@movernie
Everyone knows how much I love to eat and how much I love my seafood. During this press trip in Dominica, we visited the “Lobster Palace”. Well…as its name sums it up, it serves lobsters and other fresh seafood. I mean, Dominica is a beautiful nature island, so there is an abundance of seafood.
The Lobster Palace is situated at the Sunset Bay Club & SeaSide Dive Resort. Basically, you can book a room to stay here at the resort, enjoy the beach front and also enjoy nice seafood meal on premise. It has everything that you need without the need to go elsewhere.
It took a while for me to look at the food menu, that’s coz there were so many food items that I wanted to order. But since I love lobsters and this place is called the Lobster Palace, it’s a no brainer to choose lobster as my main course.
To start, I ordered a glass of watermelon juice. The friendly staff told me that the watermelon juice was made from freshly squeezed watermelons. I love watermelons. Then, I ordered a fish soup as appetizer. And I ordered the pan fried lobsters as my entree.
The watermelon juice was super flavourful, fresh and sweet. I love the pulp from the watermelon. Then, the fish soup came. It had a lovely presentation. Instead of just serving the soup on a plate and bring it to the customers (which many restaurants do), the staff served the fish soup table side from a big silver pot, she slowly poured the fish soup onto my plate. I like the presentation. Soup was steamy hot, just the way I like it. I like soup that is steamy hot and there were lots of fish meat in the soup and it also came with 2 nicely toasted cheesy bread.
Spoiler ALERT: If you want surprises and don’t want to know about it, I suggest you to stop reading the rest of my MoVernie BLOG as it’s a spoiler alert to what happen next with my pan fried lobsters. But if you want to know what the surprise was, stay calm and read on!
So….4 out of the 5 people in our group ordered the pan fried lobsters. I was super excited as I wanted to try the island lobsters. The photo in the food menu indicated that the pan fried lobster dish comes with 2 halves and it’s about $37.50 USD.
But as the staff came out with the dish, there was ONLY 1 half of the lobster on each plate (please see the photo below). Each 4 of us had only a half of a tiny spiny lobster. We were shocked. One of the journalists asked the server, “Is this all we have for our lobster dish?”. The server responded with a straight face, “Yes! That’s all you have.”.
BEFORE: This is what it looks like when the server 1st brought out the pan fried lobster. 1 half of the lobster.
Meanwhile, I looked at my plate and was just shocked. I kept staring down at the lobster and said to myself, “Enjoy this plate of half lobster Vernon, which will cost me $34.50 USD”. You have to understand, this is my 1st time visiting this island, although seafood should be in abundance, I don’t know how often people ordered lobsters on the island and I wouldn’t know the normal market price.
But while I was super disappointed, I told myself, “It is what it is”. I mean, it’s a learning curve.
But just as I was still staring down at my only half lobster, surprise came! The same straight face server came back with a smile on her face as she brought out 2 full plates of lobsters. Each plate had about 6-8 half lobsters. You should look at the smiles and the excitement on our faces from the YouTube video I had posted above.
We were cheering! Wow! What a prank! I have never been pranked before by a restaurant staff. Just as I was super grateful that we have 2 big plates of lobsters to share among 3 other people, the surprise didn’t stop from there. It got even better!!
The server went back into the kitchen and brought back the 3rd and 4th plate of more lobsters!!!!! Are you kidding me? More lobsters? She said each order has about 6-8 half lobsters. Oh mind! Just visualize this, we went on a roller coaster of emotions, from thinking we only have a half lobster per person to a shit load of lobsters for each of us. Wow! I got to tell you, it was a good prank. They got us! They definitely got us!
A journalist asked the server what were some of the most memorable reactions from other patrons when they thought they only have 1 half of the lobster? She said, “One time, there was a group of people who stood up and walked out of the restaurant, after seeing only 1 half of the lobster on the plate”. I told her that you can’t blame them for having that type of reaction since it’s very rare a restaurant pull a prank on the patrons and many are tourists, they would have no idea how many lobsters on a plate. LOL
Anyhow, the pan fried lobsters were delicious, nicely pan fried with nice aroma and flavour. The lobsters were relatively smaller in the region and more spiny than the ones we have in Canada, but it’s juicy and tender since it’s smaller. The restaurant prank definitely was 1 of the highlights of our press trip. We will never forget about this dining experience.
To top that off, the server gave us a rum shot each. If you ever visit Dominica, 1 of the top qualities about this nature island is the PEOPLE. They are super friendly and the hospitality is top notch. Everywhere we go, they have smiles on their faces. They will give you a shot to drink or something to try. The positive island vibe definitely help makes the travel experiences memorable and fun!
Lobster Palace – Sunset Bay Club & SeaSide Dive Resort
Website: www.SunsetbayClub.com/Sunset
Phone: +1 767-446-6522
Dominica Authority (DDA)
Website: www.DiscoverDominica.com
Instagram: @DiscoverDominica
Facebook: @DiscoverDominica
Want to know more about my press trip experience and adventures during my visit in Dominica? Follow my journey on Instagram (@RealMoVernie) and Twitter (@MoVernie).
The visit to the Lobster Palace and this beautiful nature island of Dominica during this press trip was provided by Discover Dominica Authority (DDA). However, as always, the opinions expressed in this post is entirely my own.
