Yummy Seafood and Masthai Seafood - spot the difference in Beverly Hills

Every couple of weeks, I return to the 'home' to visit and have dinner with my family.  I'm fortunate that they live near the 'Eat Street' of the southern suburbs, and that the street has so many good restaurants on it.  I'm talking about King Georges Road, Beverly Hills.

The Chinese restaurants here are not the usual suburban ones, though; you know, the ones that have a fork and spoon beside the chopsticks on the tables.  They are often packed on a Sunday night with families getting stuck into the Cantonese cuisine, prepared in a Hong Kong style.  And you know what they say about Chinese restaurants that are full of Chinese people...

There is a triangle at the top of King Georges Road that has a cluster of good restaurants.  We usually go to the same ones, including Rising Sun and Peking Duck, which I've talked about before.
The past few weeks, we've gone to Yummy Seafood Chinese and Masthai Seafood.

Yummy Chinese Seafood is opposite Rising Sun, and is just as popular.  The atmosphere here is better, in my opinion, being less crowded and cleaner.  They do take bookings though it doesn't make much difference because you'll probably have to wait for your table anyway (frustrating but unavoidable).

Typical interior shots of Yummy Seafood - lots of seafood ('market prices') on the menu, and fish tanks out the front.  It's always crowded with Sunday-night diners.
The food is great, with the standard dishes done well, with good serving sizes.

Complimentary soup always gets points, and Yummy's one tonight was pork-based, with lots of unidentified 'bits' in it - tasty.  My favourite dish here is the Wasabi Beef - chargrilled tender beef pieces with a wasabi mayonnaise.  The heavenly tofu (not sure if that's its actual name) is poached egg white mixed with tofu with seafood (scallops and prawns) and veges (mushroom, carrot and asparagus) on top. 

The whole fish was from the tank and they had a special on it for $25 per fish.  All up, these dishes, plus rice and tea came to under $80 for 4 people.  Note that the lobster was popular here - virtually every second table had a large platter of stir-fried lobster/crayfish brought to it.

Then, 2 weeks later, we had a similar meal at Masthai Seafood Restaurant a few doors down.  Equally delicious and good value for money. 

Masthai is not a Thai restaurant, although there is a Thai-looking wall-hanging on the wall. It's Cantonese, again, with the obligatory fish tanks in attendance.

This time, we had steamed chicken with shallot (tender but bony), seafood and tofu hotpot (full of fish pieces, scallop, char sui pork and tofu), and, yet again, the fish special, which was, surprise, barramundi. 

The method of cooking at Masthai and Yummy is identical to me, so the fish tasted the same at both places, ie. pretty darn good.  Rather than plain boiled rice, we had Fukien fried rice with the meal - this is fried rice with a moistening of sauce, and boy, is it fantastic!  Probably not quite healthy, but I could eat this all the time.

There is no complimentary soup at Masthai (no points from the parent), but they do have fruit and sweet red bean soup at the end of the meal (points are restored!),  The meal, plus tea came to under $80 for 4 people. Ooh, deja vu...

So, even if you are not from the area, it's worth making the trip to try the food in Beverly Hills. There is also a sprinkling of non-Chinese places, including Rhinedorf (hearty German), Taj (Indian), D to D (pleasant cafe), Casa della (pizza) and Lulu's (patisserie).  And lots more Thai and Chinese further down the road.  A proper eat street.

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant is at 503 King Georges Rd, Beverly Hills NSW. Ph: 02 9580 0788

Masthai Seafood Restaurant is at 495 King Georges Rd, Beverly Hills NSW.  Ph: 02 9580 5609