singapore cookbook

Dancing Crab (Review)

So it’s Father’s day today and my wifey planned a secret lunch for me – how sweet. I can only say I was happily and pleasantly surprised when she brought me to the Dancing Crab for Father’s day lunch.

At the door I already had visual hallucinations of how it would be like, like the colourful pages of a Singapore Cookbook that I saw at the book store. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the crabs and be so totally satisfied. This is the second outlet as compared to the first one which is located at some inaccessible location. So this outlet at Orchard Central makes sense for a lot of customers.

The friendly staff made the lunch experience special. Although the pseudo American accent was a tad too much for me. I guess it is after-all an American styled diner with country music and whiny guitar solos.

We ordered the Combo #1 and that came with the Sri Lankan crab, prawns, clams and some vegetables all mixed in a mild spicy ang mo styled tomato sauce. It tasted mildly fusion as I was half expecting to eat boiled crabs and shrimp and had hope to savor in all that fresh juiciness. Maybe we should have chosen a different sauce? Was there a different sauce? I didn’t really check and just said “mild” when prompted for the level of spiciness.

It’s always a good practice to take the least spicy level when you are not familiar with the place. Make sure you start at the bottom and work your way upwards. But the sauce made the crab taste like a chilli crab recipe that kind of “lost its way” while trying to cater to the Boston palate.

Also, I thought our Sri Lankan crab looked a wee bit tiny as compared to the guys they displayed in the fish tank. So we checked with the waitress and she confirmed that it was Sri Lankan.

So our crab and shrimp combo came in a pot and we were supposed to eat it with our fingers and get our hands dirty. The tables were all covered with plastic sheets so that we can pour (literally) our meal all over the table. Interesting idea, just that the tables were a tad too small for us to do that without having our food falling off the table.

The mild spicy tomato based sauce kind of masked the taste of the seafood for me and for some reason, I couldn’t enjoy my seafood like I usually do. But you might like it, who knows, different tastebuds and preferences. But it didn’t work the magic for me this time.

The truffle fries were very nicely done. We loved it – including our toddler. He munched and munched and totally loved it. The truffle flavour in the fries made us want to munch continuously and that is a sign that they got it right.

The refreshing spin on the lemonades are good. I ordered two flavours, the pink thyme lemonade and the lavender lemonade. And as much as I hate lavender flavour in my foods (because lavender reminds me of the toilet because my office loves using lavender flavoured toilet freshener) the lavender lemonade tasted much nicer than the pink thyme which was strange, but good.

Conclusion

Would I go back there again? Maybe not, but I am sure it appeals to many many people.