Tel: +65 6749 2925
Disclaimer: The title of this post does not imply that the crab at this restaurant is yummy! That being said, this disclaimer does not imply that it's not yummy either! It's simply the name of the restaurant!!! That's all I'm saying...
This restaurant is recommended by LN's cousin for its signature dish "crab with salted egg". Now, that's something different from the usual chilli gravy or pepper sauce. A search on the internet revealed that this restaurant is owned by the Boon Tong Kee chain (famous for chicken rice) and was featured on a local TV food program last year!
With these credentials tagged to its name, we decided to give it a try when WL wanted to give us a treat for her promotion! It's a pity that many of our friends do not like crabs, so only KC and I had the honour to share her joy. OK I admit I was the one who requested for the expensive crabs since it was all done in the name of celebration right?!
A less than half-full restaurant greeted us when we got there. Hmmm... that's not a healthy sign, considering that it was a Sunday night during peak dinner hour. In comparison, the famous mee sua place just up the street was almost full house when we walked past. Well, at least we didn't have to queue for a table nor make a reservation!
Crab Fried Rice
We ordered the crab fried rice as it was highly recommended by some online reviews. It came with huge chunks of crab meat to justify the hefty price tag of $18 for a plate of fried rice. We all like the dish, though I find it a tad too dry (i.e. less oily aka healthier version). This would be a good dish to order when you are craving for crab but not in the mood to get your hands messy with the shelling. That poor guy in the kitchen...
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Sambal Baby Kai-Lan (芥兰), also known as chinese broccoli
I love baby kai-lan! This vegetable is hard to find in London so I was missing it for a while. Though sambal kang-kong was our initial choice, we had to change the vegetable to baby kai-lan as they ran out of kang-kong. Baby kai-lan is not commonly paired with sambal sauce but this dish took us by surprise! Now I'm wondering why aren't there more restaurants serving sambal baby kai-lan instead of sambal kang-kong. (The latter can be found in almost every chinese restaurant in London!)
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Combi: Crispy Tofu and Deep Fried Prawn Roll (虾枣)
The guy who took our orders had brilliantly suggested that he could get the kitchen to prepare a half portion of each dish for us since we only had 3 people at the table. Thankfully for that, we got to sample both dishes and they were just as good! The tofu had a nice golden crust and both dishes were deep fried to the right degree of crispiness (but not soaked in oil).
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*Drum rolls... Crab with Salted Egg!
I was expecting this dish to be dry-styled when I first heard it (kinda similar to butter prawns). Hence I was surprised to find the crab covered in gravy. The slightly sweet gravy was prepared with soft-cooked salted eggs and curry leaves (a common seasoning in curries with coconut milk). KC spotted the curry leaves on first taste but it took me a while to identify with the flavour. I need more practice!
Overall, this dish is an interesting variation of our national dish (aka chilli crab), but my personal preference goes towards the pepper or chilli version. Wouldn't mind having something different (i.e. salted egg or cream sauce 奶油) once in a while though!
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Side note: We almost couldn't finish one crab among the 3 of us. To make matter worse, we had a hard time shelling the crab! I'm not sure why... the crab tasted fresh (to us). So why was the meat sticking to the shell so much?!
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