10:00pm Wednesday 15th April 2009
EAST is a contemporary oriental and Malaysian buffet restaurant where you can eat for a fixed price.
Since myself and my date were watching a band that night, we were not in the mood for a long drawn out dinner. So we opted for East, in Alexandra Street, Southend, as a more casual alternative and it proved to be a great choice.
The restaurant is smart, bright, clean and modern, but on the downside the almost stark, canteen feel lacks a certain cosy ambience.
Tables are neatly placed around a long, central buffet, with a Tepanyaki and chef at the far side, where you choose from an array of raw fresh food to be cooked up before your eyes.
A concern with buffet venues is there will always be a few dried up unpopular dishes, but this wasn’t the case with East. Everything was fresh and cooked well and with speed.
There were plenty of dishes, around 60 in all, and it was good to know you could go up as often as you liked to try as many you like.
We opted for a mixture of appetisers to start. Everything was as tasty, fresh and cooked to as much perfection as any other highbrow oriental restaurant I have been to, particularly the satay chicken. The meat was juicy while the delicate spices and peanutty sweetness danced on the tongue.
Service was quick and no sooner had we placed chopsticks down, than our plates were snapped up and taken away.
Feeling already full, we went up for our main courses. I opted for the mussels in Thai chilli sauce. The mussels were gorgeous and the sauce tasted both clean and zingy fresh.
My date went for chicken in lemon sauce with barbecued roast pork. The pork pretty much the most amazing melt-in-your-mouth pork I have ever tasted.
Again, as soon as our chopsticks were placed down, the plates were taken away by a waitress who appeared from nowhere.
We decided we wouldn’t be doing the job properly without going for desert, but to be honest, both of us were too full to properly enjoy it.
Deserts consisted of a choice of ice creams, fruits, fritters and jellies. I opted for fruit which seemed a light choice, while my date went for ice cream and banana fritter, which was delicious and would have been more enjoyable if we had more room.
We struggled through it, agreeing that although the food was great value in terms of quality, there was only so much quantity you could eat.
I would definitely go again, simply to enjoy a great feed, before going on to another venue. It suited our evening perfectly, and next time I will be sure to try something from the Tepanyaki selection.
What we ate
Set price for Saturday night: £13.95 per head
Our verdict
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