Which restaurant in Singapore serves the best chilli crab?

Hey Curtis, love your show.

I like Long Beach, but No Signboard certainly has its fans.

Not many replies on the secret ingredient, but I believe it's the taucheo or fermented soybean paste. Much like miso, but it's the Chinese version and I think more robust in flavour (though I could be wrong!).

If you want to try a variation on crab dishes, the Black Pepper Crab at Eng Seng Restaurant (at Joo Chiat Place, just off Still Road) always has long snaking queues that indicate it's a firm favourite locally.

Happy tasting!

Best Chilli Crab In Singapore

Don't spam.... I hate spam....

Anyways, I'm one who isn't too keen on eating Chilli crab outside of home. It's too messy, it might end up into an embarassing moment for me. So I;m not sure whch place offers the best Chilli Crabs.

As a foodie and someone who enjoys cooking, I think I do know what makes the Chilli Crab special. I'm not sure if many would agree with this but it's the gravy that sets each Chilli Crab from each other and makes it special. The ingredients of the gravy varies everywhere you go.

From what I know, the spices and amount of ingredients used in the making of the gravy is most important. So the more chilli you use in the making of the gravy, the spicier. I prefer a slightly sweet yet spicy gravy, so I'd go for more chilli and slightly less sugar.

Balance of ingredients equals to good lip smacking gravy.

So technically, the ingredients that doesn't make it any special, it's the balance of ingredients in making the gravy. Although ingredients do play an important part.

That's my thoughts on what makes the dish so special and varied from restaurant to restaurant.

A good restaurant that serves fantastic chilli crab is the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant which has several outlets around Singapore but the one that tourists love to go is located at East Coast Park because it's just next to the East Coast beach. Price is also very reasonable. Whenever you order chilli crab, you have to also place an order for deep fried "mantou" (bun) to go with it because you can dip the mantou into the chilli crab gravy! It's heavenly!

The ingredients that makes chilli crab so delicious is tomato ketchup, chilli sauce, beaten eggs and I believe some vinegar.

I know one at Joo Chiat which serve good chilli crabs. There are always lots of people queuing up. To go there, you can travel along Still Road and then turn to Joo Chiat. It's at the junction. Easy to find. Open in the evening, around 5pm -6pm. You will see many people queueing up.

The other one is at Ang Mo Kio. Some of them had already given the address of the Ang Mo Kio shop, so I needn't say anymore.

Jumbo and Little Red House's standard are inconsistent. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. And prices are steep! I went to Jumbo recently, it was quite disappointing, the sauce was too starchy that it taste weird. Little Red House is not bad, except for the price.

Little Red House and Jumbo are at East Coast. Very easy to find b'coz they are pretty famous.

Hope I help you.

As for ingredient, hmmm.... Chillies lor, so simple! For chilli crabs, of course it is the chilli. In the past, when I was younger, the version of chilli crab were spicer than now. The current version had change a bit, but it is still nice. Now they add tomato sauce to it. As for the chilli paste, there are lots of spices. So it is difficult to pinpoint which single ingredient make it special. Many restaurants use almost the same ingredients, but I guess its the amount of different spices that varies. Maybe the famous and good restaurants had got the balance of which ingredient to add more, and which one to add less when they are preparing their chilli paste. In addition, the crabs and the cooking time also make the difference. Cooking too long alter the quality of the crab meat. The crab meat will shrink and don't taste good, become watery too. Singapore chilli crabs use crab from Sri Lanka, mostly. The mud crabs, greenish black in colour. I think mud crab taste better when cook in chilli, compare to other types of crab. All these reasons make this dish special.

Hi Curtis, love your show & welcome to lovely Singapore! I've been a fan of 'Surfing the Menu' & I think Bender & you are totally AWESOME!!! Now about our chilli crabs, I believe what makes it so ever FANTASTIC, is its SAUCE! Although, I'm not sure what goes into the creation of that, it tastes fabulous with those fried buns. So it's a MUST TRY for you when you are in town! There are quite a few joints here that serve YUMMY chilli crabs, so its very hard to tell you which is actually the BEST. Like many of the other replies you've had, it's very much to your personal TASTE & PREFERENCE. I've tasted several & the ones at Jumbo, No Signboard are quite good. Both've several outlets. Maybe you should contact our local ambassodor of good food AKA Makan Sutra AKA K F Seetoh. He has a website: www.makansutra.com. Contact him & I'll sure he'll definitely show u around. He has shown Anthony Bourdain & Bobby Chin around when they were in town. I would love to meet you in person but have missed out on the deadline for the contest held by Starhub, so it's A BUMMER for me!..... Anyhow, have a fabulous time in town.

Personally, there are many versions of Chilli Crab. But I do find them overpriced. My family, in-laws and friends all agree that my own cooked version is as good or even sometimes better than the one outside.

I use:

Red Chilli padi (small ones)

Red chillies

chopped garlic

Minced Ginger (lots)

A little salt and soy sauce

sugar to taste

Ketchup

And the beaten egg is added in last!

I am now thinking of improvising the receipe by adding curry leaves? Has anyone tried it?

Btw the sauce is also good for the jumbo prawns. Which is another favourite of my family.

BTW I like the Pepper crab at Still Road. I still haven't been able to imitate the taste though.

There are a few restaurants that serves the best chilli crab. 1) No signboard at Geylang 2) The popular Ang Mo Kio coffeeshop at Block 230 3) Long Beach @ Dempsey

The key ingredients to make a tasty chilli crab is chilli paste, tomato ketchup, eggs, garlic, onions and ginger. It is important how the key ingredients are balanced and bring out the flavours of the crab.

For the typical Singapore Chilli Crab , i would definitely agree with most of the suggestions given here: places like Jumbo , Seafood paradise @ defu and the ones at Still road, Ang Mo Kio and Causurina Road. I've been to all of them (all are super duper yummie!) and i guessed each have added a different touch to the dish ( some with lemon grass, ketchup and things like that).

For those who do not enjoy the messy process of shelling the hot devil but can't resist the temptation of this local delicacy, there is one place i would highly recommend (especially for angmohs who have problems). Scruffy Murphy's @ east coast serves a chunky chilli crab dip with potato wedges that leaves no one complaining at all. A must try, even for locals!

I have eaten Chilli Crabs in many restaurants in Singapore and I can definitely say that Chilli Crabs served at No Signboard Restaurant is the best. The ingredients used to prepare the crabs are very fresh and I exceptionally feel the taste of prawns in the favouring. You should certainly try them at this restaurant and its value for money. Please also try the white pepper crabs as well.