Umbai

I haven't been to Umbai for many years. The first and the last time I went there was sometime in 2003. Even when we have moved to Melaka since January last year, we still did not go. The reasons are; we think is Umbai is quite a distant from our house, we heard that the food price is expensive over there and we have found another good place to eat seafood in Alai which is also nearer to our place. But when we heard that Umbai seafood restaurants now has been upgraded and looks superb, we wanted to go. So when Nazwan and Emma invited us to go with them, it was very welcomed.

It took us only 40 minutes from my house to get to Umbai (it isn't that far, huh?). Umbai looks totally different now (I hardly remember how Umbai looked like before the upgrading works). The whole things are actually a floating complex now, comprising the food courts, souvenirs stores, walkways, toilet and surau. There is a watching tower for those who want to view the sea. Basically, the place looks so prestigious and beautiful.

Sunset view in Umbai

It was time to choose the stall....Nazwan wanted to select the stall that had been recommended in the newspaper. There are more than 10 stalls to choose from and each stall offers the same things so if the newspaper had recommended one stall, it must be very outstanding (and so, we thought....) As we were there quite early (it was 7.30 pm), there were so much of seafood we can choose. So Emma and I had chosen the following menus based on the owner's recommendation : Ikan siakap bakar sambal, ikan jehanak masak tiga rasa, sotong goreng tepung, udang butter, kerang bakar, sup cendawan and otak2.

While waiting for the food to arrive, we took turn to do maghrib prayer. And by the time we finished praying, the foods arrived on our table. I was disappointed to see that the udang butter was not the udang butter I had in mind (the one with eggs+butter shreds and curry leaves on top of fried prawns). Instead, I think this udang butter is actually fried with butter, that's how they call it udang butter. Anyway, it tasted quite good. And we were surprised to see the kerang bakar. We ordered 0.5 kg for that, but we only saw it on a small oval plate. We thought there will be another plate to come but after a while there was nothing. So we called the waitress and asked about the kerang coz the no. of kerang on the plate didn't look 0.5 kg to us (I always buy kerang at the market and I know roughly how 0.5 kg looks like and too bad I didn't take photo of the kerang served to us). The ones on the plate, we could actually count how many were there. But the waitress confirmed that are all 0.5 kg kerang that we ordered. Well, what could we say, if they lie, then there's nothing we could do about it. The rest of the foods were ok, not that so superb. I guess because I always eat in Alai, I think the food in Alai is more delicious.

Emma, Nazwan and their cute daughter Erina

Asking for the bill was another problem. I guess we had asked nearly 5 times, each time they came they said they'll bring the bill shortly but after waiting quite sometime we had to call again. Finally the bill came, the amount was RM140...as much as we paid for 10 adults when we ate in Alai (I posted the entry here). Told you, it's expensive in Umbai.

But I guess coz the place is beautiful, probably that is why it is expensive here. For those who want to enjoy the sea breeze while dining and don't mind paying more, then this is the place. As for me, I've seen enough Umbai, so if I want to eat seafood, Alai is the place.