Entree Kibbles: Dancing Crab @ Orchard Central [Singapore]

I still remember the first time I had seafood in the bag; it was eight years ago at dancing crab back in its first outlet at The Grandstand. Since then, I tried a few others although the memory of first love remained deeply etched at the back of my brain.

More than five years had since passed and a S$50 voucher (minimum spend of S$100, not including drinks) from a friend enticed me to check out its branch at Orchard Central. I had the intention to visit this branch but on the two occasions I was tempted, it was either too late for lunch or too early for dinner.

Not too sure what to make out of this display.

A tad too messy for the eyes.

Ordering online via the phone! Don't you just miss the good old days when we would flip through every page on the BIG menu, salivate at the items that appeared mouthwatering, and couldn't decide what to have?

Standard table setup at Dancing Crab; plastic sheet for the table, aprons for each diners, plastic gloves if you prefer not to dirty your hands / fingers, paper envelopes for your masks, sanitizing wipes and most importantly; the box of paper tissues.

Iced Yuzunade - this zesty mocktail was refreshing and I am loving it despite the lack of any alcohol content! Now I am interested with the other options in the mocktail selection; e.g, pineapple pandan lemongrass.

Live Crab Combo - the bag of seafood goodness shall be emptied into the metal basin as the zesty garlic butter sauce we requested for was too fluid and throwing everything onto the table would likely flow and drip off the edges; a mess the servers were too familiar with.

Here's the seafood in the basin; one live crab that supposedly weighed about 800 grams, 350 grams of prawns, 350 grams of clams, corn and sausages!

The garlic butter sauce was aromatic and burst with the delicious flavor of garlic in every mouth! It's not the taste of those raw, spicy garlic that even I dislike; in its place were diced garlic that were fried with oil over an extended period of time, culminating into a texture almost like preserved radish. p.s. the spiciness came from the chilli though.

No complaint about the seafood; fresh although not to the standard of No Signboard which has maintained consistency throughout the years! Or maybe because I always visit with Alex, who is a long-time, regular customer to the branch at Geylang.

Remnants in the basin; oil, a lot of melted butter! Anyway, the chicken sausage was chunky and amazingly juicy; to the extent I couldn't believe it was made of chicken, not pork.

Crab Fried Rice - I miss the crab fried rice from Here Hai at Bangkok and decided to opt for this, since there were four of us and I am unsure if the food would be sufficient. While not as out of the world as Here Hai, this version at Dancing Crab was appetizing, with noticeable wok hey.

Live Lobster Roll - Dancing Crab was the place where I had my first lobster roll and it was important to take a walk down memory lane! Furthermore, it would also help me compare this lobster roll with the one from Burgers and Lobsters.

The pricing for Dancing Crab was much higher at S$43.80 (it was priced S$23.00 eight years ago) but you get two rolls and an extra serving of French fries (top up S$1 for sweet potato / truffle fries).

Brioche rolls were better than Burgers and Lobsters; satisfyinglu thicker, fluffier with a sweetness that perfectly complemented the lobster meat. However, the amount of meat was comparable, and maybe even a tad lesser than Burgers and Lobsters. One thing determined the winner; the buttery sauce that was served together with the lobster roll at Burgers and Lobsters, which had the advantage of enhancing the taste!

Easily one of the best sweet potato fries I had in my whole life; they remained crisp throughout our meal, with a batter that wasn't thick and heavy on the palate! One thing that should be reduced; the generous amount of parmesan which was overpowered the simple, good taste of sweet potatoes.

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The terrible mess! While we had a great meal, I was quite dumbfounded with the total amount on the receipt. Has inflation spiked so much over the years or because of the recent crisis? This is especially startling when I compared with the prices I shared in my previous blog postings of Dancing Crab. Whatever the case, it's not a regular indulgence.

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