Long Beach Singapore – Swoon Worthy Chilli Crab

Long Beach Seafood Restaurant is a mecca for one of Singapore’s signature dishes – the chilli crab and other seafood delights on offer. It’s highly revered as one of the ‘must visit’ places for seafood. I came here in June 2015 to try the legendary chilli and black pepper crab dishes.

Get your bibs ready!

The meal started with razor clams ($14 each), steamed with vampire slaying amount of garlic, it had a foil of shimmering soy and lashings fried garlic for crunch. You’re definitely not having kisses after eating these, but who cares as they were seductively sweet and intoxicating.

Chilli Sri Lanka crab $72 was sublime stuff too, the hacked up crab parts were swimming in sauce of its own roe, tomato, egg and of course chilli. Its a roll-up your sleeves, hunker down, bib-sporting operation but you’re rewarded so well for it. Every morsel needs to be winkled out and inhaled. 

The pepper Sri Lanka crab $72 is the same huge beast, but it’s cooked in a different sauce or lack of should I say. It’s their own riff from a 60’s recipe of crushed black pepper and butter that coats the giant Sri Lankan mud crab. It’s fist sized claws are particularly delectable. You should have seen the sized of it but to was no contest against my fat chops.

Aubergine country style $10 was cooked with an anti social amount of garlic just like the clams, and from what I could make out, some oyster sauce for umami. It was a welcome balance to our protein heavy dishes so far. 

Baby kailan with garlic $10 were tender little things that I could eat daily without boredom – why can’t we have these in London?! 

Mantou both fried and steamed were pillows of pure carb heaven to mop up all the juices. My only complaint was that they were teeny and didn’t stand a chance against all the sauce. Bigger vehicles were needed. (Hint, hint).  

You’ll get a printed swimsuit clad siren, clutching a huge plate of crabs on your wet wipe packet for trouble, you need it to clean the sauce off your forehead and elbows. Not the mention the workman like sweat on your brow. But it’s worth it.

The verdict:

When did I go? June 2015
The damage: Expect to pay $70-$75 (£40- £45) per head no booze
The good: The vibe here is more family style with huge circular tables that can cater for big groups. It’s quite chilled out and you can dine outside too. I would suggest going in a small group so you can try as many dishes as possible as going for the pepper and chilli crab would be a must. The unique earthy sweet flavour of the Sri Lankan mud crab is pretty special. Oh and those drool-worthy baby kailan are a must order too!
The bad: Get us some bigger mantou please!
Rating: 4/5
Would I go again? Yes
Address: 25 Dempsey Road Left turn to Dempsey via Holland Rd (before Peirce Rd) Singapore 249670
Phone: +65 6323 2222

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