ordered a good amount of items.

Beef Brisket Casserole was excellent. Tender long cooked fatty beef bathed in a robust broth.

Seafood pan fried noodle ($11.50) was a good dish with crunchy noodles, lots of bok choy and a good smathering of scallops, shrimp and the like.

Minced Garlic Pea shoots ($12) were very good. Pretty big mound, very fresh, not too greasy.

Free red bean dessert soup if you ask for it.

OK:

Salt and pepper Squid ($9.50) was average. Crispy, lean, thin squid that was not very tender.

Coffee Ribs were average.  Koi Palace does this far better.

Pea Shoots in Supreme broth ($13) had fresh vegetables but an unsupreme bland broth.

Pans:

Braised Squab Osmanthus ($15) was fair. It is a signature dish and came as one bird on a tiny plate. Slightly undercooked.

Tofu with pea shoots had dismal shriveled up tofu.

Pot stickers ($6.50 for 6pieces) were good size but fair in quality, not juicy either.

South Sea Seafood Village has nice decor, slightly higher prices, decent food, but terrible service. We had to hail them multiple times to get things done. They even left us with tiny plates for the duration of the meal. They are clearly still getting in sync. On our return trip for an early dim sum lunch, the service was fine.

There really isn’t precise reason to eat at South Sea Seafood Village when you can hit nearby Asian Pearl Peninsula and get far better food and service. A place like this would fit far better in a locale with limited Chinese food options. Dim Sum Lunch was better, perhaps because they fixed their initial glitches. Prices and selection at lunch are pretty good.

Also at:
1420 Irving Street
San Francisco, CA 94122
415-665-8210

$25 Dining Certificate for $5

South Sea Seafood Village Overall Rating: (Good 2)

Come Back?

Food Rating:	(Good)
Service Rating:	(Average)
Atmosphere Rating:	(Very Good)
Value Rating:	(Good)

Guide: 0 = poor, 1 = Below/Average, 2 = Good, 2.5 = Very Good, 3 = Excellent , 4 = Extraordinary

Alcohol:	Beer, Wine
Attire:	Casual
Hours:	Mon-Fri 10am - 2:30pm, Sat-Sun/Holidays 9am - 3pm, Sun-Th 5-9:30pm, Fri-Sat 5-10pm
Parking:	Free Lot
Reservations:	Yes
Prices:	$6.50 - $48