Margo's: Hot Seafood Platter

Location: Gaming Area, Crown Entertainment Complex
Link: www.crowncasino.com.au/.../Margos_alacarte_Menu_30Aug09.pdf
Cuisine: Grill, Seafood

Having talked about this for ages, I've finally tried the seafood platter at Margo's!

Hot seafood platter for two

The platter came in two-tiers, and included:

• Half a grilled crayfish
• An entire fish
• 6 oysters Kilpatrick
• 4 pieces of grilled calamari
• 6 x prawns
• 4 x scallops
• 6 x mussels
• 4 pieces of crab legs
• Thousand island sauce
• Garlic aioli/tartare sauce
• Plenty of lemons

In addition to all the above, we were also given a bowl of shoestring fries and a bowl of garden salad. We didn't touch many of the fries as they were a little on the dry side and not quite flavoured enough.

The bottom tier

The platter was extremely good value for money, especially since it includes an entire fish and half a crayfish. The oysters Kilpatrick were amazing. There was plenty of flavour in the sauce which was able to cover up most of the fishy taste from the oysters (ie: not exactly the freshest oysters I've had, but certainly very close). The fish was also very nice and fresh. A lot of the seafood was a slightly overcooked - the meat from the crayfish and prawns were quite tough and chewy, The crab was slighltly crumbly which was not really expected. The scallops and mussels were very nice, a tad overcooked, but tasted beautifully with a squeeze of lemon.

And yes, we did finish off the entire platter!

The place was bustling, and considerable noisy. If you're looking for a quiet night, this is not the place to be - the waiters rush around all over the place but they at least keep the place in order. However, the service was pretty prompt despite the platter coming out later than expected.

I will be back again, but not for a long while and probably just to get the crayfish mornay again! I think for lobster and crab, I'm going to just go back to KunMing in Chinatown, or go somewhere more local.

Overall Impression: 8.5/10