Hai Zhen Zhu – Live Seafood

Went to the New World Mall Food Court today and couldn’t find the place. I looked on a plan for #5 and found it boarded up with an eviction notice. I guess they’re gone. Too bad, I wanted so to try it out. I had the soup dumplings at Yoz instead and could only eat 4 of the 8, they were so filling. I went upstairs to J Market and noticed in the seafood dept. they had live lobsters in a tank for $ 4.99/lb. So if you’re willing to cook it yourself, you can have a 2 pounder for $ 10. Great deal.

Got the lobster here, because why not– they have like 20 lobsters swimming around in front of your eyes, ready to be eaten. They have an option to make it with a certain sauce/​oil, and I got the spicy sichuan option. I watched them plop the lobster on the cutting board and wash it, but didn’t get too much more of the show until it was already in pieces being breaded up.
The lobster comes out crispy with a tasty breaded coating. For $ 15, you get a decent amount of lobster that can be shared or eaten for two meals, which is great. (Side note: some posters comment on this being a «small» amount of lobster, but my amateur lobster-​eating self did not feel that way at all). One thing I did not like was how the breaded coating is basically only coating the hard shell, which you remove anyway. In addition, most of my time was spend trying to take the damn thing out of the shell, without the help of any tools other than my bare hands. I’d recommend taking a few minutes to de-​shell it in advance, and then devouring it after wiping your hands clean. Lastly, the sauce/​oil was so oily that I was kind of shying away from using it much– maybe its purpose is more for infusion during the cooking process, but they give yo enough in the tray to makes it seem you should be using it while eating. I tried using it like a butter dipping sauce but for some reason it just didn’t feel right.
Given the bang for your buck, would go back (after trying other things in the food court), but probably order something else since the rest of the seafood seems to be pretty cheap as well.

Ordered the live lobster. Saw the chef take the lobster out of the tank and quickly prepared it for cooking. Minutes later had ginger scallion lobster. Was very fresh (and I have been to restaurants where the lobster must have been in the tank for months). The meat was tender and succulent. For $ 15 bucks, got a very good value.
True you can find others which provide better value. But if you are in flushing, this is the place to go.

$ 13 for one lobster with fried rice sounded too good to be true. I was totally right. We got one ginger and scallion lobster, which tasted delicious but the lobster was so tiny it barely had any meat inside. Lesson learned.

This is place is great for fresh seafood but the quantity is a bit small. For 15 bucks here you only get one lobster. At Big Wong in Chinatown you can get two lobsters for 20 bucks.
I did come here the other day with my gf and we shared the soft shell crab for around 10 bucks. That too was small but we were very full from having our own hand pulled noodles elsewhere. The variety and flavors is there but the portion is lacking even with the rice and soup. But, I’d still hit this place every time I’m at the new world mall.

At one point in time, Live Seafood (aka Hai Zhen Zhu) was the most popular stall in New World Mall Food Court. There would be lines upon lines and an absurd wait time for what was at the time the best deal for a whole lobster, pickled veggies, a side of house soup, with a choice of noodle or rice. Total price? $ 11.50. A deal? More like a steal.
Things have changed considerably since. In just over a year, the price has inflated to $ 17.50 and noodle and soup are no longer part of the package. If the lobsters were larger, the price would faze fewer folks. In Flushing, price matters, and for Chinese folks, it may be the difference between one stall and the next. As a result of the price increase, the wait time is virtually nil.
The lobsters are still served a variety of ways from deep fried with salt and pepper (HK style) to a classic flavor in ginger and scallion. Combos now include an underwhelming helping of rice and salad. They used to sell out of the lobster by the evening hour, Id be surprised if they still have that problem now.
For folks bot feeling the lobster lovefest, there are other options as well. The soft shell crab is a huge hit, especially HK style with just a little hot sauce in the side. Mussels combos are decent but most are here for lobster. Lobsters aren’t large enough to be filling unfortunately, they’d last 3 – 5 minutes for any hungry, seafood loving feaster.

I thought this was suppose to be a good deal.
I got a lobster for $ 15. It was fresh, that much is true. I saw the guy grab the lobster from the tank and quickly chopped it into pieces.
I got it Hong Kong style, which is fried with salt and pepper.
The lobster was juicy and perfectly seasoned. However, the size was underwhelming. I ate the whole thing in just a matter of minutes.
The rice and salad were tasteless. In fact, I will even go as far as to say that they visually handicap the plate.
I may come here again if I felt like eating lobster and happened to be in the area. However, I would not come to Flushing just for this.

Good stuff! this place known for their whole lobster, rice and salad for $ 13.50. But i came for the clams, rice and salad. you can choose between 5 different sauces. i got the basil sauce and it was great! for $ 10 i got about 20 clams, rice and salad. what a great bargain. im was still a little hungry after because seafood is lean but oh wells! i got a great price for the food

Love this place!
First time i came here I think i was a little out of place ethnicity wise, but the young women at the counter were welcoming, smiling and encouraging. I had heard great things from previous Unilocalers so i was excited.
I ordered the lobster spicy sichuan style and basically haven’t stopped. Only down side it it’s greasy but who cares? add all that grease to the rice and I am a happy camper. Take it home for later or the day after and still pretty damn delicious. Just heat in the oven and you are golden. Those lobsters are succulent and fresh and so expertly cooked that my cousin who barely eats anything finished his whole order (to my chagrin as i was really eyeing his left overs).
Needless to say, I wish i lived in flushing once again just for that place!!!

Great food, cooked to order so fresh.
I’ve eaten the the lobsters prepared Hong Kong style, xo, spicy sichuan, and ginger and scallion. My absolute favorite is the spicy sichuan. If you like black bean style, the closest one is the XO sauce.. The fried rice is yummy salad is no good. I ordered the softshell crab last week Hong kong style and it melt in my mouth! I have a sensitive stomach, and if the restaurant is dirty, I get sick right away, I’ve eaten here about a dozen times with no problems. Great place best in the new world mall food court

The lobster was tasty (a bit too oily for me) and reasonably priced at $ 12.50. The rice and salad/​slaw was terrible and bland.

My daughter and I went here for lunch and ordered the lobster combo special and flounder combo. I ordered the lobster with ginger and scallions and she ordered her flounder HK style, which was salt and pepper. They messed up her flounder order and it came out XO Sauce. They asked if we wanted it, but we said we’d prefer it HK style. They redid her order. While the cook was putting her order into the take out box, he dropped the cabbage that was in the box onto his counter top. Rather than throwing it out, he picked it up and plopped it back in there. Kind of gross for an A graded place! I told my daughter not to eat the cabbage because of that. Let the eater beware! She liked her flounder and rice. It was pretty tasty. I LOVE my lobster. It was nice and tasty and well worth the $ 11.50! Will definitely return next time I’m in the neighborhood. I was pretty impressed that the cashier recognized that they messed up the flounder order and corrected it. I would’ve given it 5 stars but I am knocking it off because of the cabbage incident.

where on earth can you go to get lobster cooked for you and have it cost under $ 15??? NO WHERE!!! okay i lied, maybe in chinatown theres some restaurants that do 2 lobsters for $ 20 but in a food court in flushing, this is the only place! tasty too! they have different sauces and styles to choose from so sample away! oh and they DO sell out of lobsters and whatever other seafood so get there early!

This stall caught my eye when I was going around trying to look for a decent food to munch for a late lunch. The menu was simple .Live lobsters, Soft Shell Crabs, Craw fish, Crabs, Shrimps, and Flounder… you can mix & match… .I had the Lobster Combo. cooked battered deep fried HongKong style and. comes with Vegetable Fried Rice & Coleslaw Salad… I finished the whole plate… not because it was good but because I was hungry… The lobster was too greasy… it was practically drenched in oil and the salad… was soggy…
I went back the following day and tried the Lobster combo again, this time I had it cooked with Ginger & Scallion… came out better… much more tastier and delicious. …there were 5 choices of how you want your lobster cook and this was the most popular… The prices were very reasonable…$ 15.00 for the lobster combo, and the most expensive in their menu. The soft shell crabs looks good… I have to try that some other time…
This Live Seafood stall stands tall. Live crawling Lobster & Crabs… can’t come fresher than these… It’s worth the trip… so far my favorite stall at the mall…

$ 15 for a lobster meal? Not too shabby. On a day when we were yet again exploring the amazing food scene in Flushing, Live Seafood was firmly on top of our hit list.
To order, you simply pick your choice of seafood and prep style from a chart on their store front:
I got the Lobster combo HK style and my friend got the Seafood Mix combo with garlic and scallion. We had my friend’s 3 year old sharing with us so we needed to get non-​spicy food and got those styles per the staff’s recommendations. The dishes came with rice (you can choose white or fried) and lettuce salad. The HK style was fried with shallots while the garlic & scallion style was more saucy — both were good. We had a lot of eating to do on this day so we skipped the rice but the lettuce salad, which I can only describe as cole slaw, was very good.
I realize they have raised their prices by quite a bit since when they first started but $ 15 still seemed like a pretty good value to me. As long as they don’t raise it further, I will definitely be back for more!

Live Seafood STALL? Can it get any better? I have seen many Asian food court stalls but this is the first of its kind that I have encountered. I find it very refreshing in originality, taste, and concept. What a better way to have a street food-​type of live, fresh lobster/​crustacean food? You don’t even have to pay top dollar or go to a really fancy restaurant to have lobster which is one of the best parts.
ATMOSPHERE:
Located as one of the stalls of the Flushing Golden Mall Food Court. The whole food court is a large, open, clean, casual setting to eat and select from a whole arsenal of delicious, different and authentic style food from different parts of Asia.
FOOD:
For me, this could not get any better. A store which serves fresh crab, lobster, crawfish? and other seafood at an affordable price. I do not need all the fancy-​smancy gormet food that’s going to cost me 30 – 40 bucks. This will hit the spot for me any day! They have many different styles of cooking and preparing the food and you can choose. I believe there was something like a basil style as an example. I chose to get my seafood hong kong style which is a batter fried type which was SO delicious. I ordered soft shell crab for my first time as I was with friends and didn’t really want to get too dirty breaking the shells and getting messy. The flavor was so good and was served with some mayonnaise based salad and some fried rice. I could honestly eat that once a week and not be tired of this place.
SUMMARY:
FRESH, LIVE Seafood? What more can you ask for? I know another reviewer said the price fluctuates at different times of the year but isn’t that normal with market based food like lobster? Whether its in season or not makes a difference to the price and how much they can sell it for. I went in August and the lobster combo was going for $ 13 and the soft shell combo went for approximately $ 8. Really tasty, fresh and affordable for what you are getting in my opinion. A definite must have and try for anyone who loves seafood!

This place is always hopping, with tanks of live lobsters to attract the customers who are being assaulted by all the sights and smells that New World Mall’s food court has to offer. They offer live lobsters and crabs, pulled out and dispatched when you order, deep fried then sauced in one of five ways: basil, HK style, XO sauce, ginger and scallion, and Sichuan. The lobsters are very fresh, sweet, and cooked pretty well. My favorite sauces were ginger and scallion and XO; the HK style completely lacked flavor. Haven’t tried the other two. Soft-​shelled crab currently being offered were pretty good too. Ditto on the crabs. Watch out because the crustaceans can sell out; lobsters were all gone around 6 PM one time we were there.
The price seems to fluctuate a lot; check out the banner above the counter to see the current lobster meal price (includes a whole, chopped lobster, a scoop of terrible fried rice, and limp cole slaw-​like salad). On our first visit a few weeks ago, it was $ 15. Last weekend, $ 13.50.
Take your goodies to the free food court table (which can be a full body contact sport for much of the day) and dive in with gusto. Yum!

Lobster Meal for $ 11.50 at a food court! Awesome! But when we got to the cashier, the lady said they ran out of lobsters.
«But there’s still lobsters in the tank!»
«They ran out of cheap lobsters.»
«Oh.»
We ordered the Taiwanese Crab (HK Style, you get to choose) Meal instead, which comes with fried rice and a salad. Taiwanese crab is very similar to a blue crab, but longer legs with speckles. The shell was softer than a blue crab, but harder than a soft shell crab, so the shell was semi-​edible. Not bad for $ 6.25.
Also, Hai Zhen Zhu means Ocean’s Pearl.