Review of LJS’s Giant Battered Squid with Sambal Sauce: Squid is so Big, It’s Worth More Than the $7.30

I‘ll be very honest with you.

Out of all the fast food restaurants in Singapore, Long John Silver’s is probably the one that has my heart.

Back in my school days, I’d visit Long John Silver’s all the time because they’re the cheapest. And they’ve pretty tasty food as well.

Fortunately, my very fat boss disagrees with me and thinks that McDonald’s is the best, hands down.

Which is why when he decided that we must do a food review on Long John Silver’s Giant Battered Squid with Sambal Sauce, he’s more than happy to let me do it.

And I’m, of course, more than happy to do it.

I mean, it’s a huge squid fried in delicious LJS batter, and all that at $7.40?

How it did looked like when it arrived via delivery?

As we grow up, we often uncover new things: Justin Bieber is a guy, grass is actually green, sugar is sweet and advertisement pictures often doesn’t look like the real thing.

So, is this really a giant squid?

Yeah, it really fulfilled the giant part.

Just look at the squid itself.

It’s huge. I got to say that even though the advertisement said giant sambal squid, I was like, marketing tactic lah.

And just to prove that I’m not playing around with camera angles, here’s one more for you.

Lest you’re wondering, that’s a Samsung Galaxy S7.

That’s how big it really is.

But looks aside, like my handsome man friend always say, it’s not how it looks like, it’s how it taste like that decides if we should tell other people to try it for themselves.

And I couldn’t agree more, since I’m the one that said it.

The taste is as awesome as it looks

Like a professional food taster, I took a careful bite of the sambal, and I was blown away.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect a fast food business to make legit (or almost legit) sambal.

I’d admit that I was expecting some kind of western-interpreted sambal that tastes like crap. But this sambal chilli taste like the real thing.

How do you know whether a sambal chilli is good? When it has that umami (yeah, young people’s word for 开胃, or opening up your stomach for more food).

And this sambal chilli does exactly that.

The only problem is that after finishing about half a box of this, it gets kind of jelak. But that’s what the coleslaw, which comes in the set meal is for.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought that Long John Silver’s deliberately put it in the meal to get rid of the jelak-ness of the squid rice box.

Okay, enough about the sidekicks. On to the superhero of the day.

The Giant Fried Squid

It’s really, really good. Imagine chewy squid with crispy batter and savoury sambal chilli, all in one bite. Then multiply the shiok-ness by three.

The mixture of crispiness and chewiness is something you have to try for yourself, no kidding.

In fact, if my boss read this article, he might just go try it for himself. Despite him hating seafood as much as his hatred towards everyone in the office.

There’s just one small problem.

Too. Much. Batter. Not enough Squid.

If we were to make an aggaration, the portion of the squid to the batter, it’ll be around 4:6. At least that was the case for the squid that we received.

If you’re in for the humongous squid, you might find yourself a bit disappointed when you accidentally stripped the squid from the batter.

But taste-wise, I’d say that it’s still worth a shot.

Overall? 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Just because I felt a little bit cheated. But then again, that’s just my inner Singaporean kiasu-ness at work.

A set of Giant Sambal Squid includes a regular coke/coke zero, a coleslaw and a Giant Sambal Squid rice box.