Dancing Crab @ Orchard

Celebrating birthday for Princess with her cousins, we all wanted seafood but not the Chinese way of preparation. So we decided on Louisiana boil seafood.

Our usual was fully booked, so we decided to try a new place that we heard so much but never went to – Dancing Crab. Interestingly, there was almost no reviews by any social influencers about this place, so we are rolling the dice here.

Backed by one of Singapore’s oldest seafood restaurant leaders, Tung Lok Group, Dancing Crab sources their shellfish from the same vendors used at the group’s best seafood restaurants, offering live crustaceans like Boston lobster and Dungeness crab. It serves a mix of robust, country-style Cajun seafood and the distinctive richness of Creole cuisine, in a friendly, casual environment.

Green Mussels in Zesty Garlic Butter

We started the dinner with a serving of green mussels that was overcooked. But the lemony garlic butter sauce was really good and we scooped all the garlic with the empty half shells. Only if the mussels were bigger. I think they are locally farmed mussels.

Chilli Crab Bread Bowl

Each serving of the Chilli Crab Bread Bowl has two fairly large Sri Lankan crabs (700-800 grams). It was surprising good. The Chilli Crab sauce tasted like the ones from Jumbo, and brioche was toasted and placed directly into the sauce. Everyone was fighting over the brioche, simply toasty deliciousness with the sauce. And the crabs were plump and fresh. This chilli crab has beaten expectations, and this bowl is now my go to place for chilli crab.

Live Dungeness Crab Combo

The Louisiana-style of cooking simply boils the seafood in a bag with the spices. The trick is when to add which seafood into the bags. That’s why you mainly see crustaceans used in these recipes.

The Live Dungeness Crab Combo had one 1.2kg Dungeness crab, prawns, flower clams, corn, chicken sausage boiled in the signature Cajun sauce. We added live crawfish in this combo for that extra luxury. The Cajun spice was delicious. We all agreed it was better than the one from The Boiler. And the seafood was as fresh as you can get due to their pedigree.

Build Your Own Combo

We loved the corn so much that we ordered one more Sri Lankan crab with two portions of corn in zesty garlic butter sauce. The Cajun spice was too much for the girls for one night, so we decided for this safe option.

The Dining Experience

The location in Orchard Central was not prime, although it’s next to the escalators. But anyone who knows the layout of the mall will not take the escalator up 7 floors to the restaurant. And as you can see, the restaurant seemed to be carved out of access space below the escalator. The parent company took the prime location next to the lifts and opened a Peking Duck restaurant.

One has to get used to the semi-service models used in eateries these days. You order the food from digital menu. But for old folks like me, you can still get the paper menu. Service was attentive but not brilliant, but the food was.

Dancing Crab @ Orchard Central
Orchard Central #07-14/15, 181 Orchard Road, Singapore 238896
Tel: +65 6509 1878

Date Visited : Feb 2021