Long Beach is an established chain of seafood restaurants in Singapore. While the outlet in Dempsey is more popular with tourists, their King branch is often packed with locals over the weekends. I tried its signature Singapore chilli crab dish, as seen in the photo above. So was it that good?
Unfortunately, the Sri Lankan crabs were not in stock. Instead, we had to make do with Canadian Dungeness crabs. The sauce was good. Sour, mildly spicy and sweet, the consistency was thick and even, not watery like some other versions. However, the Dungeness crabs were a let down. The flesh was nowhere as sweet nor as meaty as the Sri Lankan crab meat. At S$98 per kg, it could have been a better experience.
The next dish we tried was its rather famous fried kway teow (flat rice noodles) with clams. The wok hei (also known as the ‘breath of the wok’) was obvious the minute the noodles arrived. The charred smell was fragrant and inviting. While the fresh noodles under the crispy noodles had been darkened with soya sauce, the crispy ribbons on top provided a nice crunch to the dish. The sauce was perfectly seasoned, without any obvious MSG flavour. Eaten with pickled green chillis in soya sauce, this dish was light and flavourful. The only downside was that there were so few of the fresh and succulent clams.
Then, dessert time..
The mango jelly dessert with coconut ice cream was rather dramatic. Dry ice whipped out a white smokey effect from the glass at the bottom. The jelly in the mango sauce was not bad. The pairing with the coconut ice cream gave a very tropical flavour to the dessert. The classic teochew orh nee on the other hand was a warm thick and almost soupy version of the traditionally thick yam paste.
