Chilli Crabs from Hai Kee Seafood Restaurant (海记海鲜煮炒) @ Taman Sri Tebrau Hawker Centre in Johor Bahru [Malaysia]

After that inaugural memorable visit to Hai Kee Seafood Restaurant (海记海鲜煮炒) back in 2023, I became pretty much a regular; returning back every few months, and sometimes even a few times a month! 

One dish that I often order nowadays would be chilli crab, and I realized it wasn't covered in my original post. Furthermore, when I search for places to have crabs in JB; I noticed that Hai Kee would pop up! Hence, I thought to specially blog about it this time!

Given the sheer amount of food options in JB nowadays, I am pretty conservative in my orders; minimal carbohydrates, where possible.

Stir Fried Sweet Potato Leaves - this was a dish I wouldn't order on my own but when I have my health conscious mom with me; a plate of veg is always necessary! Well, this was stir-fried well; lightly seasoned with the natural goodness from the vegetables and multiple pieces of garlic.

Chilli Crab - the star of our show and comprised of two crabs that I had pre-ordered the night before as my mom prefers larger crabs! Even so, both were just about 700-800 grams each; quite small compared to the at least one kilogram crab I could get from Ban Leong although pricing per kilogram is still cheaper than our little red dot. 

Anyway, size aside; it's the freshness and sauce that matter most! And the sauce obviously didn't disappoint, given that I patronized Hai Kee so many times over the past 2.5 years; it was peppery spicy, thickened with a touch of tomato that still tingled the lips and tongue with a charred yet tempting aroma!

Freshness wise; we were more than happy, especially mom, who had no issue pushing the meat out from the crab legs, which can be difficult if the crab wasn't fresh enough.

See how plump, and how solid the meat was! And of course, the satisfaction as my teeth chewed through; bursting with seafood sweetness so enjoyable from crab meat! 

Fried Buns - I couldn't not having fried buns to soak up the chilli crab sauce! The small nuggets of deep fried goodies with crisp thin skin, and white pillowy insides. Eat them when they are still hot! 

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Two crabs, a plate of vegetables and four small buns; devoured in no time by my mom and I! We would prefer larger crabs though and when I checked with the young boss; he said aside from a higher price, it's harder to guarantee the meat from larger crabs. Oh well, I can definitely make do with smaller crabs then! 

Address

21, Jalan Badik 1, Taman Sri Tebrau, 

80050 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, 

Malaysia

Map

As above.

How To Get There

I would usually grab and you would likely be sent to this pretty big hawker centres with three entrances. Go to the one with no large signage.

It might look as if there's no shop that was operational. But the hive of activity would only start much further in. Do note that Hai Kee opens from 4pm and closes on Thursdays.

Look out from the signage hung right in the centre! 

And voila, you have arrived for a meal of happy satisfaction!

Pricing

Stir Fried Sweet Potato Leaves - RM 10.00

Two Chilli Crabs - RM 257.00

Four Deep Fried Buns - RM 4.00

(NETT)