Black Pepper @ Eng Seng Restaurant

I was excited to have my brother James come to visit. He was only here for a couple of days, a local told me there are two things I needed to do with him if he was only visiting for a short period of time. Take him to Sentosa Island and out to eat some crab.

Well, we never made it to Sentosa but we did have the best black pepper crab in Singapore.

Eng Seng on Joo Chiat Place is a well known place to go for this dish. I was advised to go early as there is usually a long queue.

We arrived at about 6:45pm on a Sat night and took one of the few remaining seats without much drama. There were three of us at the table and we ordered three crabs ($75) smothered in the dark rich and subtly sweet sauce.
It was like nothing I had ever tasted before. The crab had a slight smokey taste from the wok, the warmth of the black pepper was matched with the right balance sweetness.

My curiousity to know what could be in this dish lead me to google a version of the recipe.

I could not see any visual signs of ginger, garlic or other aromatics in this dish but definite that ketchap manis, sugar and butter was used. The rest remains a mystery......I sat and enjoyed a whole crab to myself trying hard in my head to figure out the ingredients.

The boys just sat there, ate and both said that this is the best meal they have had in Singpaore so far.

P.S The deep fried tofu/fish cake things served with a weird lemon mayo sauce were also nice.

Chilli Crab @ Jumbo

When I found out that I would be moving to Singapore, I was excited about the prospect of eating Chilli Crab all year round.

I love all types of seafood but I've always had a soft spot for crab.
It's the sweetnees of the meat and the fact that you really have to get your hands dirty is what I really enjoy. A slow but rewarding meal.

My first chilli crab experience was at Jumbo, East Coast Seafood Centre.


The restuarant is renowned for is fresh seafood and with a view overlooking the sea, it's a great place to indulge. The restaurant is one that is on the tad expensive side though still pretty reasonable.

Serving large Sri Lankan Mud Crabs at $38 kilo.
Crabs served at Hawker style centre such as East Coast Food Village & Newton Food Circus still charge about $32-35.

The belated cost of gst (10%) and service charge (7%), make it more of a luxury restaurant to dine in. Also, be mindful that Jumbo charge $1.20 for what you think are complementary peanuts.....I found that amusing that they get away with that!

Back to the crab......

The size of the crab was big. The order was for one that was 900grams and the crab came out fat and buldging. The claws were so sweet and packed with meat.
I really enjoyed the Chilli Crab sauce at Jumbo, it had a good balance of sweet and spicy.
The sauce was also a nice consistency, not too running.

As a newbie to Singapore, I didn't know that the sauce should have been mopped up with a serving of mantou buns so I didn't get a chance to try the buns there.

There is always next time I say, as this is a place where I'd definitely come back with visiting guests.


Visit Jumbo's website