The newly opened Cajun inspired Dancing Crab, part of the Tung Lok Group, makes its appearance at Turf City. The laidback vibe makes it easy for part of the space to double up as a bar. Even the bar is Cajun inspired – it serves Moonshine (the legal sort) which is essentially a white whiskey with high alcoholic content of 50%.
Like many Cajun inspired eateries that have recently popped up in Singapore such as Crab in Da Bag and Cajun Kings, they employed a novel concept which requires no plates, just a plastic tablecloth (to be thrown away when the meal is done)Â together with a whole lot of arm power. Wearing white? Not to worry, as they provide plastic aprons – all the better to get splattered.
The entrees such as the Garlic Pasta ($6) and Truffle Fries ($7) were uninspired, and made boring side dishes as their recipes seemed to come right out of a Home Economics cookbook.
Fortunately, the Crab Cakes ($13) arrived to save the meal. Deep fried to a crisp golden brown, the Crab Cakes were packed with flavourful goodness. The chefs did not scrimp on quality, and filled the Crab Cakes with finely shredded crab meat.
Marinated with butter and garlic, the Alaskan King Crab’s Legs ($13 per 100g)Â were the highlight of our meal. The freshness of the crab legs was locked into the intense, aromatic garlicky gravy, and had excellent flavour. It was fun savouring the easy-to-peel Alaskan crab shell with our bare hands, as we were able to focus on table conversations, and not be distracted by the peripheral mobile phone since our hands were replete with sauces.
Combo Bag #1 ($80) which comprises a Sri Lankan crab, 300g of prawns, 250g of mussels, potatoes, corn and sausages; are served in a plastic bag and eaten straight out of a metal bowl. The supposed signature dish was a let-down, as the sauces were mundane and lacked zest. This was despite the fact that they allow consumers to choose different levels of spiciness for the dish. The flesh of the Sri Lankan crab was disappointing too, as it was not as firm nor robust as the crabs we had at other local restaurants such as Jumbo Seafood or Long Beach Seafood.
As a substitute for Mantous (馒头) , Dancing Crab served Cornbread ($5) which was a tad dry for our liking, and the essence of corn did not sit well with the tomato-based sauce used for the Combo Bag. The bottomline for us is that nothing replaces a good ole’ Mantou (be it fried or steamed).
All in all, we found the dining concept interesting but this was marred by certain dishes that were lacked pizzazz.
This was an invited tasting.
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Dancing Crab
The Grandstand, 200 Turf Club Road, 01-20/21
Tel: 6466-3303
Opening hours: 5 to 10.30pm (Tue to Sun), 11.30am to 3pm (Sat, Sun and public holiday)
Closed on Mondays