Craving Rice Casserole

Mellie’s Seafood (美麗華海鮮城), 137-81 Northern Boulevard, Flushing 11354 [site]

There are an unexpected gathering on Friday night, and what better way to feed a group of people than to not cook it yourself? So I had a craving for rice casserole, and the closest place around that I wanted to try was Mellie’s Seafood, which just opened up earlier this year. I had no intentions of order Shrimp with Walnuts, but the table across from us ordered it and it looked so good.

I ordered the preserved meat rice casserole, and Tony ordered the chicken with mushroom rice casserole, Helen ordered Singaporean Mei Fun, and Ting+Duckie ordered Fried Udon. I realized there was a lot of starch and meat, but no veggies, so I decided to get the stir fried snow pea leaves. That’s always a favorite of everyone.

Tony’s chicken was a bit on the bland side, and the rice on the bottom wasn’t that crispy. He seemed to think it was okay though. I couldn’t try the mushrooms because I had a mild allergy to it. His rice wasn’t as flavorful as I hoped.

My preserved meat casserole was actually more flavorful than Tony’s. I liked it a lot, but I wished there was more rice and less seasoning. I actually like Yummy Noodles rice casserole more, but it’s all the way in Chinatown in Manhattan.

This was Ting and Duckie’s dish, the Beef Fried Udon. They weren’t really hungry so they shared a dish. It was the first thing that arrived on the table, and the first thing we picked on until I realized that I wanted to take a picture. Heh.

Overall, a pretty decent Cantonese-style seafood restaurant. Nice decor, lots of seating, friendly service and decent food. They also have something rare that most restaurants in Flushing don’t have: free parking. So, it’s probably going to survive. I’ll come back again if I don’t want to go to Manhattan for rice casserole.