The family agreed to have an early lunch to celebrate my mom's birthday but blur me forgot an appointment at 2.00 pm to discuss about an in-built cabinet that i am going to contract for my house! Postponing either the lunch or the appointment is a no-go so i frantically tried to find a place near the contractor's office with the only criterion; it must serve crabs.
Wonders of the internet; i found this place by the name is 21 Seafood which seemed to have a rather decent rating of 3.9 on Google with 190 reviews. Understanding that the eatery doesn't have space for many tables, we made it a point to arrive even before it officially started operations for the day!
Key attractions for the non-air-conditioned restaurant were the pricing of the crabs, which range from S$35 for three small crabs (from 0.90-1.00 kilogram) to S$40 for one crab that weighs about 0.60 kilogram, and the 16 cooking styles; from the popular chilli to the interesting claypot curry.
It's always hard to decide what to order and we left it to the birthday girl to decide. Do keep in mind that not all the pricing for the crabs would be available; when we were there, two options were out of stock. It might appear worth it to have the 3 crabs for S$35 but a 300-350-gram crab wouldn't have much meat in the first place.
Let's start with our feast!
Mixed Furong Omelette - fluffy yet oily, this tasted alright but definitely not the best i have had as i felt the wok-hei could have been more intense.
Pork Ribs - tender and tasty enough; however, it lacked a punch to stand apart from other competitors. Sometimes, when you eat too much of something, there's a tendency you seek that extra 'something' for better differentiation.
Butter Fried Squid - the nice aroma of butter enveloped the squid which was covered by a thin batter that wasn't as crispy as i would have loved it to be. The meat wasn't rubbery with a good bite; only issue, i think the chef was a tad too liberal with the salt.
Hotplate Beancurd - conclusion, i am really not into hotplate beancurd. To me, the ingredients are better used in the stir-fry format that my mom can easily whip up at home!
Sambal Kangkong - two factors for a good plate for sambal kangkong; it must be fried to the extent the stems are soft and the sambal chilli must encompass a combination of spiciness, pungency and a kick to my taste buds. This plate didn't meet the two factors.
Garlic Crab - i don't know how best to describe it; the taste was like your typical vegetables stir-fried with garlic bits and scallions. Honestly, it didn't go well with crabs and i would have very much preferred it to be served steamed instead.
Chilli Crab - one of three popular crab styles, this was sadly below average; the sauce was wasn't flavourful and the spiciness was like stuck in between wanting to get noticed and trying to stay hidden!
Thank god that the crabs were fresh!
Fried Mantou - fried buns were necessary when it comes to sauce-based crab dishes like chilli or butter crabs. I read on a google review that he/she regretted not getting more; hence, i ordered the largest serving which yielded about 10 small buns.
Broke one apart and was excited to see it so soft and fluffy! My gosh, would this be another place like Forture Seafood where i could never seem to forget its fried buns?!
Words taken back - it's literally tasteless and while i understand that the crab sauce would have resulted in some flavour; our chilli crab hardly made the cut given that i already didn't like it in the first place. One of the rare occurrences that our family found it hard to finish up the fried mantous!
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It wasn't an enjoyable meal for our family although we do agree that pricing wise, it didn't burn a hole in our pocket. I also noticed that other customers were ordering crab with salted egg sauce and should i ever be back; that would be the one i shall go for.
Address
212 Hougang Street 21,
#01-347, Singapore 530212
Map
As above.
Website
Menu
As above.
Pricing
Mixed Furong Omelette - S$8.00
Pork Ribs - S$12.00
Butter Fried Squid - S$12.00
Hotplate Beancurd - S$10.00
Sambal Kangkong - S$8.00
Garlic Crab - S$40.00
Chilli Crab - S$40.00
Fried Mantou - S$4.00
(NETT, No Service Charge, No GST)
wow
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