Dancing Crab



There's been this massive influx of this Louisiana seafood restaurants. I haven't been to any of them till recently. Actually, if it wasn't a department dinner, I would definitely not have chosen this restaurant (not to say that it wasn't good).  It's just that the whole eat with your hands concept isn't my kind of thing. I hate not using cutlery and getting my hands dirty in sauce (especially since I cannot answer my phone or touch my camera after that).

 

I personally feel that this whole hyped up eat with your hands, no cutlery or plates, is so that they save money on dishes. No need to spend detergent, soap and water washing anything (saves a few staff - no need to employ dishwashers)  - since there is such a dire shortage of labor. Also, the plastic tablecloth is disposables, so it saves the effort in wiping the table. Efficiency FTW.

We had the cornbread which was pretty ok - I somehow think that all cornbread should be like Kenny Rogers, but this ones were more uniformed and cake like. Slightly sweetish, moist and crumbly, went well with the whipped butter.

I really liked the crab cakes - partly because it involves very little effort and yet you get mouthfuls of succulent crab flesh, and also because they were juicy and well seasoned.

The bag of seafood - which has crab, prawns, mussels, potatoes, corn and carrot all cooked together in a mildly spicy Cajun sauce. I don't know why they can't just put everything into a nice bowl(like below) but have to pour it all over the table.

The whole no plates concept also bugs me to no end cos the menu (which I doubt has been cleaned in recent times) and other dirty fomites (i.e. my hand phone) have just been sitting on the same surface that I'm going to eat off . Ok I think this is OCD max and I bet that the other 99.9% of the others diners don't think of this kind of thing, so I shall stop and carry on about the food (which is pretty good).

I must say that the service is not too bad. Not the most attentive but then when I told them that one of the crabs wasn't too fresh, they offered to change it (but then the other half was already devoured by someone else) - which still counted as pretty good service to me.

The clams in this creamy white sauce was also pretty good - just that I really cannot see how you can eat it without cutlery or plates for that matter. It's such a messy and stressful affair.

I really liked their butter garlic prawns. Minimal sauce and flavoring so that the prawny taste can be fully appreciated. I think I'm deprived but I haven't eaten such big prawns for a real long time (rather spend my cholesterol quota on salted egg sotong - shucks I have a massive craving now).

These prawns were freaking huge and I really don't have small hands (that's my thumb btw).  My fingers also continued to smell like sauce the whole night after that (thankfully the sauce smell went away the next day).

 

I thought that their service was really strange - apparently they refused to let us make a booking for anything earlier than 7pm but when the punctual people reached earlier, the restaurant was empty - not like they are having two seatings or anything. Don't see why they can't let patrons sit down earlier (and earn money from drinks/snacks).

 

Dancing Crab

200 Turf Club Road

Singapore 287994

Phone 64663303

Closed Mondays

Where MAD used to be, and near Valentinos

(free parking!!!)