Big Eater Seafood Resturant

The first thing that struck me as I walked into the restaurant was the ambience of the place. It a corner unit at the side of a row of terraced shop houses and there was a wooden patio on the side. The place was decorated with loads of crabs' shells which had words written by the customers on them. One can leave your mark on the restaurant by doing the same thing - polish off your crabs and then writing on the crabs' shells. When you are seated inside the restaurant and overlooking the canal (luckily there is no fishy smell) and as the breeze blows in the evening and the crabs shells knock against each other, one will feel really relaxed and it feels as though we are just next to the sea. (Though there is really no fishy smell. Haha.)

I would encourage people to go earlier to the restaurant at about 6.30pm, (The time that we went) so that you will be able to get a good seat and get better and faster service. Even though we went so early, there were already tables reserved for a much later time like for about 8.30, so do make your reservation if you want to avoid waiting. Furthermore, the crowd grew so big that they even had to place tables on the small road behind the restaurant (Any policeman reading this post? Forgive them on the account of the good food!) Parking is rather hard and one better be skilled at parallel parking. And parking became more and more horrendous later in the night but valet parking is actually provided by the restaurant for free.(Like wow!)

Okay, moving on to the real reason why we went there (after all we Singaporeans can't be bothered about the ambience and the waiting time as long as there is good food!) - the food!

We kicked off with side dishes such as:

Stewed Kai Lan with Oyster sauce ($8/ $10/ $12/ $16) - Nothing special here... What do you expect from vegetables? Nothing special and no 'wow' factor. We ordered it because we wanted a balanced meal.

Crispy Roll ($8/ $12/ $16/ $20) - Bits of prawns and fish cake wrapped in bean curd skin which are deep fried. Yup, just as its name suggests, it is indeed crispy and the filling was rather fresh and tasted good with a little bit of mayonnaise. However, I am not a big fan of it as it was a little too salty for me.

Clay pot bean curd ($10/ $12/ $16) - I admit, the only reason why we actually even ordered bean curd is because I am a huge fan of bean curd. (The waiter serving us even warned us against ordering it, saying it was just a common dish. And that the bean curd dishes from this restaurant weren't really special) And indeed, it was too common to be even ordered, so don't bother ordering the bean curd dishes at this restaurant!

Then, we moved on to more taste-worthy dishes:

Crystal Hor Fun ($8/ $10/ $12/ $16) - This dish is a really refreshing change from the usual Hor Fun we see in hawker centers. Just like its name, the Hor Fun is translucent and crystal-like. Its less oily and when fried with its fresh ingredients - prawns, squid and fish - it is really palatable. Heck, even the bean sprouts that went with it tasted good. (And this is coming from a bean sprout hater)

Green grouper steamed with fragrant sauce, Teochew style (Exact price depends on weight) - Okay, I was never a a big fan of fish though the fish was well done, not too overcooked. What I like about this restaurant is that they actually state in the menu that certain fishes were fresh and certain fishes were refrigerated. Honesty is golden!

Clay pot frog with dried chili ($16/ $24/ $32/ $40) - "Hot, hot, hot! But I can't stop," was what was going through my mind as I tried this dish. The taste of the dried chili had blended in so well with the taste of the frog meat that despite the numbing sensation on my lips, I just had to keep eating it.

And the die-die must try dishes over there are definitely...

Black pepper crab (Exact price depends on weight) - Their black pepper crab was really really good. In fact, finger licking good! It was well-seasoned and had curry leaves accompanying it. The taste of the black pepper did not overpower the taste of the crab meat but instead enhanced it. the fresh taste of the meat also helped to make it even more scrumptious.

Crab with bee hoon soup (Exact price depends on weight) - To die for! Really to die for! This dish would have to be my favouite dish of the night. I love crab bee hoon but I don't usually eat the soup version. Disappointment about having to eat the soup version quickly gave way to surprise right after I tasted the soup. It tasted so heavenly with the milk and crab essence complementing each other. I had bowl after bowl of the bee hoon with soup. Drinking the soup felt like eating the crab itself! It is so mouthwatering that I am salivating now just thinking about it! The plus factor was that the crabs still tasted delicious despite being soaked in the soup! And I had an easy time getting the meat out of the shell. Mmm... I will definitely go back just for this particular dish!

All this dishes were washed down with two bottles of tiger beer, one barley drink and five sour plum juice and came up to a bill of $222.60 for six persons. GST has been included into the prices and the best of all... Great service provided with no service charge! The waiter and waitresses were attentive to our needs and accommodate to our requests despite the huge crowd. The price is justified just looking at the amount of dishes we consumed!

Thus, despite the average taste of certain side dishes, the 'wow' factor of the crabs makes up for it and this place definitely deserve the 5 stars!