Steam Era Seafood KL

[Non-halal] Have you ever tried freshly steamed prawn mantis?

We’ve eaten cooked prawn mantis numerous times at dai chows, but this was the first time we ate whole prawn mantis steamed over porridge.

Steam Era Seafood in Pudu

Operating since 2015, Steam Era Seafood specialises in fresh seafood steamed over claypot porridge.

This restaurant is located on Jalan Imbi and is a 5-minute walk from TRX and Pavilion KL. It is also located just behind Soo Kee’s Son Beef Noodles (see our post here).

Soo Kee’s Son (Meng Chuan) Prawn and Beef Noodles

This place is quite popular with both locals and tourists. In fact, the restaurant was fully booked for Mother’s Day when we visited it for dinner.

The specialty here are the fresh seafood on offer with plenty of tanks featuring crabs, shellfish and fishes for order. Highlights include a huge Alaskan king crab, lobsters and XXXL crabs.

Freshly steamed seafood over porridge

We were recommended the Dried Scallop Porridge with Pumpkin and Iberico Pork Ribs (RM28 for small).

Here’s how it works: you order any number of fresh seafood that are steamed directly over the porridge. Hence, any juices from the seafood will fall into the porridge during the cooking process – which you can enjoy at the end of the meal.

Steamed Tiger Prawns and Squid

To kick things off, we ordered 300g of Fresh Tiger Prawns (RM53.40) which yielded nine large crustaceans.

These live prawns were tossed into the steamer and it took about five minutes to fully cook. All the cooking is done by the staff. To be sure, the prawns were fresh and sweet – albeit slightly overcooked.

Nevertheless, these are best enjoyed with the wide range of sauces that you can take from the condiment counter. The best condiment had to be the special sauce, which had a good combo of sweet, savoury, tanginess and spice.

We thought the Fresh Squid with Garlic and Glass Noodles (RM38) was on point.

The squid were steamed perfectly for a lovely firm but chewy texture, and seasoned enough with garlic that we could enjoy it without any sauce.

Steamed whole mantis prawn

The highlight of the meal had to be the steamed Whole Mantis Prawn (RM58.80 per 100g).

Freshly scooped out of the tank and steamed – the prawn was incredibly sweet and fresh.

The texture was a unique combo of lobster and prawns – and it was best enjoyed with just a dip of soy sauce.

The Steamed Dragon Chives (RM18) was just OK – and it served its function as fibre.

At the end of the meal, the porridge had absorbed all the lovely essence of the tiger prawns, mantis prawn and squid. But there are enhancements from pumpkin, Iberico ribs and dried scallops.